Bringing together clusters and other relevant stakeholders

A key activity in the project are the 80 regional stakeholder group (RSG) meetings where project partners work with their stakeholders on the learnings from the exchange process and identify the areas for improvement of their policy instruments. The RSG members include policy authorities, clusters and other relevant organisations.

Many of the partners have already had their first RSG meetings, where for example gender equality, gender representation and cluster policies have been discussed. ART-ER from the region of Emilia-Romagna, Italy, held their first RSG meeting already in May. All the nine regional clusters were present in the meeting. The participants confirmed their interest in the gender equality issue as an engine of competitiveness for businesses, underlining the importance of the DEBUTING project to increase awareness and knowledge.

"Some clusters are mature enough to welcome, promote and implement ideas, initiatives and measures for gender equality, others are only now approaching the topic and need knowledge and awareness, which is why Debuting attracts attention and has truly interesting potential" comments Claudia Ferrigno, project manager at ART-ER.