Cluster Programs as Present Cluster Financing Instruments

In many countries of the European Union but also in many other countries around the world, funding clusters through cluster programs is becoming an important source of support for clusters in the country. The cluster program at a national or regional level allocates funding, creates organizational support and defines the rules for drawing support clusters. The cluster programs are significantly different based on co-funding, the duration of the cluster program, but also on the amount of the cluster program budget and on maximum amount of support available for the cluster. Similarly the cluster programs differ in the focus of their activities and in the objectives the clusters work to fulfill. The contents of this paper include the basic parameters of the optimal cluster program in Slovakia, principles on which programs should be based on, and which successful programs in the European Union and in the world could influence and help to define them.