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Phone: (+34) 968 752 040

Founded in 2009, AMUEBLA is a Group of stakeholders working together to address needs in the furniture and habitat sector, representing the interests of important furniture firms from the Mediterranean area. It is a non-profit association, characterized as a combination of companies, research and training centres, public and private, involved in collaborative exchange processes, aimed at obtaining advantages and benefits derived from the execution of innovative projects. AMUEBLA is considered the furniture industry and related sectors Cluster of Murcia Region. It is registered in the European Cluster Collaboration Platform and has got the Bronze Cluster Certification.

The purpose of AMUEBLA is facilitated innovative practices to improve the competitiveness of partners companies, to defend its general business interests, and promote its projection and international visibility.

It is a structured and interrelated industrial sub-sector. That it ensures their competitiveness and visibility in the market. AMUEBLA has more than 80 companies, with 2500 employees.

AMUEBLA represents the interests of important furniture firms from the Mediterranean area, the partnership also involves two Higher Education entities (University of Murcia and Technical University of Cartagena), the Technical Research Centre of Furniture and Wood of the Region of Murcia (CETEM) and public bodies (Murcia´s Regional Development Agency and Regional Association of Woodworking Entrepreneurs).

The main activities are based on the promotion of joint actions between the companies and the establishment of convergent and common strategies in ambiences of innovation, environmental management and training activities, among others.

The involvement of this Cluster in this Strategic Partnership is directly linked with AMUEBLA´s 2014-2017 Strategic Plan, which is focused on the training and skills needs of the sector, together with the internationalisation of their members and the cluster itself, new business channels, product innovation and alternative management strategies. 

In this way, nowadays AMUEBLA coordinates an Erasmus+ KA2 project, GPP-FURNITURE, to help SMEs of the furniture sector to be prepared to the incoming Green Public Procurements. AMUEBLA
also takes part as partner in other Eramus+ project, BOSS4SME, to develop the Online Sales Manager profile in order to push cross-border sales in the furniture sector.

Besides of these projects, AMUEBLA has also participated in a Leonardo project, ECO4VET, for the improvement of VET related to Ecodesign and Sustainable Production in the Furniture Sector. In addition AMUEBLA has been involved in other Europeans projects by CETEM, as a partner of AMUEBLA. It has collaborated assisting to meetings, checking content and supporting them, and in dissemination tasks. Ecomovel, Ecosign and VETAAL are examples of projects where AMUEBLA has taken part during their development. Apart of those projects AMUEBLA has also been involved in the dissemination of Next1Koat and Ecopresswood projects, examples of good practices for the compliance of the Cluster4Smart project requirements.

Related with Cluster4Smart project, AMUEBLA has developed in a national way different initiatives to improve its strategy and the knowledge of SMEs in new and advance technologies in general:

• AMUEBLA LEAN: improvement of production processes in the furniture sector through lean methodologies.
• CHAIN OF CUSTODY: to provide companies the knowledge to perform the proper procedures for documenting the possession of the Chain of Custody in the furniture market.
• -INNOVATIVE: The purpose of this project was transmit companies a correct methodology in order to incorporate different materials in the process of develop new product like a tool for innovation in the furniture sector.

In addition AMUEBLA has a strong network of contacts with cluster around Europe due to its numerous project where is directly involved or participad with its own resources. Some of the contacts are furniture clusters from Spain (Associacio Agrupacio Moble Innovador de Catalunya) or abroad (Transylvanian Furniture Cluster); and also from other sectors (Romian Textile Cluster or Cluster Smart Cities of Murcia Region). In addition AMUEBLA has been represented in the last European Cluster Conference, hold in Brussels on December 2016.

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Phone: +32 488 45 25 27

ArchEnerg was established in 2007 with the aim of creating an economic and social model based on renewable energy sources and energy efficiency that moves green economy enterprises and society towards a more sustainable future. ArchEnerg International Renewable Energy and Building Trade Cluster won the certificate of “Accredited Innovation Cluster” all times. It is now a leading cluster in the renewable energy and building sector with extended network with other similar clusters in the Central and Eastern European region. It has 75 SME members and three large enterprises and one academic institution: the University of Szeged. It has gained Gold Cluster Management Excellence benchmark in 2015 from the European Secretariat of Cluster Analysis. The number of its members is growing perpetually.

