Patterns for International Cooperation between Innovation Clusters. Cases of CFAA and ruhrvalley

Abstract

Initiatives such as "Industry 4.0" in Germany and "Basque Industry 4.0" in the Basque Country (Spain) have been helping companies to be competitive in the fast-changing environment and evolving markets. However, it would not be possible to achieve those goals without a close collaboration between applied research enabled by Higher Education Institutions (HEI) and companies from different industries. This collaboration contributes significantly to research, development and innovation processes facilitated by the exchange of knowledge and technology. Innovation clusters like CFAA (Zamudio, Spain) and ruhrvalley (Herne, Germany) are successful cases of collaboration strategies between industry, HEIs and government. Even though the first research partnership focuses on advanced aeronautical manufacturing, and the second one on renewable energy and electromobility, they share the same scope of research, development and innovation (R&D&I) projects realisation. Therefore, these R&D&I institutions share the common language of project management in the field of Industry 4.0. This article focuses on the systematic analysis of common elements of two innovation clusters and the finding of patterns towards collaboration between them, which can lead to the improvement of local ecosystems of the involved parties.