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Health ClusterNET (HCN) is a non-profit European interregional knowledge hub. It is owned by its partners: EU regions and potential EU candidate country partners. The aim of HCN is to inform the contribution of health sector investment to sustainable regional development and ensuring quality of life. This means sharing practical “how-to” knowledge and innovative solutions between partners and stakeholders in ways that show health as an investment and not as a cost.

Importantly, when we look at the key challenges and opportunities to the strategic development of the health field in connection in European regions, three insights are important:

• Regional health systems are net generators of GDP and employment. But as yet, nobody has worked out how to consistently maximise this hidden capacity.
• While this 'know-how" capacity gap exists we will not be effective in stabilizing the welfare of our communities or regional health systems
• Ultimately, regional and cross-border clusters combining public and private health investments in successful partnership will be a significant part of the twenty-first century’s social and economic structure at local as well as European level.

 To address this gap HCN helps its partners better to come to the fore their priorities by:

• Stimulating mutual learning by helping regions talk to and work with other regions,
• Sharing practical knowledge about improving returns on investment,
• Speaking with and engaging politicians,
• Using independent, non-profit experts (our Health Architects and Associates),
• Overcoming limits through attention to improving understanding and capacity,
• Working with practical methods and tools that people can use,
• Getting the balance right between learning from the past and anticipating the future.