The focus areas of the Cluster:

• Renewable energy
• Building industry
• Project management, research and training
• Environment protection, ensuring sustainability
• Organization and process development innovation

During its operation, the Cluster has developed an extensive activity network with the primary task of supporting members involved in the strategic industrial sectors. The Cluster has more than 50 strategic collaboration agreements. The Cluster assistance includes infrastructure development, advocacy, marketing and generation of interest for products and services. The Cluster offers complex services, such as training and curriculum design, project generation, cluster marketing, searching for financial solutions, tender and call for proposal watch, partner search, requirements and needs assessment, trainings and lectures. ArchEnerg also aims to increase public awareness about renewable energy and energy efficiency. The thematic areas of the cluster are: planning, implementing joint projects and gaining investment permissions related to energy efficiency and renewable energies such as geothermal energy, thermal energy, solar collectors, solar heating, heat pump and biogas systems, biomass furnaces; construction products and services, electric works, insulation, doors and windows, energy efficient lighting systems; feasibility studies, return calculations, energy audit and recommendations on energy consumption improvement.

Having a few successful national and international projects completed so far, the Cluster aims to further develop by integrating the inquiries and requests from external partners and improving the relations between its members, with the aid of new business partnerships and joint projects to internationalize. By this, the Cluster intends to spread the usage of environmentally friendly services and developments and contribute to kind of standardisation in the area of sustainable business innovation.

Services offered by and thus exchanged among or jointly implemented by the Cluster members:

• Solar energy utilisation: installation of photovoltaic and solar systems
• Geothermal energy utilisation: installation of heat-pump systems
• Biomass utilisation, compact biomass
• Prefabricated and passive houses
• Building and construction industry, engineering
• Consulting, preparing feasibility studies, preparation for audits, consultation on tenders and project opportunities

rchEnerg is an accredited innovative cluster with a gold Cluster Excellence Management label providing cluster management training, networking and collaboration opportunities to other clusters in the Central and Eastern European region through:

• its ongoing projects
• organisation, participation and representation at workshops, national and international conferences
• project generation in collaboration with stakeholders from research and academic sides through innovation actors to the corporate sector
• awareness raising events directed to its SME and other members

Relevant projects of ArchEnerg:

• PROMOCLUS (2007-2013) – Promoting the establishment of renewable energy clusters.  Partner: in Romania Diaszpóra Foundation (Timisoara).
• INTERREGCLUSTER (2010-2013) – Inside the cluster – beyond the border, Cross-border cluster collaboration for the development of economic cooperation: To establish a network and platform of clusters.  Partner: Hungarian Business Association in Romania.

COSMENERG – Cluster Excellence (2016-2018), to generate added-value services for the involved 5 cluster organisations' SME members and support their growth and competitiveness through identifying the type of services generating the greatest added-value and delivering these services in the most effective manner. The total number of SME members involved is 294.
 

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Phone: +34 947244332

The European Business and Innovation Center of Burgos (CEEI-Burgos) is a non-profit organisation that was created in 1994 and which is formed by the following partners: City Council of Burgos, Provincial  Government of Burgos and the Federation of Burgos Managers Associations.

CEEI-Burgos is an active member of both the European Business and Innovation Centre Network (EBN) and the European Microfinance Network (EMN), working also under ESINET framework (European Space Agency Business Incubation and Technology Transfer programme), in such a way that it provides an excellent communication nexus among the existing nets. CEEI-Burgos is member of other organisations such as ANCES (National Association of Spanish BICs), PAIT (Spanish official network for creation of new companies under the SLNE regulation),

CEEI-Burgos is a consolidated organisation after several years of intense work in the field of advising and SMEs mentoring. Main services offered are the following:

