Compounding to modify polyolefin materials was the first project initiated by the Plastics Cluster (KC, Linz / Austria; www.kunststoff-cluster.at ) ten years ago. Most recently the cluster has turned its attention to biopolymers. Since January 2008 a six-nation team has been engaged in fundamental research into biopolymers through the "Cornet" project. “Overall, the cluster has fostered 94 collaboration projects,” reports manager Werner Pamminger, who joined as a project manager in 1999, shortly after its establishment.

Austria’s second cluster – the first being an automotive cluster – was founded on 1 April 1999 for an eighteen-month period with funding of around ATS 15.5m (around EUR 1.1m). By the end of the first year it had proven exceptionally successful: 201 companies had joined network within this short period.

The cluster now comprises more than 400 companies with a total of 60,376 employees and combined sales of EUR 14.9 bn. “It is the largest cross-sector network of its kind in Europe,” said regional economics minister Viktor Sigl at a press conference in Linz on 31 March 2009. 12% of funding comes from the regional government and the remainder is generated by the cluster itself.