The role of clusters in smart specialisation strategies

This report investigates the potential contribution of clusters and cluster policies in the design and implementation of Smart Specialisation Strategies. Both cluster policies and Smart Specialisation Strategies are policy approaches with a place-based dimension, aiming at exploiting advantages of proximity to promote economic growth and competitiveness. With regions across Europe currently working on their Smart Specialisation Strategies, the question whether and how clusters and cluster policies can be used in this endeavour is highly relevant. Smart Specialisation Strategies are difficult to design and implement because they are based on a new and complex academic framework that now has to be translated into policy practice. The contention of this report is that lessons learnt from the rich history of cluster policies can provide concrete inputs into the development of Smart Specialisation Strategies (S3).