Cluster initiatives managed by DG Enterprise and Industry : final report

This report sets out the findings and recommendations of an evaluation of European cluster initiatives (ECI) managed by the European Commission, Directorate-General Enterprise and Industry (DG ENTR), unit D5 - Clusters and Support for SMEs. The evaluation was conducted between December 2013 and May 2014, under the Framework Service Contract ENTR/172/PP/2012/FC/LOT 4. Technopolis Group coordinated the study with the support of EY, the Danish Technological Institute (DTI) and associated experts. The evaluation was asked to focus on the impact of the ECI on small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in order to identify what proved useful and why. The findings are intended to inform a future round of ECI in order to support business development and innovation more directly. With this in mind, the evaluation team was asked to develop an indicator framework to help capture the impact of the ECI on SMEs and the efficiency of cluster organisations in delivering services to SMEs.