Irish National Clustering Review
On Thursday, 23rd May a full-day stakeholder workshop in Trinity College Dublin was held to provide inputs for the development of the Irish National Clustering Programme. The workshop was facilitated by three international clustering experts; Merete Daniel Nielson, President of TCI Network since 2018, co-initiator and director at Cluster Excellence Denmark 2009-2023 and individual expert in the EU Cluster Expert Group 2019-2022, Helmut Kergel, Director of the European Secretariat for Cluster Analysis and David Fernandez Terreros, Cluster Development at SPRI, Basque Business Development Agency as part of a TCI Policy Peer Review.
The Accelerate GDT project was on hand at the workshop with key stakeholders from MTU, DETE, Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland, Cork City and County Council all attending on the day to provide inputs from stakeholders from across Ireland on the development of the National Cluster Programme.
The background to Ireland’s cluster development programme comes from ‘The White Paper for Enterprise (WPE) 2022-2030,’ which recognises clustering as a key tool for achieving enterprise policy objectives, including driving innovation, attracting and embedding FDI and developing linkages between multinationals and indigenous firms.
The WPE proposes the establishment of a National Clustering Programme (NCP), with a target to fund 5 national cluster organisations by 2025, and the establishment of a central coordination entity to bring coherence to the current ad hoc landscape around clustering in Ireland. The NCP will take an all-island approach in order to build collaborative cross border linkages and harness synergies and opportunities across the island, which can result in economic benefits both North and South. As the NCP is developed and rolled out, the national coordination entity will be located in the Cluster Ireland Unit in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.
There has been stakeholder engagement on the development of clustering policy in Ireland, including the Clustering Policy Stakeholder event hosted by Grant Thornton on behalf of the Department which fed into the Grant Thornton research, commissioned by the Department, on the development of an evidence base to support the development of a National Clustering Policy and Framework which was published in March 2023; Development of an Evidence Base to Support the Development of a National Clustering Policy and Framework - DETE (enterprise.gov.ie).
Under the guidance of the independent international clustering experts; Merete Daniel Nielson, Helmut Kergel and David Fernandez Terreros the attendees on the day were asked to review the proposed policy under 4 different areas:
- KPIs – How to Measure Progress?
- Selection Criteria and Relevance of Layered Supports
- Governance Models for Best-in-Class Clusters
- Professionalisation and Supports Required
Dr John Hobbs, MTU Lead Partner of Accelerate GDT believes the policy review workshop provided “a great opportunity for Irish stakeholders to effectively engage with policy making in Ireland, whilst also taking on board the opinions of experts in this space, so as to ensure that the forthcoming Irish Cluster policy is fit for purpose and aligns well with some of the best clustering support policies across Europe and further afield. It was great to have so many of the Accelerate GDT partners and local stakeholders feeding into the process, so that the policy can benefit from the project learnings to date. A robust, clear and coordinated cluster policy, will allow Irish clusters to interact at scale with industry and help Ireland take steps towards the twin transition goals to 2030.”