North Rhine-Westphalia Healthcare Cluster Management

The healthcare industry in the Region of Aachen is a part of the cluster “North Rhine-Westphalia Healthcare Cluster Management” (CGW.NRW), which is a project funded by the European Union via the European Regional Development Fund and the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Cluster NRW supports the following regional activities:

• Mutual exchange of information on current network activities
• Experience exchange focussing on the strategic orientation and network management
• Selection, development and implementation of projects and co-operations between regions
• Identification of themes and tasks, that should be managed on state level
• Support for joint commercialisation of the region

The cooperation and integration of the NRW clusters in one supervising cluster is supposed to increase the competitiveness of the healthcare industry throughout NRW and to generate synergy-effects between the initiatives.

The cluster North Rhine-Westphalia connects the cluster developments in the six Health Regions Aachen, Cologne/Bonn, Münster, East Westphalia-Lippe, Ruhr Metropolis, South Westphalia (State 06/2009) with cluster developments in future fields of the health industry, like medical technologies, future hospital or health care and rehabilitation. As drivers of innovation the developing and strengthening of co-operations between local and regional players in the healthcare industry is the main priority.

The cluster management and the six health regions worked out a programme for strategic and cluster development in the respective regions. Knowledge and results gained in this area will also be used for nationwide activities. Co-operations within the regions are welcomed and supported by the cluster management. Information exchange among partners is guaranteed by several meetings of the working group Health Regions.

www.gesundheitswirtschaft-nrw.de