For several years now, IKV has been a member of the "go-cluster" program – the cluster excellence initiative of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi), which combines and funds the best national innovation clusters. These funding activities also include the evaluation of the cluster management by the European Cluster Excellence Initiative (ECEI). This year, IKV – which for some years now has had the "Bronze Label" – underwent the assessment process for the "Silver Label" by the European Secretariat for Cluster Analysis (ESCA) – and was successful.
For a period of two years, IKV now has the right to use the Silver quality seal and thus verify the high quality and efficiency of its cluster management. The assessment was made on the basis of uniform evaluation criteria oriented to the European quality standards. These standards consist, for example, of assessments of the structure, organisation, strategy and financing of the cluster. In the benchmarking process for the Silver Label, IKV had to prove that, within the last two years, significant improvements have been made in various fields so that a further development has been achieved with an increase in quality. The yardstick for the highest quality is the Gold Label, which can be obtained in a subsequent assessment.
The "go-cluster" program supports a total of nearly 90 innovation clusters from all the regions of Germany by offering a variety of advantages. These include, for example, participation in seminars on topical matters of clusters and management, public presentations of cluster activities and selected success stories on innovation projects, and networking activities with the most efficient innovation clusters from Germany and Europe. The aim is to improve the efficiency of the cluster management and thus of the cluster.