Piotr Jakubiak

Since its creation in 2011, the Verde Foundation has been managing the Cluster of Innovative Sport and Recreational Surfaces, which was a sector-specific organization of SMEs and institutes located mainly in the Lodzkie region in Central Poland, within the sport infrastructure sector. Basically, the cluster was supporting its members (industry and enterprises) in testing certain equipment, networking activities and business promotion. It works with the economic, financial, and scientific sector, research institutes, schools, training centres, lawyers, consulting companies and other organizations dealing with education, culture, new technologies, innovation, local and regional development. The cluster members share the testing equipment owned by the VERDE foundation to pre-test the final sports products that they are to certify at i.e. FIFA laboratories. Since 2018, VERDE promotes interregional cooperation, works on linking the cluster members to share knowledge and experience, develops a common strategy, creates and implements projects consistent with the goals of the foundation. This development of action has led the Foundation to change its name (to Foundation for Sport Innovations) and extend its operations towards becoming a true cluster for all the sport & vitality stakeholders (now also including public actors, NGOs and acedemia) within the q-helix model from the Lodzkie region.