55 of the most active Romanian clusters

Founded in 2011, CLUSTERO is the representative body of Romanian clusters and the main platform of cooperation, exchange of information and support towards the development of the national cluster landscape based on innovation and internationalization.

We offer

Regular information on regulations regarding the clusters’ activity, sources and possibilities of financing, events, etc.

Support and consulting for the establishment, development and collaboration within and between clusters through network formation

Supports for interests at national level in their relations with national and international bodies (the Romanian Government, the EU, etc.)

Cluster performance monitoring and assessment, courses and specific trainings.

Become a member

Main challenges

Enhancing innovation and internationalization

We support our members by means of organizing business reviews and innovation audits at the level of cluster SMEs.

Supporting
excellence

Specific trainings with renowned international organisations such as France Clusters or Business Upper Austria etc.

Fostering international
exchange

The Romanian Cluster Association organizes an international annual conference as well as other regional and international events.

Recognition of the cluster status

Given the current level of cluster development in Romania, the need for an clusters information update for a better promotion at international level (CLUSTERO website, European Cluster Collaboration Platform, etc.) and a “inflationist” trend in using the term cluster for defining various structures, with negative impact on clusters of Romania caused by the risk of diluting the concept, the Romanian Cluster Association, as a community of best practice representative at national and international level, together with the Ministry of Economy, have developed a set of minimum criteria for the recognition of the cluster status.

This approach is not normative nor binding, nor seeks in any way to hinder free association of SMEs and the creation of new clusters; on the contrary, it wishes to strengthen the clustering phenomenon in Romania by introducing qualitative and quantitative standards based on national and European practice. In addition, CLUSTERO is available to all who wish to obtain this recognition by providing expert support.

Get accreditation

Clusters in Romania

In Romanian legislation clusters are defined in the Government Decision 918:2006 – Impact Programme, according to which clusters are groupings of producers, users and/or beneficiaries aiming at transferring EU good practice in order to increase the competitiveness of industrial partners.

At the beginning of 2025, 77 cluster initiatives were recorded by the Directorate for Industrial Policy and Environment of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business Environment, body which is responsible for the cluster development as part of the industrial policy.

A part of the cluster support organisations ensuring cluster management services have been benchmarked by the European Secretariat for Cluster Analysis (www.esca.eu) on an international scale. The cluster landscape in Romania can be summarised as follows:

77

National cluster intiatives

55

CLUSTERO Members

41

ESCA Bronze Labeled Clusters

13

ESCA Silver Labeled Clusters

7

ESCA Gold Labeled Clusters

The cluster concept

Michael Porter is considered today “The Spiritus Rector” of the economic policy based on cluster development and the one that formulated the following definition: “Clusters are geographic concentrations of interconnected companies and institutions, from a particular field. Clusters include a group of related industries and other important entities in terms of competition. These include, for example, suppliers of specialized inputs such as components, machinery and services, or providers of specialized infrastructure. Often, clusters extend downstream to various distribution channels and customers and laterally to manufacturers of complementary products and to industries related by skills, technologies or common inputs.

Finally, some clusters, i.e. the innovative clusters, include governmental and other institutions – such as universities, research institutes, standards agencies, think tanks, vocational training providers and employers – that provide specialized training, education, information, research and technical support”. (Porter M., 1998).

In the European Commission’s Communication COM (2008) 652 / 2008 „Towards world class clusters in the European Union, the implementation of the strategy based on innovation”, clusters are defined as a group of enterprises, adjacent economic actors and institutions localized in territorial proximity and which have achieved the requested size needed for the development of specialized expertise, services, abilities and suppliers.