On June 5th a meeting with clusters’ coordinators took place in the Agency of Science, Innovation & Technology (MITA) which was part of the InoLink (Promotion & Development of Innovation Networking) project activities. The goal of this session was to discuss and define exact areas where Lithuanian business clusters still lack competences.

It was noticed that at this stage of clusters‘ development even clusters from different industries need similar sets of knowledge and skills to fully reach their potential. During the meeting the coordinators of the 8 clusters that are being coached under InoLink project actively participated in discussion and shared their insights. Experts say, that the outcomes of this meeting will in turn allow to organize events that are most needed and therefore will be more effective in promoting development and internationalization of Lithuanian clusters.

Coordinators of clusters (IVITA, LAUGEA, Lithuanian Plastics Cluster, LITEK, NEBULA, Uzupis Creative Cluster) admitted that they need to learn how to effectively create the added value in their cluster and get more insights on how every member of respective cluster could use this membership to their best advantage. It was agreed that events covering specific to clusters communication and marketing topics would be especially useful. Topics could range from what and how to communicate internally and externally in clusters to how members of the cluster could effectively integrate cluster communication into their PR and marketing strategy. Moreover, it was decided that other informational events should focus on cluster development practices and emphasize good practices in innovation management, explain particularities of the product development process in the cluster, inform about international cooperation in R&D, discuss ways to strengthen value chain, etc.

InoLink is EU funded measure of the project Inogeb LT and is coordinated by MITA along with Lithuanian Innovation Centre.