European Cluster Partnerships for Excellence are transnational cluster partnerships selected under the European Cluster Excellence Programme as part of the European Commission’s COSME programme.
About the programme
The action aims at facilitating cross-cluster networking and learning, to support the professionalisation of specialised and customised business support services to SMEs. The action will help drive the development of cluster management excellence and the formation of strategic cross-regional collaboration between industrial clusters across Europe.
European Cluster Partnerships | Excellence are tasked with the following activities:
- Cluster management skills development to boost excellence in delivering SME support
- Cluster strategy setting at individual and European partnership levels
- Support the implementation of these strategies (e.g. through twinning, networking, and joint collaboration activities for SMEs)
- Implementation of the ClusterXchange programme.
The ClusterXchange programme supports short-term exchanges to better connect Europe’s industrial clusters and ecosystems.
European Cluster Partnerships for Excellence - 4th Generation
The 4th Generation of European Cluster Partnerships for Excellence received the new “European Cluster Partnerships | Excellence” label in 2020. The 15 new Partnerships will implement the Excellence programme from January 2022 until December 2023, bringing together 78 cluster organisations from 23 different COSME participating countries across 9 different industrial ecosystems.
Discover the video testimonials of some of these of the European Cluster Partnerships | Excellence from the 4th Generation (2020) here.
A full list of European Cluster Partnerships | Excellence can be found here and news about partnerships here.
European Cluster Partnerships for Excellence - Previous Generations
The 3rd Generation of European Cluster Partnerships | Excellence (2020-2021) was composed of 13 EU Cluster Partnerships, bringing together 69 cluster organisations from across 21 European and COSME participating countries. The action kicked off on the 3rd of February 2020 for a period of two years (until 2021). More information on the industrial and geographical sectors covered can be found in the figure below. More information on the two first generations of Cluster Excellence partnerships can be found here. Download the European Cluster Partnerships | Excellence leaflet here.