Clusters in Portugal, Italy, the Netherlands and Germany provide some of the clearest examples of good practices for multi-stakeholder and cross-sectoral collaboration:

• The BlueBio Alliance in Portugal offers support to startups working in the “blue bioeconomy” (marine and coastal bioeconomy) through the Blue Demo Network, which promotes and makes accessible a set of Portuguese infrastructural supports for startups - these range from access to offices or laboratories for biotech and biochemistry to business incubators.
• The Spring cluster in Italy fosters the development of partnerships carrying out research activities along the entire bioeconomy value chain, equally involving public and private entities in calls for proposals at the regional, national and Horizon 2020 level. A Dutch subsidy regulation offers local governments and their partners expert support for the implementation of projects focused on greenhouse gas reduction and the circular economy.
• Since 2012 the region Central Germany has received additional funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) to develop Central Germany as a focal point for bioeconomy activities.

The clusters’ main challenges include:

• lack of dedicated bioeconomy strategies and/or legislative support mechanisms
• lack of national funding opportunities
• raw material supply shortage and lack of skilled workforce
• limited integration of bioeconomy products in mainstream supply chains
• lack of entrepreneurial culture
• difficulties in cross-sectoral collaboration due to logistical and “cultural” differences among sectors (differing financial models, ways of thinking etc.)

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