Are We Missing Something? How Can Cluster Policies Create the Conditions for Value Generation?

Abstract

This chapter summarises the recurring barriers identified and their impact on the vision of clusters as a focus for value creation. It underlines the crucial importance of more timely feedback on operating conditions on the ground, to better inform policies on emerging needs, challenges and opportunities that also impact on economic outcomes. This is presented as complementing the role of models dealing with the factors and condition in the market. The chapter highlights the economic advantages of better leveraging the distributed knowledge of stakeholders on the ground, and the potential for more pro-active involvement of Universities in mediating this, through collaborative and practice–based research on the ground.

Appendix

Policy dos and don’ts in a nutshell

Don’t	Do	How?
Don’t ignore what policy users know	Get feedback to ensure you know how policy is impacting on different groups, if it meets their needs, and what the operational barriers are on the ground-such as bureaucracy	Executive fora for policy co-production Ongoing collaborative action research by Universities with companies
Don’t have policy which is short term, fragmented, uncoordinated	Provide long stability, predictability, consistency, and coordination in part through better integration with other long term economic goals and policies, and their implementation	Consider how renewable energy fits into wider energy & economic policies over the long term Expedite coordination of standards, processes, permits, regulations, across regions Coordination of renewables policy X Ministries.
Don’t expect communication and collaboration between cluster players without opportunities and incentives	Support and incentivise alliances between actors, to leverage disparate knowledge skills and resources more effectively for innovation	Map gaps, barriers or disincentives to communication or collaboration as part of collaborative action research with Universities Provide mechanisms and incentives to bridge these gaps e.g. Share Fairs, mentoring, executive foraa
Don’t reinvent the wheel	Learn from other sectors and clusters and anticipate or mitigate unnecessary cost and risk	Cross cluster research and collaboration networks. Awareness of barriers in other sectors
Don’t consider renewables policy in isolation from energy and economic policy, or as an ‘add-on’	Integrate renewables into longer term economic policy, as part of managed change to address long term goals in energy, the economy, employment, health and the environment.	Interdepartmental committee to look at coordination, potential synergies towards common goals e.g. data sharing, interoperability, incentives for shared aims.
Don’t concentrate on the knowledge and the needs of larger companies at the expense of SMEs	Provide opportunities to leverage what all stakeholders know, and Identify the very different needs of SMEs which are so central for innovation in the cluster, and employment in the region	Executive fora for policy co-production Ongoing collaborative action research by Universities with smaller companies
Don’t look at innovation simply as the spinning out of pure research on materials in Universities,	Recognise that much of the innovation in renewables is about more practice –based, company-led innovationb by SMEs who typically find it hard to get R&D support, research facilities or funding for concept testing	Provide targeted funding and incentives for collaboration of SMEs and Universities on more practice-based company-led innovations Provide research vouchers for SMEs Address the issues of IP and publication which deter collaboration (See Chap. 11)
Don’t restrict access to research facilities to SMEs that can foster innovation and regional employment	Recognise that large companies have access to in-house and private labs as well as university facilities, while SMEs often don’t	See above Use targeted funding to even the playing field Matching large oil and small renewables SMEs
Don’t let lack of training and expertise constrain the growth of companies and the cluster	Identify and address the gaps in skills and knowledge in relation to emerging industries such as renewables as both (a) a constraint on access to trained staff (b) a barrier to informed policy	Incentivise Universities to focus some of their student internships on more collaborative and practice-based research with businesses (i) to identify gaps in skills and knowledge; (ii) to inform professional development & policy.

1. ^aAs long as these are not just ‘talking shops’ Senior executive staff must be there
2. ^bE.g. new renewable installations and constructions where the power, reliability, cost, lifetime, scale etc need multidisciplinary research support to be viable, as well as new products and applications