Danube S3 Cluster - The Final Conference of the project gathered over 100 participants!
26-10-2021
On 21st of October 2021, the final conference and 4th policy dialogue workshop of the “Danube S3 Cluster” project took place as an online event. Around 100 participants from different backgrounds (cluster managers and members, SMEs, regional development and business support organizations, public authorities etc.) followed our invitation and participated. To reach the project’s aim to develop smart and coordinated cluster policies in the context of Research and Innovation Smart Specialization Strategies (RIS3), enhance innovation management knowledge and skills and foster transnational cluster cooperation in the agro-Food sector, achievements of the preceding years were thematized and cross-fertilization with other projects and activities from the EUSDR PA8 facilitated.
The welcome speeches by Dr. Jonathan Loeffler (Steinbeis Europa Zentrum) and Stephen Halligan (Joint Secretariat of the INTERREG DTP) were followed by presentations of the project partners: first a short overview over the project’s results and then more detailed insights on main achievements and lessons learned as well as success stories from the implementation of 5 local action plans within the project.
In the afternoon, the 4th policy dialogue workshop that was included in the final conference provided opportunities for best practice exchange, cooperation and cross-fertilization. To this end, first, activities from the EUSDR PA8 were presented by Dr. Judit Schrick-Szenczi (Coordinator of Priority Area 8 “Competitiveness of the EUSDR), Benedikt Sedlmayr (Coordinator of the EUSDR Flagship Project Danube Alliance) and Ana Dijan (Coordinator of the EUSDR PA8 WG Clusters and Regional Development). Then, to facilitate learning from best practice examples, the ClusterAgentur Baden-Württemberg was presented by its leader, Dr.-Ing. Gerd Meier zu Köcker to show how cluster policy can be transformed into practice, and the agro-food cluster Food.net:z was presented by Julia Sliwinski to give an impression of how this practice looks like in Baden-Württemberg. As a last thematic block before the wrap-up and closing of the conference, the translation of the results of INTERREG DTP projects into sustainable outcomes was thematized. For this, representatives of three INTERREG DTP projects that had already ended were invited: Daniel Cosnita for the Danubiovalnet project, Ivana Ostoic for the MOVECO project and Iliana Philipova for the EcoInnDanube project. The three speakers reported partly similar, but also complementary approaches for achieving a sustainability of main project outcomes. They agreed that one of the most important aspects for sustainability was to keep up the cooperation between project partners and use main results in follow up projects, ensuring their implementation and further development.
During the event, it became apparent that the progress and achievements made within the Danube S3 Cluster project would not be seen as a closed action, but rather as a starting point toward further cooperation. Throughout the day, although realized in an online format, opportunities were provided for attendants to get in touch with each other, and they were encouraged to make new and intensify existing contacts and cooperation, which will hopefully bring the Danube region even further forward in the future.
You can find the presentations below
Working Group “Clusters and Regional (PA8 of EUSDR)
Developing a joint S3 Cluster Strategy
Improving dialogue with policy makers and recommendations for further actions
From farm to fork the role of primary producers in healthy food value chain
Circular bioeconomy in Serbia a success story
Healthy food success story from the Oltenia Region, Romania
Information about the Foodnetz Cluster
Translating the results of INTERREG DTP into sustainable outcomes