• Incubation facilities: 4.981 m2.
• Entrepreneurs services (business plan, advising and mentoring).
• Consultancy services (feasibility study, advising and mentoring).
• Training and e-learning.
• National and international co-operation.
• Regional, rural and local development.
• Renewable energies, biotechnology and innovative SMEs promotion and development.
• Microfinance.
• Social economy promotion.
• YUZZ centre

Other services rendered by CEEI-Burgos are the following:

• Support to the Burgos City Investment Attraction office.
• Management of the Rural Development Programme (PRODER and PRODERCAL) of the  Ribera del Duero Burgalesa (Burgos - Spain) 1997 – 2007. ERDF and EAGGF funds. PRODERCAL total budget is over Euro 7.000.000.-
• Design and management of the “Cuatro Villas de Amaya” tourist product development in the west area of Burgos province.
• Technical support to the Telecentres network of Burgos province providing them with contents through CEEI-Burgos e-learning platform
• Seed finance facility – Burgos emprende+- oriented at Burgos innovative entrepreneurs and SMEs.
• Agreement with National Institute of Employment (INEM) and Castilla y Leon Institute of Employment (ECYL) to promote self-employment and entrepreneurship.
• YUZZ project: Annual programme in collaboration with Santander Foundation and the University of Burgos. CEEI-Burgos is working with a group of 20 innovative entrepreneurs along a seven months programme, training them with the objective of starting-up their own business at the end of the process.
• e-Learning platform.
• Intraemprender project: along with other four Spanish BICs this project concerns to the search of new business opportunities within the companies.
• Other projects: EQUALBUR, Expoceei, Spanish BICs co-operation project…

The business sectors promoted by the organisation include, among others, green and bio economy, creative industries, IT, agriculture, agro-industry, tourism, logistics, transportation, machinery, construction, electric, environment, engineering services, computers, telecom, automobile parts...etc. CEEI-Burgos works efficiently with a wide range of sectors due to its adequate structure and clearly defined goals.

CEEI-Burgos has carried out different projects at international level in aligned to Cluster4Smart project, with the objective to foster the entrepreneurship and SMEs management. In addition CEEI-Burgos is expert on QA as it got the EU BIC label as quality system.

Main projects are the following: 

INTERREG PROGRAMMES

• BRIDGES project on bridging competence infrastructure gaps and speeding up growth and jobs delivery in regions, within the framework of Interreg Europe, starting on 2016 with a total budget of € 2.233.765.
• ATM for SMEs, on access to microfinance for small and medium-sized enterprises, under Interreg Europe programme. This project started on 2016 with an overall budget of € 2.035.273.
• DIFASS, on promotion and design of financial schemes for SMEs, under Interreg IVC programme with a total budget of 3.077.054.- Euros. 2013-2015.

ERASMUS+

• Project Visconti (Viability Innovation Scientific Creativity oriented network for training and instruction), with a total budget of 330.000.- Euros. 2014 – 2016.
• Open Up Entrepreneurship project, on innovative learning methodologies aiming for entrepreneurship training, with a total budget of 287.373.- Euros. 2015 – 2017.
• UPPScience project, aiming at the creation of a Community of Practice for managers, teachers and trainers of STEM and IT subjects in Vocational Education and Training (VET), with an overall budget of 332.000.- Euros. 2016-2019.
• EntreTOY project, on entrepreneurship training in education, with a budget of 258.000.- Euros. 2016-2019.
• EntreVET, about cultural features in product design – Entrepreneurial initiative in VET training. Overall budget: 91.000.- Euros. 2016-2018.

LEONARDO DA VINCI PROGRAMME

• Project DIAMEE on dialogical methodologies for entrepreneurs, under Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of Innovation programme scheme, with a total budget of 217.682 Euros. 2013 – 2015. CEEI-Burgos was the lead applicant and coordinator.
• Project TOY.VET, on team coaching methodologies for entrepreneurs under Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of Innovation programme scheme, with a total budget of 206.990.- Euros. 2013 – 2015.
• Inspire YoWup project, on entrepreneurs training methodologies under Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of Innovation programme scheme, with a total budget of 389.913.- Euros. 2013 – 2015.
• Project e-Guide CWH&S, Innovative e-Guide in Construction Workplace Health and Safety, under Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of Innovation programme scheme, with a total budget of 250.000.- Euros. 2013 – 2015.

