Open Days, october 2009, Brussels : "European clusters for recovery"
By Cédric Pierre-Louis on Monday 12 October 2009, 17:27 - Permalink
On october 2009 5th to 8th was held by the regions comittee and the European Commission, the 7th edition of the Open days. This annual event is dedicated to growth and innovation issues from a regional scale. There were plenty of great conferences and debates during all the week, however for professionnal purposes and booking issues (too many applicants but limited places) I finally attended to only one conference. The talk was focused on Clusters and innovation in regions and was very interesting.
The most captivating speaker was Dr. Schuurmans, former professor of Solid
State Physics, former Executive Vice President at Philips Research / Philips
Medical systems, and currently Chairman of the International Advisory Board to
the Biomedical School of Information Engineering in Shenyang. His message was
clear and very meaningful : compared with Chinese, Indian or US education
system, the European systems is globally far behind in terms of innovation and
R&D, and our education system is not enough pragmatic and efficient. Too
much theory and insufficient practical knowledge and ability. Another element
was enlighted during the debate: the obvious lack of synergy between European
regions. I totally agree with this analysis, and really hope things will change
quickly, if not European competitivity and attractivity will decline
dramatically.
Official presentation of the keynote: Unite and innovate! European
clusters for recovery. The wealth of Member States and regions is
increasingly dependent on the development of appropriate framework conditions
to promote innovation and productivity. Clusters are at the core of innovative
development and can create a powerful stimulus for growth, by bolstering
connection between companies and centres of research and education. The
Commission has published a communication to develop strong world-class clusters
as the main drivers for Europe’s competitiveness. However, Europe’s clusters
are large in number but small in scale. While world-class clusters are
fundamental to competing internationally, existing clusters still have great
potential to respond to the needs of the market and to help developing European
regions. Strategies to develop both type of clusters are not mutually
exclusive, but may involve important trade-offs that need to be analysed. What
does it take to develop world-class clusters in Europe? Which trade-offs do
strategies to develop world-class and small-scale clusters imply? What is the
role of companies in fostering cluster development?