nowEurope

As Vit Skala and Guenther Krumpak have pointed out, a cluster is not just a heap of companies, but rather a strong cooperation among companies coordinated by a facilitator or cluster manager. However financing cluster management is not a simple issue.

As my fellow contributors have pointed out, clusters do not generally work by themselves. Professional coordination and management are crucial to ensure success.

In Western Hungary, most clusters were born from public initiatives. Usually EU or national public funds finance the establishment of these clusters and cover the costs of the management throughout the project lifespan.

Certainly public funding is necessary in the first phase, when the cluster management must excite the interest of potential members and finance the first common activities. However when public funding ends, it may be difficult to finance further cluster activity.

In Hungary, the western part of the country leads cluster development with 10+ active clusters, so we have several examples from which to learn.

The first Hungarian cluster, Pannon Automotive Cluster, was formed in 2000 by the Regional Development Agency. Having completed several successful projects (FP6, Interreg etc) the Regional Development Agency is currently seeking a partner to take over managing the cluster, due to lack of further funding.

Some clusters have ceased their operation (e.g. Pannon Fruit Cluster) or have simply ceased their cooperation altogether due to lack of financial resources.

Certainly most clusters try to start business services, and ideally the profits of such business may finance further cooperation. However, this is not the case for many clusters.

I wonder whether cluster management in other regions could be financed by membership fees, services and/or common businesses.