President NCA Ing. Jiří Herinek attended European Cluster Conference 2020 which took place on 10th and 11th November. Because COVID_19 situation the Conference was organized online for the first time. European Cluster Conference was organized by the European Commission, Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs in partnership with the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, under the German Presidency of the Council of the European Union, and delivered by the European Cluster Collaboration Platform. 

82 speakers presented to participants from 52 countries (from Europa, North and South America Africa, Asia) how they are strengthening the economy, moving towards a  greener, digital and resilient Europe, through the 14 ecosystems. Online discussions were going on also in small groups and individual online meetings.

Commissioner Breton said: “This event illustrates how important collaboration and clusters are for our economy, now more than ever. Together we are strong, connected we are resilient and autonomous.”

The main takeaways:

• Clusters are drivers and enablers of change in the context of the green and digital transitions and building resilience as Europe recovers from COVID-19
• International and interregional collaboration through clusters is a key tool for supporting innovation, industrial modernization, and the scaling up of SMEs as well as the reskilling and upskilling of the workforce
• The right partners – policymakers, SME intermediaries, and industry – need to be involved
• Funding opportunities, dedicated support, new initiatives, and sustainable partnerships are needed to advance collaboration in specialized sectors and ecosystems

During the conference was handed out three awards. The Awards this year focused on communications aspects of cluster management and partnerships.

• Award for the Cluster Partnership of the Year: IOT4Industry – Marielle Campanella
• Award for the Cluster Manager of the Year: Uwe Pfeil – E-Mobility & IT-Logistics Cluster
• Special award for EU Cluster Mobilisation: Antonio Novo - IDiA & European Clusters Alliance for setting up the European Alliance against Corona with its daily webinars

For more information click here where you can find more about the program of the conference, speakers, presentations, etc.

The source of the article is the European Cluster Collaboration Platform.