Thanks to Informest and Autonomous Region Friuli Venezia Giulia’s support and collaboration Friuli Venezia Giulia regional cluster have been awarded by ESCA with Bronze-Label last November. The new objective is to reach the “Gold Label” for DITENAVE by the end of the year.

The Cluster Excellence Initiative is an European Commission’s action aiming at supporting European clusters in a path of network’s comparison, improvement and strengthen in order to be competitive on the global market.

ESCA – European Secretariat for Cluster Analysis – is an European-Commission-recognized network of experts located in 27 countries whose task is to evaluate clusters’ performances and offered services’ quality through benchmarking and labeling activities (e.g. Bronze and Gold Labels).

The "Cluster Management Excellence Label GOLD - Proven for Cluster Excellence" of the European Cluster Excellence Initiative acknowledges cluster organisations that demonstrate highly sophisticated cluster management and that are committed to further improve their organisational structures and routines for the benefit of an even higher performance.

In order to qualify for the "Cluster Management Excellence Label GOLD" cluster management organisations need to meet certain "levels of excellence" in terms of structure of the cluster, governance, financing, strategy and services and recognition. In the course of a two-day thorough assessment conducted by two neutral cluster analysis experts 31 indicators are assessed. The assessment scheme was developed by the European Cluster Excellence Initiative (ECEI) (www.cluster-excellence.eu), which - being initiated by the European Commission - gathered 13 organisations from nine European countries, all well experienced in the field of cluster management and cluster policy.

The objective of the scheme is not only to identify the best cluster management organisations in Europe, but also support the cluster management organisations with advice in the course of the assessment on how to further improve.

CLUS3 project is promoted by the Autonomous Region Friuli Venezia Giulia’s Central Committee on Work, Training, Equal Opportunities, Education, Youth Policies and Research – Training Service, benefits of Informest’s collaboration on the technical and planning aspects and of Trieste’s AREA Consortium, Monfalcone’s DITENAVE, Basovizza’s CMB s.c.r.l., Pordenone’s Technological Park, San Daniele del Friuli’s Agribusiness Park, Manzano’s ASDI Sedia and Tavagnacco’s DITEDI participation as local partners. Czech Invest (Czech Republic), SV-Oltenia Agency for Regional Development (Romania) and Murcia’s Instituto de Fomento Regionale (Spain) are CLUS3 Informest-peer international partners. As a consequence, Friuli’s regional clusters enter an international excellent cluster network that fosters integration capability and internationalization. The route just begun with the Bronze Label will prompt managerial efficiency in term of innovation, competitiveness and delivered services in order to be able to compete at a global scope.