The Business and Construction Machinery Cluster (İŞİM) has won the Cluster Excellence Programme Project, the first of its kind in Turkey and one of only five projects worldwide, under the Competitiveness of Enterprises and SMEs Programme (COSME).
The Business and Construction Machinery Cluster (İŞİM) has won the Cluster Excellence Programme Project, the first of its kind in Turkey and one of only five projects worldwide, under the Competitiveness of Enterprises and SMEs Programme (COSME). The initial initiative for this project, the idea for the project application and the step of inviting consortium partners, was realized through the work of the İŞİM Cluster.
The İŞİM Cluster, which began its project work in August 2014, formed a consortium including three strong clusters from the UK, Spain, and Italy, and submitted its first application directly to the European Commission in Brussels on October 29, 2014. The European Commission announced on October 26, 2015, that the İŞİM Cluster was one of the winners of this support, which is part of the European Union's COSME Cluster Excellence Programme, awarded to only five organizations worldwide. The project commenced on January 1, 2016. For the first time, a cluster from Turkey successfully received this support, securing the maximum budget. With this project, İŞİM strengthened its Cluster Management Excellence and took its first step towards becoming a first-class cluster.
The project activities, which will last for two years, include participating in benchmarking activities, attending training sessions, identifying services provided to SMEs and organizing study visits, dissemination, impact analysis, and monitoring activities.
What is COSME Support?
SMEs play a vital role in achieving the goals of the Europe 2020 Strategy. Within the framework of the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP), in 2009 the European Commission launched the European Cluster Excellence Initiative (ECEI) to strengthen cluster excellence and create more first-class clusters.
The aim of the “Cluster Excellence Programme” call under the COSME Programme is to strengthen cluster management excellence by offering European SMEs more professional business networks through clusters, thereby contributing to the formation of world-class clusters.
The Cluster Excellence Programme was created by the European Commission under the COSME Programme, with a budget of €1.25 million allocated for its implementation, targeting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
In addition to management practices, the goals include improving market/competitiveness advantages or analytical capabilities, providing top-quality services to SMEs within their clusters; particularly integrating their creativity with their businesses, internationalization opportunities, better use and dissemination of Solution Delivery Technologies (SDTs), protection of Industrial Property Rights, and also providing solutions to other resource efficiency questions.
