Davide Chiaroni - Böcker

This book presents the results of Cleverbio, a project funded by the European Commission. The project examined the process of growth and development of clusters in the biotech industry, identifying and studying the main driving forces. The empirical work involved in-depth analysis of five clusters at different stages of development: Cambridge, the most important cluster in Europe; Heidelberg, one of the strongest in Germany; Aarhus in Denmark; Marseille in France; and Milano in Italy at an early stage of development. Other clusters were also analysed, such as Paris-Evry (France), Uppsala (Sweden), Biovalley (Switzerland), Bay Area and San Diego (US).The ultimate aim of Cleverbio has been to build a normative model that incorporates:• the preconditions for a cluster to grow (scientific base and/or industrial base, innovative financing, etc.);• the driving forces for cluster growth and development, i.e. the key factors of development (new company creation, IP rules, acceptance of biotech products, services and infrastructures, etc.);• best practices in cluster management (barrier removal, network creation, marketing, technology transfer, etc.).The book also identifies different forms of cluster creation. In some cases clusters were born and grew spontaneously as a consequence of the original co-presence of the key success factors (spontaneous clusters); in other cases they were born of the actions of public actors (industry restructuring and industry development policies). Finally, in a few cases, the process of clustering started as a result of a combination of different original conditions (hybrid clusters).

This book deals with sustainable affordable housing in developing countries, providing the main results of the BECOMe research project of the Politecnico di Milano. Sustainable, affordable housing in developing countries is increasingly important for African and international stakeholders, with massive urbanization processes involving many countries consuming large territories and natural resources minus any strategy of sustainability and social equality and without consideration of the long-term effects on the environment and subsequent generations. While the issue of affordable housing requires approaches adapted to the many specific African contexts, the case of Somalia seems representative of a fragile context characterized by the uncertainty of the social, political, and economic situations and the lack of common shared legislative references and strategies. The book aims to provide knowledge and propose a methodological framework developed from this particular situation that canserve as a template. On the basis of this main objective, the book deals with approaches and problems related to the creation of sustainable housing ecosystems, activating and boosting local enterprises and stimulating foreign investors to revamp the national AEC sector and related manufacturing industries, models for modular settlements, and business models and assessment methodologies useful for evaluating a set of appropriate technological solutions.Chapters 03 and 07 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.