The role of public authorities in clusters: a study of cluster policy in European regions

This study examines what policy instruments public authorities have for clusters of businesses and institutions. It analyses the policy in North Sea Area regions and places it in a survey. It also examines how clusters develop, focusing specifically on the role of public authorities in this development. In the Northern Netherlands, Central Denmark, Northwest Germany, Southeast Scotland and Southwest Norway, I examined whether public authorities choose cluster policy to increase innovative capacity. Almost all programmes have this as an explicit policy objective. It is not necessary to have connections between companies and technological institutes in all clusters of the programmes. Most programmes set this as a requirement, but a few do not. In the Northern Netherlands, clusters are selected mainly by the national government. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Innovation Platform select the Peaks or Key Areas partly on the basis of interviews with experts and stakeholders. There is room here to allow stakeholders to select and support their own regions and sectors, or to satisfy their political following. Clusters were also selected on the basis of interviews with experts in the Innovative Foresight Planning for Business Development project.