Civil Engineering Reference
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project are also duly represented. The projects of clusters are defined by the firms
and the governance of the clusters is also defined and run by the firms, according
the specificities of each local context. The government is involved through the
incentive process it has defined, through a selection process, and though the top-
down pressures and organizational role exerted by its local representative when
necessary. The governing entity of the clusters is organized by an Association (law
1901), which consists of a general assembly, administrative council, secretariat,
president, vice president, and director. The Association has its own legal entities,
financed by the State or local governments. The main duties of the Association are
to define and implement the overall project of development of the pole, and to
foster, evaluate, and select R&D projects submitted for public financing dedicated
to the clusters of competitiveness policy. In addition, its main duty is to manage
the cluster, the Association deals with external relations including any cooperation
with other clusters.
Each competitiveness cluster draws up a 5-year plan, which can be used as a
basis to: (i) develop partnerships between the various stakeholders based on their
complementary skills; (ii) establish strategic R&D projects that can benefit from
public funding, particularly the Interministerial Fund (FUI); (iii) promote a suit-
able ecosystem of innovation via knowledge-sharing and mutual support among
cluster members on topics such as training and human resources, intellectual
property, private-sector financing, and international development cooperation.
Therefore, the government strongly supports competitiveness clusters initiatives
by providing financial assistance such as: grants for outstanding R&D projects
(financed by the Single Interministerial Fund and the Investments for the Future
Programme), they partially finance the clusters governance (alongside local gov-
ernments and firms) and provide financial support for theme-based collective
actions initiated by clusters in a wide range of areas, via the various Regional
Directorates for Industry, Research and the Environment (DRIRE). In 2006, the
Government created the Single Interministerial Fund (FUI), involving six different
ministries (the Ministries of Industry, Defence, Infrastructures, Agriculture, Health
and Spatial Planning), to finance collaborative R&D projects in the competitive-
ness clusters. The government also brought additional public institutions on board
including: the French National Research Agency (ANR) and OSEO who provide
financing for R&D projects, and the Caisse des Dépˆ ts et Consignations (CDC) to
support innovation platform projects; and other local government agencies who
may also provide financial support for cluster projects, both for R&D and inno-
vation platforms. At an international level, the government helps the competi-
tiveness clusters and their member firms find the best international partners and
set-up technological partnerships.
From 2005 to 2011, more than €4.3 billion of public funds have been allocated
to support 5,750 R&D projects in the competitiveness clusters. This amount is not
taking in consideration the contribution made by local governments. During the
first phase, from 2005 to 2008, the French Government mobilized funds amounting
€1.5 billion to support the competitiveness clusters. This amount consists of
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