URBAN INNO at International Cluster Conference ‘Clusters in Europe IV’

The Hungarian Ministry for National Economy organized the ‘Clusters in Europe IV – 2017 international conference’ on 30.11-01.12.2017 in Budapest, Hungary. This 4^th edition of the conference served as a great opportunity for national and regional authorities, policy makers and cluster practitioners to exchange experiences and best practices on clustering policies. By doing so, it targeted the main objective of URBAN INNO: to maximise the innovation potentials of urban ecosystems in Central Europe through a better linkage of actors in urban innovation ecosystems.

The goal the conference was to provide an overall picture about the European cluster scheme from its origins to the present, focusing on the triggers and driving forces in different countries, regions that initiated a new network based approach in Europe.

The conference offered keynote lectures and parallel sessions focusing on different cluster-related topics. Tamara Högler from URBAN INNO partner CyberForum discussed in the panel session ‘Role of clusters in Industry 4.0 and S3’ the role of clusters in Smart Specialisation Strategies, which form the basis of the URBAN INNO project. S3 actions are addressed by the URBAN INNO pilot projects and implemented on regional level by the participating partners. One of the main outcomes of the pilot projects will be a common understanding of challenges, but also of opportunities that can be addressed by implementing participatory methods in the innovation processes.