The sixth edition of the European Cluster Conference took place between 14-16 May 2019 in Bucharest, the Parliament Palace, and was organized by the European Commission in cooperation with the Ministry of Economy. under the auspices of the Romanian Presidency of the EU Council.
149 clusters participated in the cluster matchmaking session and 369 bilateral meetings were held to give participants the opportunity to discuss common interest topics and establish future collaborative actions.
The IMAGO-MOL Cluster was represented at this event by Ms. Alina Capitanu, Head of External Projects within North East RDA and Cluster Vice President, and held bilateral talks with representatives of the BioPMED Cluster (Italy), the Ukrainian Health Cluster and the Cluster of the Medical Industry Ostim (Turkey).
During the three days of the conference, which attracted 450 participants, cluster development trends were highlighted, focusing on digitalisation, sustainability, social economy, and presented future joint European initiatives for the 2021-2027 programming period (Joint Clusters Initiatives and Joint Interregional Initiatives).
The Romanian National Cluster Association CLUSTERO organized during the third day of the conference the side event „Romanian Clusters present themselves” with the participation of representatives of regional consortia, member clusters and invited clusters from Spain, France, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Austria. The meeting was moderated by Mr. Daniel Cosnita, President of National Cluster Association ClusteRO.
The Cluster Consortium of the North-East Region, whose member and facilitator is the North East Regional Development Agency, was presented by Ms Alina Capitanu, Head of External Projects Office.
The success of the event was marked by the signing of the Bucharest Declaration related to the establishment of the European Cluster Alliance in order to strengthen the role of cluster associations at European level, to enhance cooperation, innovation, internationalization and support for the development of cluster policy. The document was signed by representatives of the 10 cluster associations participating in the meeting. The European Commission representative, Carsten Schierenbeck, team leader, Advanced Technologies, Clusters and Social Economy, expressed his support for the successful implementation of this initiative.
The forthcoming European Cluster Conference will take place in November 2020 in Berlin, within the calendar of events specific to the German Presidency of the EU Council.
