all projects

Clusters as drivers of regional development – Silesia

Client

European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency

Year

2022

Partner

IMP³ROVE, European Clusters Alliance, InPulse Partners SRL, Agrifood Lithuania, Eurada, IN-TRACTO, LOW, VDI/VDE


There are 22 cluster organisations in the Polish Śląskie Voivodeship (Silesia), of which 11 have registered on the European Cluster Collaboration Platform (ECCP). This makes Silesia one of the regions in Poland with the most cluster organisations.

Future engine of innovation

Silesia is traditionally an industrial region where most people work in mining. However, in recent years, the economy has diversified and the services sector is growing.

In the EU’s Regional Innovation Scoreboard of 2021, Silesia is classified as an “Emerging Innovator.” In terms of the number of people employed in knowledge-intensive areas, the region is above the national average.

In its Smart Specialisation Strategy 2021–2027, Silesia has focused on the following five areas: energy, health/medicine, sustainable economy, information and communication technologies, and emerging industries such as the creative industries and mobility.

Our mission

The aim of the ECCP, an initiative of the European Union, is to strengthen the European economy through cooperation. The ECCP helps cluster organisations in Europe and beyond to network, communicate, and collaborate.

As part of the consortium led by IMP³ROVE, Prognos is driving forward the development of the platform into a single point of contact for cluster organisations in Europe. Among other things, we are responsible for producing input papers for regional workshops. In November 2022, the third “Clusters meet Regions” event took place in Katowice, for the occasion of which we wrote this input paper.

Our approach

The input paper for the event “Cluster as driving forces for regional development and growth – taking Silesia as an example,” first describes the economic structure of the region. In the second chapter, the cluster organisations in Silesia are presented and their significance for regional economic development is highlighted. The third chapter deals with cross-border cooperation between clusters and their networking within the EU. The final chapter discusses the region’s smart specialisation strategies for the periods 2014–2020 and 2021–2027.

Links and downloads

Read the investigation (PDF, clustercollaboration.eu)

Project team: Dr Jan-Philipp Kramer, Marie-Kristin Komendzinski, Lennart Galdiga, Maximilian Welford, Fabian Schmidt

Last update: 27.03.2023

Do you have questions?

Your contact at Prognos

Dr Jan-Philipp Kramer

Partner, Head of EU Services

View profile

Mehr Studien & Projekte zu diesem Thema

More studies & projects on this topic

Mid-term evaluation of the Single Market Programme (SMP)

2025
| Project

The Single Market Programme promotes the EU internal market in order to strengthen it, standardise it and make it more competitive. Prognos was involved in the mid-term evaluation of the programme.

Socially just transition to climate neutrality in the EU

ongoing
| Project

To facilitate the transition to a climate-neutral economy, Prognos is supporting the European Commission in implementing the European Fair Transition Observatory (EFTO).

Data for environmental policy: core economic sectors redefined

2025
| Project

Prognos developed a methodology for Eurostat for regular data collection for the European Environmental Goods and Services Sector (EGSS).

Mid-term evaluation of the Programme Interreg Bavaria-Czech Republic 2021-2027

2025
| Project

We conducted a mid-term evaluation of the Programme Interreg Bavaria-Czech Republic 2021-2027 on behalf of the Bavarian State Ministry of Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy.

Strengthening European cohesion policy through REGIO Peer2Peer

ongoing
| Project

The Peer2Peer communities are a network of representatives from regional and national authorities in all EU Member States. Prognos recently took over the management of the Circular Economy Community.

Industrial clusters for net-zero technologies in the European Union

ongoing
| Project

As part of the Net-Zero Industry Act, we are working with our partners to conceptualise Net-Zero Acceleration Valleys for the European Commission.

Smart specialisation in Turkey's regions

ongoing
| Project

Prognos supports the CEDIS3 project. The aim is to enable national and regional stakeholders in Turkey to develop and implement viable strategies for smart specialisation.

The future of the
global economic order

2025
| Project

The current global economic order is faltering. What does this mean for Germany and the EU? We have developed various scenarios for the future global economy for the vbw.

European Union: From the fossil fuel economy to the bioeconomy

ongoing
| Project

The EU Commission commissioned Prognos, Idea Consult and the nova-Institute to research and promote the transition to a bioeconomy in the European Union.

Prognos article in the European magazine TerritoriALL

2025
| Project update

What impact do global crises have on regional labour markets? The 15th issue of TerritoriALL magazine reports on the OVERLAP project carried out by Prognos.

About us

Prognos – Providing Orientation.

Prognos is one of the oldest economic research centres in Europe. Founded at the University of Basel, Prognos experts have been conducting research for a wide range of clients from the public and private sectors since 1959 – politically independent, scientifically sound.

Learn more