The European Polymer Converting Industry (EPCI) is a major European industry, comprising 50,000 companies - of which 85% are SMEs - and 1.4 million employees (source: EuPC 2008).
CLUSTERPLAST will set-up of a Joint Action Plan (JAP)
designed to promote synergies between the local/regional authorities, business entities and research organisations from the 6 European regions. The JAP will support technology-led development in the regions, encouraging innovation through collaboration between RTD infrastructures and companies, stimulating new enterprise, attracting new investment through a number of varied initiatives, and coordinating actions to ensure consistent use of public and private funding.
In order to tackle CLUSTERPLAST’s ambitious objectives, a powerful consortium has been formed. It consists of 15 partners from local authorities, business entities and research centres, from 6 European countries:
- 4 existing research-driven clusters: Clusterland (Austria), Proplast (Italy), Plastipolis (France), Centimfe, Cefamol , Open, Ist, Marinha-Grande (Portugal)
- 2 existing research-driven clusters: Ticzlin e Plastr (Czech Republic), Ua, Impiva, Avep (Spain)
The development of a Joint Action Plan will go a long way to meeting the defined goals, constituting a major deliverable of the project. It will promote further integration of R&D and scientific activities at a European level, eliminate duplication of work, and exploit complementary skills and knowledge, in line with the European Research Area Objective. The Joint Action Plan will cover sharing of RTD infrastructures, knowledge transfer, mobility, selection and support of research projects, fostering of entrepreneurship, education and training strategies, and mutual learning and mentoring strategies.
First dissemination event and technical conference "Latest trends on moulding temperatures conditioning control" - September 24th 2009.
Download here the programme of the event.
Clusterplast is supported by the European Commission through its Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) for Research and Technology Development., Grant Agreement N. 230019