HORIZON 2020

• Invest Horizon project, on investment readiness, under the call H2020-BIR-2014 with a total budget of 2.313.000.- Euros. 2015-2017.
• Associate partners of ACE Creative project, pan-European network of business support organizations committed to providing expert services to ICT and creative companies across Europe. 2015-2016.

ALTERNER, LIFE AND IEE PROGRAMMES

• CEEI-Burgos was also the lead applicant and co-ordinator of BIOBUSINESS project (Business opportunities in biomass sector for SMEs). Global budget 572000 Euros. 2008-2010.
• CEEI-Burgos took part as partner in Core Business project (Promotion of Renewable Energies among communities). Recently working also as partner in RESINBUIL project (RE applications in buildings with a global budget of 600000 Euros), PROBIO (Biodiesel chain promotion with a budget of 965000 Euros), and HIDROSOLAR 21 (Hydrogen technology, budget 3300000 Euros). 2004-2007.

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Phone: +36 30 229-3769

IKOSZ is a voluntary bottom-up association of some of the key business clusters in Hungary. The currently 10 clusters cover a wide range of sectors from traditional industries like wood and furniture (PANFA Pannon Wood and Furniture Cluster) and engineering/mechatronics (PANEL Pannon Mechatronics Cluster) to clusters working on sustainability and construction (ArchEnerg International Innovative Cluster for Renewable Energy and Building Trade), ICT (INNOSKART ICT Cluster), and packaging (OMNIPACK First Hungarian Cluster of Packaging Technology). Membership represents over 300 enterprises, municipalities, research institutes and universities.

The Alliance was formed in 2014 responding to the demand for a joint platform where Hungarian clusters are able to

• pool their good practices,
• develop closer cross-cluster and cross-sectoral business opportunities,
• coordinate innovation initiatives among clusters and their members
• maintain a single point of contact and service for cluster internationalisation and international cluster networks
• establish a joint representation towards national and European decisionmakers.

In the course of its operation the Alliance has established working relationships with clusters and cluster associations in 17 European countries and overseas (South Korea and US), providing entry points and business contacts for internationalisation. Domestically it cooperates with county Chambers of Commerce, Enterprise Europe Network, relevant sectoral and entrepreneurial associations, and the Ministry for National Economy to establish a clear cluster policy and inspiring cluster/business development strategies.

IKOSZ is a strategic stakeholder in the INTERREG EUROPE project CLUSTERIX 2.0, which aims at developing policies for supporting new types of cluster-based innovation initiatives and a more streamlined cluster competence development enabling clusters to act as drivers of their regional economic ecosystems. Similarly IKOSZ, together with the Czech, Polish and Slovakian cluster associations is a project member in V4ClustGo, a project supported by the Visegrad Fund, dealing with cluster internationalisation issues in the region.

For cluster development support IKOSZ utilises “Cluster Games”, a game theory-based cluster network analysis tool developed by Gedai-Kóczy-Zombori, and the Cluster Ecosystem Analysis methodology of Regex.

Members of IKOSZ are primarily Accredited Innovation Clusters in Hungary, and are among the most active, and most experienced actors in the country. Member clusters and organisations have implemented more than 30 international cooperation projects as partners or Lead Partners in different European programmes (cross-border AT-HU, HU-SK, HU-RO, HU-SRB, SL-HU, transnational: CENTRAL, SEE, DANUBE, interregional: INTERREG 4C and EUROPE, plus V4, FP7 and COSME).

IKOSZ itself participated as stakeholder/consultant/service provider in different EU granted projects.  First application under own name has been submitted in the HU-SRB crossborder IPA programme. Some projects where IKOSZ has participated as stakeholder as follows:

• ClusteriX 2.0 (INTERREG EUROPE, 2016-2021) Enabling clusters to act as regional innovation drivers in dynamic, open and connected innovation ecosystems through policy and practice adaptation
• CLUSTERS3 (INTERREG EUROPE 2016-2021) strengthen the innovation and competitiveness ‘enablers’; a better alignment of clusters, policies and projects with RIS3; overcome the disadvantage of SMEs dimension and make regional procedures and programmes more cluster-friendly.
• ClusteriX (INTERREG 4C, 2014-2014) sharing and adapting good practices for implementing and supporting cross-cluster innovation.

