Alongside nine partners from seven EU regions, the Department is participating in the “Leveraging Cluster Policies for Successful Implementation of RIS3” (CLUSTERS3) Interreg Europe project.
Clusters defined
A cluster is a group of geographically close companies or institutions which are working together, at a strategic level, to manufacture products or deliver services. Most successful clusters are composed of organisations covering the “triple helix” of business, academia and government.
Businesses cluster together because collaborating in this way provides competitive advantages (including increased productivity and better innovation), which the individual companies may not be able to obtain on their own.
Purpose
The purpose of this project is to support clusters through the improvement of policies and the performance of cluster organisations.
Local stakeholders
The Department is working with a number of local stakeholders to deliver this project, including:
Invest NI
Intertrade Ireland
CBI Northern Ireland
Centre for Advanced Sustainable Energy
Ulster University
European Union Regional Fund and Interreg Europe/ ERDF financial support
CLUSTERS3 is supported by European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) funds under the INTERREG Europe programme. Total funding for the programme amounts to €1.8m, with the Department receiving €190,000.
