connected-clusters-report-energy

ConnectedClusters Landscaping Study 52
Creating Templates for Co-opetition
Traditional competition can be combative
and adversarial. In a world of finite resources,
challenging circumstances can sometimes
be viewed as a zero-sum game, where if one
partner wins, another must lose.
A common lesson that has come from a
number of successful clusters is how to unite
previously competing partners, by focusing
them in a spirit of competitive co-operation
on energy and climate goals. The need
for progression towards climate goals is
a common target that binds humanity.
That provides a compelling reason for rivals
to pool expertise and share insight.
We have seen in the Energy Capital case
study how the ERA partnership brought
together universities that would traditionally be
seen as regional rivals, pooling resources and
expertise around a common mission to make a
whole that is greater than the sum of the parts.
Furthermore, the Energy Capital partnership
brought together firms, some of whom were
rivals and competitors, around a narrative of
regional energy innovation.
Similarly, in Edinburgh’s case study, ECCI
brings together different sectors and
organisations to work together in a spirit
of common endeavour.
The economic changes which have taken
place within many of the cities in which the
clusters are embedded have seen local
government being downsized to the point
of being able to deliver only core services.
The ability to be strategic and develop new
infrastructure and new approaches has been
significantly curtailed or even extinguished.
In this environment, cooperation rather than
competition is required to positively shape
transition of cities and industry to meet
climate change targets and clean air zone
requirements and to seize the benefits of the
global expansion of the cleantech sector.