"The plastic processing industry faces many challenges, although the use of plastics grows with new opportunities and applications To take advantage, SMEs have to innovate and diversify their business offer. Clusters assist this process by joining technical centres to monitor technological development, and suppliers of equipment and materials to improve competitiveness. The plastic processing industry in the Valencian Region supplies to a large number of industries such as the toy, footwear and textile sectors who face the same issues; fierce competition forces these industries to invest heavily to develop new and innovative products and processes, compete on an international level and with more high-tech companies. The creation of a research driven cluster would enable dialogue between different actors, transfer good practice and common strategy development. Besides, the plastic processing industry requires little initial capital, is labour-intensive and is not tied to a particular location unlike the plastic production industry. It is an industry to develop and stabilise economies and create local jobs. The Valencia regional government has announced full support and willingness to coordinate the creation of the cluster. The objective of the project is to unite the main regional actors of the plastic processing industry to develop specific actions which will drive to the creation of a RTD-based cluster, to target and face the future challenges of the Valencian plastic processing industry. Specific objectives are: - To elaborate a regional RTD roadmap for the years 2008-2012 - To identify potential specific RTD projects, taking into account environmental aspects related to the reduction of CO2 emissions - To create the operational framework for the cluster - To guarantee its financial sustainability This will provide the starting point for a sustainable collaboration between the different actors of the plastic processing industry in the Valencian Region."