Excellence Cluster for Regional Improvement

ended

Life Science is a highly competitive sector and it is one of the world’s largest and fastest growing industries, representing a significant part of national economies, with implications for economic growth, employment and public health (life science and health sector represent today circa the 10% of the European GDP and the 8% of the total European workforce). Life Science is defined also as a key enabling sector, characterized by a multidisciplinary approach, a value chain that starts with the scientific research and ends with the final product commercialization, a very long (compared to other sectors, like ICT for example) time to market and - above all - a global market. At the same time, sectoral clusters need to be connected in a network of players at international level, in order to be able to increase know-how, knowledge, good practices and technologies innovation. The four partners are all actors operating in the Life Science sector with a specific focus on Health, with similar role and mission in their respective territories. Even if they have different development level, the partners are located in regions with different levels of economical development and are at very different stages of management development, they all agree on the fact that - in order to compete in such sector - companies need long term strategies based on sectorial know-how and on the ability to understand and exploit market opportunities. In the Life Science sector these SMEs usually do not possess these strategic capabilities and - for this reason - they need the support of the clusters and their services. According to the partners, cluster’s role should in fact not only be limited to the supply of support services but, especially for SMEs, it is