The role of staff exchange and mobility schemes in accelerating policy transfer

Cluster initiatives and their related cluster organisations are increasingly being deployed by European regions to help implement innovation and research strategies. They are also considered important ecosystem intermediaries for accessing and delivering services to SMEs. Many studies have demonstrated that the performance of regional economies and enhancing territorial cohesion can be helped by improving learning and policy exchanges.

Current policy trends demonstrate an increasing interest in deploying staff exchange and mobility schemes to enhance regional innovation performance and accelerate learning and good practice and policy design and implementation. DG GROW also plans to launch a new dedicated activity entitled ClusterXchange pilot scheme as part of the COSME Cluster Excellence programme.

Funding levels of many of the ERASMUS exchange-based schemes are also planned to increase. Several Interreg Europe projects, notably those engaged with clusters, have already implemented mobility schemes and have noted positive impacts on those regions and organisations involved. The reinforcement of such mobility schemes provides the Interreg Europe community with a range of concrete opportunities within the cluster thematic and more generally in support of innovation stakeholders.