“K
nowledge Clusters”, the Regional Program of Innovative Actions in Western Macedonia, is a worthy endeavour to knowledge-based soci-
ety. The main efforts of the programme focus upon the following principles: • Re-conversion of the traditional cost-based clusters into knowledgebased clusters • Development of new clusters based on the creation and accumulation of knowledge • Improvement of the competitiveness of regional S.M.E.’s clusters, through horizontal pilot actions that significantly assist and sustain the clusters efforts. These directions have the capacity to strengthen the creativity and productivity and boost the regional entrepreneurship towards a brighter future. In that sense, «Knowledge Clusters» is even more important, as it will pave the way for other regional attempts to overcome the structural deficit of an Objective 1 Region and secure its sustainable development. As these efforts are more or less also undertaken by all the other Greek Regions, we consider it very important to broaden our horizons, by providing a collection of short description of all these Innovative Actions in our country. This pool of examples, covering a wide spectrum of strategies and pilot actions, will provide the Coordinators of the Actions of our Program with further ideas and concepts, but, at the same time, it will give the Greek Regions the opportunity to know more about the various Innovative Programs. Thus, I hope that this publication will contribute towards the increase of knowledge for all actors involved in the Innovation process and that this will provide a new perspective for the regional economies and serve as an example for further future interventions in other sectors and fields of activity.
Andreas Leoudis General Secretary - Region of Dytiki Makedonia