- to improve the European Commission’s and the Member States’ understanding of modern policy responses in support of cluster excellence;
- to identify and further analyse successful and unsuccessful practices in support of clusters, and make recommendations on how to better design cluster policies in the Community;
- to assess international trends in cluster development and identify future challenges for cluster policies in response to globalisation;
- to explore tools for removing existing barriers to trans-national cluster cooperation;
- to analyse complementarities among the main policies and financial instruments at Community level that support clusters, draw conclusions and recommendations;
- to liaise with the European Cluster Alliance and where appropriate with other initiatives in support of clusters and cluster policies, and draw from their practical experiences;
- to conduct up to a maximum of three exploratory study visits within the term of the members, with a view to learning from international experience;
- to collaborate with a view to communicating the discussion and common findings to the public;
- to provide the Commission with a mid-term report nine months after its launch and a final report at the end of its full period summarising progress on the tasks and recommendations. The final report should be made publicly available.