(30 April 2015) – The ‘GROW your REGIOn’ conference (27-28 April 2015) brought together regional policy makers and members of the business community. The aim was to find joint avenues to help drive growth through innovation, collaboration and the breaking of sectoral and regional silos.
This was the first joint event of this kind by DG GROW (Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship, and SMEs) and DG REGIO (Regional and Urban Policy).
The conference highlighted the common priorities of the two DGs with regard to clusters, industry policy and smart specialisation.
The event was focused around four smart cluster stories which gave innovative examples of smart cluster activities. The stories came from Rhône-Alpes (France), Bavaria (Germany), Veneto (Italy) and Corallia (Greece), and looked at:
- Interregional cluster cooperation and microelectronics smart specialisation experience,
- Value creation partnership for cross-cutting innovation through industry parks and chemical clusters,
- RIS3 cross-sectorial cluster cooperation focus on Creative Industries and Smart Agrifood,
- Driving cluster development across knowledge-intensive sectors.