Clustering innovation to create thriving and prosperous low carbon cities and regions
ConnectedClusters is an alliance of five city regions – Birmingham, Edinburgh, Frankfurt, London and Valencia – committed to accelerating the impact of climate innovation ecosystems.
When business, research, communities and government cluster together to deliver low-carbon innovation, it speeds up the emergence of clean, vibrantplaces to live and thrive. This is crucial to curbing dangerous climate change. And it drives local economic benefits.
We believe that stimulating these climate innovation clusters should be at the heart of infrastructure delivery, job creation and place-making for governments of all levels.
Between now and 2020, Climate-KIC’s ConnectedClusters project will enable this shift towards place-based climate innovation by developing new collaborative approaches to technology, procurement, investment and training.
Our Cluster Partners

Birmingham
The University of Birmingham is a founding partner of the Energy Capital cluster, the smart energy innovation partnership for the West Midlands. The partnership combines world-leading academic expertise with ambitious local authorities, diverse businesses, innovators and entrepreneurs to encourage clean energy investment and innovation and trial solutions in the real world.
Edinburgh
The Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation (ECCI) is the leading low carbon hub for Scotland and beyond. It’s at the heart of a climate innovation cluster that has enabled 40% national emissions reductions to date. ECCI is working with public and private sector partners to focus data and city investment on delivering a smart, thriving future.
Frankfurt
Provadis Business School offers courses focussed on technology-based services and finding solutions to high-tech industry challenges. It is located adjacent to Höchst Industrial Park, home to a wide variety of pharmaceutical and chemical industry companies. It will focus on circular economy solutions to reduce carbon and resource usage from industry.
London
The Greater London Authority is working to matchmake and broker new relationships across a burgeoning but geographically diffuse range of low carbon businesses across the city. The Mayor has identified cleantech as a key future growth sector and is working to support businesses, attract investment and accelerate the roll-out of sustainable solutions across Greater London.
Valencia
AVAESEN is a non-profit association of energy-related companies. Its Director-General, Bianca Dragomir, was recently named European Cluster Manager of the Year. She has transformed AVAESEN from a small renewable energy cluster into a much broader city region innovation cluster and think tank. It links public authorities with businesses and other stakeholders and decision-makers to drive change.
How we’re connecting clusters

Cluster analysis
We’re mapping our city region clusters to help reveal the challenges and opportunities ConnectedClusters can build on to increase impact across our own city regions and beyond.
Training
We’ll develop a comprehensive training programme to support city region clusters. It will help them become more effective at accessing capital, working collaboratively across sectors and providing leadership for systemic change.
Connecting supply and demand
We’ll host a series of networking and industry matchmaking events to link supply and demand-side organisations. Our clusters will collaborate and share good practice to accelerate delivery of low carbon solutions.
Foresighting
We’ll deliver in-depth studies on shared challenges and opportunities that city regions face in delivering climate solutions. This will enable clusters to plan and collaborate more effectively across the public and private sectors.
Events
We’re taking ConnectedClusters to key city, cluster and sustainability-focused events to share project opportunities and insights. Come and meet us!
News and blog
The first edition of TheCAP, Europe’s new cluster accelerator programme, took place 14-17 October 2019 at Frankfurt’s Provadis School of International Management and Technology.
Read MoreQueen Elizabeth Olympic Park drew on the expertise of EIT Climate-KIC and its partners to develop a Smart Sustainable District.
Read MoreConnectedClusters is a collaboration between EIT Climate-KIC partners in Edinburgh, London, Birmingham, Frankfurt and Valencia.
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