In a world that changes at a high pace, all sectors and industries must find new ways of working together as contributors to sustainable development in all aspects of society, from planning to implementation. The public sector plays an important role in the ecosystem, so do the research industry and academia, along with the business sector. Each actor has its critical role in the ecosystem, and the time is ripe for collaboration and creating support networks, given the social context of the last two years and the effects the pandemic, followed by the invasion of Ukraine, had on the economy at all levels. While some industries were more affected and others felt less pressure, at an individual level everyone felt the social and economic effects upon society, which opened a new stage of opportunities and pushed upon the emergence of considering to rely less on material resources and explore new perspectives of development, with creativity and collaboration.

In the arena of business, governmental and academic development, a number of initiatives have adopted the idea of a hub to deliver improved services, promote business development and support professional and even local communities. Our businesses are members of several professional alliances, named as hubs, clusters, associations. Social alliances can help in professional issues, and they can open new gates by means of common knowledge expansion of our networks. But there are a lot of questions related to alliances: What are the main additional values that these associations can provide? Can we take the social and economic advantages, activities, values of different networks? What are the strategies that create, develop and sustain successful hubs, clusters and associations? Additionally, we explore opportunities for innovation and new collaborations among different types of social alliances with different organisational models and conceptualise how best to develop the “spokes” that are essential for connecting hubs to both their professional communities and to wider stakeholders.