Clusters on the path to ESCA Certification: a shared journey of growth and quality

The Innovation Clusters of Piedmont have launched a structured process of organizational and strategic strengthening aimed at obtaining ESCA certification, in accordance with the standards defined by the European Secretariat for Cluster Analysis. This initiative confirms a concrete commitment to increasingly robust, internationally recognized cluster management models aligned with European best practices.

The ESCA certification process is an independent assessment tool that evaluates the quality, competencies, and reliability of clusters based on criteria shared at European level. For the Sistema Poli, this pathway primarily means raising the overall standard of the regional ecosystem, strengthening its competitiveness and providing an additional guarantee of quality to companies, stakeholders, and international partners. It enhances the visibility of the value delivered through cluster services and reinforces the role of the Poli as strategic nodes within innovation value chains.

The certification journey goes beyond a formal evaluation. It supports the clusters in a shared growth process: it highlights the strengths of each organization, identifies areas for improvement, and turns them into development opportunities, ultimately leading to official recognition of the quality of work carried out.

Communicating this journey is an integral part of the project. It means emphasizing that the strengthening of the Sistema Poli is not limited to technologies and infrastructure, but also concerns the organizational capacity, strategic positioning, and governance capabilities of the clusters themselves.

The expected outcome is a stronger, more competent, and more widely recognized Sistema Poli — increasingly competitive at the European level.