Hamburg unites Europe’s aviation clusters

For Europe’s aviation industry, it is becoming increasingly important to tap its full innovation potential to stand its ground in global competition. To strengthen the industry’s position in a joint effort, the Aviation Cluster of the Hamburg Metropolitan Area has initiated the European Aerospace Cluster Partnership (EACP), which it will co-ordinate in the future. Highly reputed representatives of 24 European aerospace organisations attend today’s initiation event and signing of the Letter of Intent (LOI) at Hamburg Airport’s Terminal Tango. EACP members will be, among others, the aerospace clusters “Aerospace Valley” and „Pôle Pégase“ from France as well as the Italian aerospace cluster „CampaniAerospace“ with whom Hamburg already has bilateral cooperation agreements. The founding of the European Aerospace Cluster Partnership is co-financed by the European Commission.

Carsten Frigge, Secretary of the State Ministry of Economic and Labour Affairs and Hamburg Aviation Co-ordinator comments: “Each EACP region and cluster possesses a unique combination of skills, competences, and technologies. By combining our knowledge, we can complement and extend each cluster’s competences and thus form a strong basis for our joint efforts for excellence. What is most important in this process is dialogue and co-operation, sharing and learning, and I am very happy to see representatives from 24 European aerospace organizations here in Hamburg willing to do just that.”

The EACP will act as a platform for mutual exchange, a launch pad for trans-national projects, and a window of the industry. In the long term, the EACP is envisioned as the key partner for the European Commission for all topics regarding aerospace cluster policy and industry-specific issues. Andreas Richter, Head of the Division Industry and Technology at the Hamburg State Ministry for Economic and Labour Affairs and Cluster Manager of the Hamburg Aviation Cluster who signs the Letter of Intent for the Aviation Cluster of the Hamburg Metropolitan Area: “Our main target is to strengthen Europe’s position in the highly competitive global market, especially in regard to our largest competitors, i.e. the United States of America and the emerging markets Brazil, Russia, India, and China, also known as BRIC states. To achieve this goal, we will not only have to harmonise and expand the European market, but also to enable all participating aviation clusters to achieve peak performances.”

The importance of today’s foundation ceremony for the future of Europe’s aviation industry was emphasised by Dr. Christian Ketels from the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness at the Harvard Business School in Boston (USA) in his talk on international co-operations of cluster initiatives: “The dispersion of Europe’s aerospace industry across many locations has often been brandished as a key competitive disadvantage versus the industry’s global rivals. While consolidation in fewer strong clusters remains crucial, Europe’s economic fundamentals will continue to result in more aerospace clusters than elsewhere. The collaboration across these clusters is crucial to turn this combination of different capabilities and assets across Europe into a competitive advantage, and reduce the costs of the geographic distance between them.”

That networks across borders are an essential part of today’s and tomorrow’s development cycle was underlined by Prof. Joachim Szodruch, German Aerospace Center (DLR). “Air transport today operates on a global scale and is a major economical factor worldwide. Research, innovation and industrialisation for successful and competitive aerospace products increasingly need the support and cooperation on an international basis.”

Trans-national co-operation is not new to Hamburg. Bilateral co-operation agreements have already been entered with the aviation cluster “Aerospace Valley” of the French regions Midi-Pyrénées and Aquitaine, the “Pôle Pégase” cluster of the PACA (Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur) region and the aviation cluster of the Italian Campania region “Campania Aerospace”. Since 2006, the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg has also been closely networking with various inter-sector industry clusters throughout Europe and North America in the frame of the EU project CLUNET to share its know-how and experiences on cluster policy. To improve networking between Europe’s aerospace locations, the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg now took up the initiative and launched the EACP.

To allow small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) to also benefit from this partnership, members of EACP not only comprise regional cluster organisations, but also industry associations, which act as local clusters, and development corporations representing regional aviation industry. The two Hamburg-based associations Hanse-Aerospace e. V. and HECAS e. V. thus are intensively involved. “Hanse Aerospace has a broad experience with clusters in Europe and many very close relationships to regional associations, based on a M.o.U. (Memorandum of Understanding)”, reports Uwe Gröning, First Chairman Hanse-Aerospace e. V. “I am sure that we will be able to contribute significantly to this new partnership. If we treat each other as partners – even if there is competition – we are sure that in a few years and training in all objectives defined in the EACP concept, the benefit for all participants will be evident.”

There will be three working groups: 1.) “Internationalisation”, led by Thilo Schönfeld, aviation cluster Aerospace Valley from Toulouse; 2.) “Funding”, led by Andrzej Rybka, Aviation Valley from Rzeszow; 3.) “Skills and Qualification”, led by Ingrid Schilling-Kaletsch, Head of the Qualification Programme Network of the Joint Initiative “Hamburg – The Place for Aviation”.

In Europe, Hamburg is regarded as a centre of competence for the initial and secondary training in aero-technical professions. Long before other locations focused on the training of talents, the Qualification Programme Task Force founded in 2000 developed initial and secondary training, special study courses, training programmes for young talents, and other recruitment schemes custom-tailored for the aviation industry. Only recently, the topping-out ceremony of HCAT Hamburg Centre of Aviation Training (HCAT) was celebrated – Europe’s first co-operate training facility of the aviation industry, universities, and vocational schools.

Also in regard to cluster strategies, Hamburg is literally excellent. Last year, the Aviation Cluster of the Hamburg Metropolitan Area was named winner in the Federal Ministry of Education and Research’s nationwide cross-sector ”Spitzencluster” competition. Its integrated development strategy on “New Flying” - more efficient, more ecologic, more comfortable, reliable, and flexible, covering the entire life cycle of civil aircraft, convinced the judges..

Walter Birkhan, Cluster Manager HWF Hamburg Development Corporation and Project Head of the Joint Initiative “Hamburg – The Place for Aviation” says: “The Spitzencluster competition has incited us to also expand the international co-operations for the benefits of the aviation industry of the Hamburg Metropolitan Area. With the establishment of the European Aerospace Cluster Partnership, the co-operation among Europe’s aviation clusters receives an important stimulus. A major milestone towards a European world-class cluster, the co-operation will enhance the competitiveness of all partners, and especially of the medium-sized supplying industry.”

The establishment of the European Aerospace Cluster Partnership is co-financed by the European Commission. Nikos Pantalos, Senior Level Policy Officer of the European Commission, comments on the EU support for the EACP: “Clusters are recognised as promising platforms for promoting innovation and strengthening the competitiveness of firms, especially of SMEs, to better face the global competition, and create more jobs and companies in the EU. Many cluster initiatives have being developed at national and regional level to support clusters but there is a need for striving for more excellence and cooperation at EU level in order to develop more world-class clusters in EU countries.”