Cluster model

The initiators of the cluster were representatives from the public, private for-profit, civic non-profit, R&D&I and education and nature and biodiversity promotion stakeholders at that time mainly from the Split Dalmatia County but with an idea to go beyond the local, regional and national level. Namely, CEDRA Cluster has been founded by establishment of the first regional cluster organization in Split, CEDRA Split and then national organization CEDRA HR in Zagreb.

In 2015, CEDRA Split founded a limited liability company, CEDRA Split Ltd. which was soon registered in the Croatian register of business support organizations and an entrepreneurial centre providing services to public, civic and private organizations, including especially social enterprises, SMEs, civil society organizations, local and regional governments, and public institutions such as those dealing with natural and cultural heritage protection and promotion. In this way, this was the first hybrid cluster structure in Croatia creating a eco-socio-economic innovation, development and enterprising support organization of this kind in Croatia and wider region.

The cluster activities included education, consultancy, program and project development, strategic and action planning, management and good governance model development and support especially for different cases where there was a need for multistakeholder cooperation, partnership and value chain creation.

CEDRA Split is today member of the DIESIS Network as well as of the European Cluster Collaboration Platform. It is recognized by the DG GROW and international cluster community as one the disruptive and radical eco-socio-economic and technological innovation-oriented clusters integrating ideas, efforts and initiatives of the eco-socio-economic impact driven stakeholders with the ideas of wise agile integrated and regenerative development of the local and regional environmental, social, economic, and technological ecosystems.

Quintuple helix cluster model involves private, public, R&D&I, civic and ecosystem protection and regeneration stakeholders in a long-term oriented strategic and tactic project- and program-based cooperation integrating sectors, territories and stakeholders from sectors such as education, R&D&I, business support, investment and financing, government, local action groups, fishery local actions groups, tourism, mobility, nature protection institutions, museums, agriculture, real-estate, etc.

Most of the multistakeholder engagement processes are around co-creation of the projects, programs, strategies, action and management plans, wicked problem solution design and innovation value chain product and services co-creation. All these initiatives are aligned with the European Green Deal and New European Bauhaus policies, as well as UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Cluster model is based on the freemium model that enables stakeholder engagement, networking and thematic clustering around their topics of interest. The clustering is initiated by process of mapping the interests, needs, resources, constraints, initiatives, opportunities and potentials. This is done either through individual or bilateral mapping exercises or multistakeholder wise creative workshops structured as an intensive agile co-creative hackathon or so called wise Creathon.

Hackathons are normally used in the startup, digital and high-tech development initiatives and communities as a methodology to co-create a new solution, product or service by engaging relevant expertise, resources and stakeholders in collaborative mostly 1-3 day physical, online or hybrid events.

However, the wise Creathon model involves events that gather stakeholders from multiple sectors in collaborative intensive events whose outputs are collaborative projects, programs, investment, but also improvement of existing or co-creation of new products, services and value chains activating the synergy of the guided multistakeholder processes. Also, some of the outputs are structured around strategic development frameworks, such as agile integrated and mutually interconnected strategic programs and projects that are used for stakeholder inspiration, guidance and clustering around topics such as regenerative integrated mobility, tourism, bioeconomy, multifunctional green, blue, grey and digital infrastructures, spatial development, etc.

These models and methodologies are now used at the local, regional, macroregional and international level to develop trans-disciplinary, trans-sectoral and trans-regional projects.

This process in illustrated in the image below: