Cluster policies are widely used to strengthen regional competitiveness,
yet difficult to evaluate. While academic
approaches to cluster evaluation are often ignorant of the
needs of policy-makers and practitioners, practitioner-led
approaches often lack structure and rigour. As such, there
remain significant gaps between theory and practice. The
contribution of this paper is to reflect on a unique methodological
approach that has regularly brought together academics,
policy-makers and practitioners from around the
world to collectively address the challenges of cluster evaluation.
A participatory process of integrating theory and
practice highlights the importance of triple helix engagement
to co-design evaluation of what is a triple helix policy
proposition.