ClusterPoliSEE  (South-East Europe Programme, 2012-2014) enabling policymakers to design more robust cluster policies and more flexible support initiatives to complement smart specialisation strategies.
 

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Phone: +33 (0)6 47 49 85 37

SCS (Secured Communicating Solutions) World Class Cluster  is based in the Provence-Alpes-Côted’Azurregion, in France, and gathers more than300members, including companies (and 70% of SMEs), research centres and educational institutions in the fields of micro-electronics, telecommunications and software. The cluster represents 60 000 jobs in these fields, 26 multinational companies, 1200 researchers in the public sector and 18 educational institutions training 1500 engineers per year.

Its aim is to promote the development of competitive R&D projects between all these players with the support of local communities, in order to design and develop new solutions  targeting high-growth markets such as Industry 4.0,smartcities, smart grids, smart manufacturing, e-health, e-mobility, retailor e-payment. It also aims to contribute to the creation of an appropriate ecosystem for the overall regional ICT landscape, especially through the development of SMEs.

Its ambition is to be recognized as a key player in innovation in the three“Smart Specialisation Area” that constitute the core of its strategy:

• Contactless technologies (NFC, RFID);
• Networks (4G/LTE/IMS), M2M & mobile services;
• Digital security& identities.

SCS cluster has been awarded with the ESCA (European Secretariat for Cluster Analysis) Gold Label in July 2013, renewed in July 2016 with 98% criteria fulfilled, proving its gold standard excellence in terms of cluster management.

CS cluster is currently involved in the CLUSGRID project. CLUSGRID - Clusters for Smart Grid - is funded under the COSME Cluster Excellence call and aims at improving the management of the clusters of the consortium to provide better services to their SMEs, especially in the Smart Grids area.The consortium gathers 6 clusters from Poland (Eastern Development Agency is the coordinator), Bulgaria, Spain and France with SCS, which role as the only ESCA Gold-Labelled cluster will be to mentor other clusters in getting ESCA labels and improving cluster management, towards excellence.

SCS Cluster has a long list of partnerships of different fields. Universities and VET centres such as Aix-Marseille University, Nice – Sophia Antipolis University, Eurecom, ISEN, IM2NP, and Telecom Paristech; cluster and cluster platforms such as Silicon Europe Alliance, Development Regional Agencies, etc. The wide net of contacts will ensure a good dissemination of project results at national and European level, and the possibility to engage a high number of stakeholders for their feedback about Cluster4Smart project.

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Phone: +33 (0)6 12 07 33 75

The University of Strasbourg is a leading institution in many domains such as scientific excellence, continuing learning and training, and competence transfer, with more than 50800 students each year and 72 research units. The University wants to maintain its role of leader in higher education and research innovation, nurturing close relationships with research centres and innovation clusters.

With 2000 cooperation partnerships with more than 750 Universities in 95 different countries, the University of Strasbourg is an important international player, and its main strategic goal is to cross the borders - geographically and of the socio-economic world- for innovative collaborations in research and higher education.

Within the University of Strasbourg, ITIRI offers a French-German Master programme dedicated to the training of cluster managers, in collaboration with the Hochschule Kehl. The institute benefits from a strong international opening, 50% of its students coming from abroad (more than 20 different countries), as well as a learning through solid experience sharing thanks its educational team of which more than 200 professional experts.

The Master in Cluster Management and Territorial Networks trains the students to cluster strategy, management and communication, through project management, strategic intelligence, creativity and innovation management, marketing and business management, as well as knowledge of EU administrative systems and innovation policies, in three compulsory working languages (French, German and English). 

This multidisciplinary training programme is meant to give them the keys to manage networks’ collective intelligence and facilitate innovative collaborative projects.