Innovation

The opportunities created by novel technologies and innovations promise to deliver a f air and sustainable recovery for the EU. Despite the need for more female innovators, three quarters of start-ups in Europe are founded by men. The lack of diversity has resulted in few investments in female-led...

The Enterprise Europe Network is the world’s largest support network for SMEs funded by the EU. It helps businesses innovate and grow on an international scale and boosts their resilience. On 1 October, the European Commission and the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA)...

The European Commission has prepared a   Staff Working Document to outline possible scenarios for a transition to a more resilient, innovative, sustainable and digital energy-intensive industries ecosystem. This document aims to launch a co-creation process for concrete actions, milestones and...

On 15 th September 2021, Austrian National Cluster Platform hosted 2 online events to discuss interregional innovation investment and another event discussing how clusters have an important role in initiating company qualification projects. The first event addressed the new EU program "I3 -...

On 1 July, the European Alliance Against Coronavirus travelled virtually to Romania to learn about the country’s network of clusters. The Romanian national cluster association, CLUSTERO, was established 10 years ago and is organised in six regional consortia, Daniel Cosnita from CLUSTERO explained...

The EU is investing €118 million in 32 small innovative projects located in 14 EU Member States, Iceland, and Norway. Under the Innovation Fund, these grants will aim to bring low-carbon technologies to the market. The Innovation Fund will provide around €20 billion in support from 2020–2030 to...

Further to the adoption of the main Horizon Europe Work Programme on 15 June, calls for proposals are now opening. Under Cluster 4, the ‘Innovate to transform’ support for SMEs’ sustainability transition call is now open. With a budget of €10 million in 2021, this action will support the provision...

Since 2020, the European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund has approved 111 investments for highly innovative start-ups and SMEs, totalling around € 500 million. Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth said: “The EIC Fund has developed incredibly quickly and...

On 20 April, the European Alliance Against Coronavirus had the second session on women as a competitiveness factor in clusters and ecosystems. This session built on the first webinar that took place on 25 March. Rozalia Weisz from the Skåne region in Sweden​ spoke about gender equality in cluster...

The European Commission’s Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW) has published a study on the effectiveness of public innovation support for SMEs in Europe. The aim of this study is to gather evidence to determine whether the delivery of public innovation support in Europe...

In the meeting on 30 March, the European Clusters Alliance discussed the concept of social innovation. Karel Vanderpoorten from DG GROW, the European Commission, highlighted that innovation happens at a crossroads and that social innovation is most important when it is supplied by the private sector...

On 19 May, around 125 participants attended our 6 th capacity-building webinar, most of them from European clusters. It featured thoughtful insights on the importance of engaging stakeholders for the cluster, as well as practical examples from a cluster manager and the experience of a research...