Guide to Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisation

Clusters and Smart Specialisation
Why should clusters be part of smart specialisation?
Due to their inherent capability to support cooperation between different innovation actors in
a region, clusters are powerful instruments to foster industrial competitiveness, innovation and
regional growth. Currently, they are used by policy makers worldwide as building blocks for
implementing different policies such research & innovation, industrial and regional policies.
Smart specialisation requires that regional governments have a clear vision and be committed,
and at the same time, have people who will take up and realise such strategies on the ground.
Clusters offer a huge potential to implement smart specialisation strategies by providing and
mobilising the necessary resources for that purpose. Their knowledge, networks, and
dynamism are the right ingredients that are available at local level allowing regions creating
more value, reaching higher levels of excellence and thriving in the global economy.
Clusters can be used at both the design and the implementation phase of smart specialisation
strategies. In the design phase, they can be used to identify the industrial strengths and assets
in a region, contribute to set strategic priorities and take the right political decisions. For this
purpose, cluster mapping and benchmarking are valuable tools that can be used to identify
regional specialisation patterns and compare economic activities, including agriculture,
strengths with other regions in the EU.
In the implementation phase, clusters can be used as efficient platforms that can focus on and
quickly contribute to smart specialisation’s objectives. In particular, by fostering crosssectoral
cooperation, clusters can contribute to implement thematic-based strategies
addressing new society challenges, and creating new competitive advantages in a region.
Barriers and challenges
The use of clusters for smart specialisation may imply important political decisions regarding
the development of new cluster initiatives or the use of existing ones. New cluster initiatives
can be launched provided that they are crucial for implementing the regional governments’
visions and therefore being strongly supported in the future. Otherwise, new cluster initiatives
should be avoided. Fragmentation and proliferation of cluster initiatives often leads to
dispersion of forces and financial resources as well as to less cooperation and synergies
between them.
Policy makers can streamline existing cluster initiatives towards the goals and objectives of
smart specialisation. In parallel, linkages between different initiatives should be strengthened
to enable clusters becoming less vulnerable to future market changes and be better prepared to
shape new markets. The support of such cross-linkages often requires a new mindset and
courageous political decisions which may be a not easy task in some regions.
Identification of regional strengths is not a trivial task and requires reliable historical
statistical data and in-depth analysis. Cluster mapping and benchmarking activities are
powerful tools for starting assessing regional specialisation patterns and comparing statistical
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