Central Eastern Europe’s rural areas have been facing great challenges due to their geographical handicaps and economic structural problems, although they possess an unexploited natural treasure: the thermal water. The overall concept of the CLUSTHERM project is: enabling the regional actors to bring the geothermal R&D achievements to the ground of local services and products. Access to research provision and the clustering between the economic and public actors could allow the dynamic, knowledge based development of these rural economies. A more concentrated research on geothermal resources can lead to the development of high added value products and services. The CLUSTHERM project aims to set up a new research driven cluster in Central Europe on thermal water utilization that will develop the capacity and research potential of Central Eastern Europe’s rural economies rich in thermal water to access and benefit from research on the exploitation. The direct objectives are: - analyse the RTD development and the needs of geothermal energy utilisation - promote synergies and catalyse links between regional, research and business actors (vertical clustering) - foster the transnational and cross-border co-operations between the regional actors (horizontal clustering) - develop and enhance transnational mutual learning through information exchange possibilities of regional stakeholders in creating research driven clusters and to disseminate good policy practices and benchmarking activities - develop joint action plan and research strategy among the participating regions to increase the regional economic competitiveness through concentrated use of natural resources