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EU-Japan Regional Cluster Forum

The "EU-Japan Regional Cluster Forum" will take place on the December 2-3, 2008 and forms part of the "Annual Cluster Japan 2008" event. It will consist of symposia and a large exhibition of all officially supported Japanese Knowledge and Industrial Clusters.

The main objective is to build cooperation between European and Japanese research and innovation regional clusters.

Globalisation of research and innovation and global competition are putting a new emphasis on the role of regional clusters and further their development. Clusters increasingly see the need to link with other clusters on the international level building on complementarities in order to improve their global reach.

In Europe, regional clusters are seen as key drivers for competitiveness, innovation and regional development and there exist several national-level measures and EU-level support instruments (e.g. the 7th EU Research Framework Programme, the Cohesion Policy Funds and the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme).

In Japan, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport, Science and Technology (MEXT) and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) have been promoting the "Knowledge Cluster Initiative",the "City Area Program" and the "Industrial Cluster Project" for the reinforcement of the international competitiveness and development of regions.

The objective of the EU-Japan Regional Cluster Forum is to stimulate and facilitate global outreach of European and Japanese clusters. The organizers hope to increase the mutual awareness on cluster policies, development methods and management practices, and to foster cooperation between research and innovation regional clusters in Europe and in Japan.

More information can be found on http://www.eurojapan-ict.org/news.html#01