Are you an executive manager of an organisation that manages an innovation cluster in an Eastern partner country or coordinates collaborative initiatives between businesses and academia with a sectoral or technological focus? If you’re from a cluster or potential cluster, EU4Digital invites you to participate in a free-of-charge certified online training and assessment. The deadline for registration is 17 April 2024.
The online training workshop will introduce the tool for assessing your capacity to support innovation and digitalisation; both are part of EU4Digital Facility’s new activities to support innovation clusters in the Eastern Partnership (EaP) region. Cluster organisations in the Eastern partner countries — Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Republic of Moldova and Ukraine—are invited to participate.
Executive managers (CEOs, general directors or their deputies) of EaP cluster management organisations are welcome to register. Clusters and potential/proto-clusters of all sizes in all sectors of economy, whether they are large-scale entities with international outreach or small regional initiatives at an early development stage are invited to join in.
The 2.5 hour online training on 18 April 2024 will guide participants through the critical dimensions of cluster management and value proposition, with a certificate to be issued for successful trainees. During the training, outstanding EU experts will share their in-depth expertise on cluster management benchmarking and practical experience in driving clusters’ growth to excellence:
- Oliver Ziegler: ESCA, Head of Government Relations and Senior Project Manager
- Bianca Muntean: Co-Founder & CEO of Transilvania IT Cluster, a Gold Label EU Cluster
- Daniel Cosnita: President of Romanian Cluster Association, ESCA benchmarking expert
- Felix Arion: General Manager at AgroTransilvania Cluster, a Gold Label EU Cluster, member of ESCA expert group on GOLD labelling.
The online assessment will help participants to prepare for the European Secretariat Cluster Analysis (ESCA) quality label standard of Cluster Management Excellence and adjust their service palette by learning from outstanding EU clusters. The assessment results as well as identified gaps and priority support needs will be communicated to all the participants as well as to governmental authorities and potential donors during an online event in autumn 2024.
- 17 April 2024 is the deadline for the training workshop registration.
- Fill out the online registration form.
- 23 May 2024 is the deadline to submit the completed assessment form.
- If you are unable to attend the training, you can still run the online assessment and gain from further EU4Digital support.
- Contact: atile.ivanovaite@lt.ey.com to request the assessment link
Don’t miss this opportunity to enhance your cluster organisation’s capabilities and visibility within the digital landscape. Together, let’s unlock the potential for digital innovation and growth!
Why participate?
Taking part in these first EU4Digital innovation clusters activities will open access to:
- Digital certificate: cluster managers who participate in the training as well as submit the completed assessment form will receive a certificate verifying EU4Digital training completion, enhancing their professional credentials.
- Visibility: cluster organisations that submit the assessment form will be mapped on the EU4Digital website, enhancing their visibility to foreign donor programmes.
- Follow-up support: essential documentation checklists, templates and lists of digital tools that are helpful for practical cluster management can be received in follow-up activities.
- Success story: selected cluster organisations will feature in success stories published on the EU4Digital website, enhancing publicity and visibility to foreign donor programmes.
- ESCA Bronze Label: up to five selected eligible cluster management organisations will have their ESCA Bronze Label application costs covered and their ESCA evaluation facilitated by EU4Digital.
- Indicative action plans: up to three most-engaged cluster organisations will receive elaborated indicative action plans, developed by EU4Digital, and streamlining to potential donor organisations.
Further information
The survey and training are organised by the ICT Innovation stream of the EU4Digital Facility—an EU–funded programme that aims to harmonise EaP and European Union digital markets. The ICT Innovation stream aims to connect the EaP and EU innovation and startup ecosystems, promoting networking, sharing EU best practices and tools with EaP innovation stakeholders, supporting development of the EaP digital start-up ecosystem, and developing a framework and recommendations for innovation clusters in Eastern partner countries.
More details about the newEU4Digital innovation cluster activities, objectives and longer-term plans are available through our ‘New EU4Digital activity supports Eastern Partnership innovation clusters’ article.
To find out more about EU4Digital ICT Innovation and Start-up Ecosystem activities, visit our ‘Explainers’ web content and view our short video ‘This is ICT Innovation’, available in our ‘Library’.
- Armenia
- Azerbaijan
- Georgia
- Republic of Moldova
- Ukraine
- ICT innovation
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