Last year turned to be important for Lithuanian clusters and their milestones. The European Secretariat for Cluster Analysis (ESCA) awarded 8 more clusters with the Bronze Label of the European Cluster Excellence Initiative which brings the total number of benchmarked clusters in Lithuania to record high.

“At the beginning of last year we had just 2 certified clusters and therefore we are excited about the growing number of clusters driven towards excellence and maturity. They have more opportunities to expand abroad and are getting more competitive internationally,” says Kęstutis Šetkus, Director of Lithuanian Agency for Science, Innovation and Technology. According to him, it is expected that at least 2 clusters will get Silver Labels this year.

Total of 10 Bronze Labels

Lithuanian clusters that are currently benchmarked by ESCA represent various industries ranging from energy and environment to health and medical science: FETEK, LitCare, LITEK Laser & Engineering Technologies Cluster, Lithuanian Automotive Export Association (LAuGEA), Lithuanian Plastic Cluster, LTFood, PrefabLT, Smart Food Cluster, Vilnius Film Cluster, iVita.

All of these clusters are focusing on export and expansion of their international presence. Labels of management excellence positively influence reputation of these relatively young clusters and show hard work that was put in. “Benchmarking created great opportunities to review our management strategy and improve our processes. We are glad that we do things right and our work standards match the standards set by European community,” says Julius Paužolis, the coordinator of Laser & Engineering Technologies Cluster, which recently was awarded with the Bronze Label.

Project focused on clusters

All 8 Lithuanian clusters that were recently benchmarked take part in the project Promotion and Development of Innovation Networking (InoLink) which is coordinated by MITA and funded by the European Fund for Regional Development. The project is being implemented together with the Lithuanian Innovation Centre (LIC) and aims to encourage companies to merge into clusters, to increase cluster maturity, to promote their growth and international collaboration.