Smart Specialisation Strategies for Supporting Europe 2020 Vision. Looking at the American Experience: the Case of the Boston Area

These reflections aim to highlight the crucial challenge that European Regions are called to face applying the ‘Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialization’ policy for pursuing the virtuous implementation of EU Cohesion Policy and ‘Europe 2020’ Agenda. The original cultural style of the ‘US Smart Specialization model’, supported by the ‘cluster theory’ and the ‘innovation paradigm’, represents a significant lesson in Boston area

Policies Supporting Innovation In The European Union In The Context Of The Lisbon Strategy And The Europe 2020 Strategy

In the context of increasing globalization, global competition and rapid change the EU sees innovation and its commercialization as an effective way to build long-term global competitive advantage. Innovation policy is a link between research and technological development policy and industrial policy and makes it possible to create conditions conducive to bringing ideas to the market. It is also closely linked to other EU policies regarding e.g. employment, competitiveness, environment, industry and energy. This paper presents the evolution, conditions and objectives of the innovation policy of the European, and describes the main assumptions of the Lisbon and Europe 2020 strategies. Additionally it indicates possible ways of assessing the measures undertaken within the above-mentioned policies and of determining the tools necessary to implement the strategies

RIS3 Implementation and Policy Mixes

This paper discusses how the policy mix concept applies to RIS3. The paper argues that the RIS3 implementation phase – and the development of an efficient policy mix supporting RIS3 orientations – is at least as important as the design phase. Countries and regions are now embarking on the implementation phase of the RIS3. If a sequential approach is taken, disconnecting design and implementation, RIS3 will not be effective as they will remain at the stage of intentions while not influencing policies. The paper also reflects on the discussions held during a peer review workshop organised in Riga on 23-24 February 2014 where four countries presented their RIS3 work on implementation and policy mix (Estonia, Latvia, the Czech Republic and England). The paper concludes underlining the challenges and the way forward in designing and implementing RIS3-oriented policy mixes. The main recommendations for building RIS3 policy mixes are: 1) to include policy instruments with both a direct and indirect contribution to RIS3 goals, thus adopting a wide approach for the policy mix, crossing policy domains and governance levels; 2) to scrutinize interactions between the policy mix components and identifying a variety of sources of tension between instruments; 3) to integrate an outward-looking dimension in designing the polices, which means to treat the region as a local node in global networks; and 4) to develop and use policy intelligence tools for a more strategic management of RIS3-relevant policy mixes.JRC.J.2-Knowledge for Growt

Smart specialization in a centralized state: strengthening the regional contribution in North East Romania

Regional Innovation Strategies 3 (RIS3) are intended to promote the economic transformation of European Union (EU) regions, particularly those that are lagging in development. The introduction of RIS3 has not been without its critics. This is not unexpected given its rapid, and, for some, rather hasty, move from conceptual idea to mainstream EU policy. This paper explores the introduction of the RIS3 approach in North East Romania, one of the EU’s least developed regions. Whilst Romania has launched a national RIS3, the Regional Development Agency for North East Romania also voluntarily embarked upon a process of developing a regional RIS3 for the North East region. This provides a valuable opportunity to explore different spatial dimensions of the smart specialization approach and offers the opportunity to consider the extent to which active and well-regarded research actors can act as anchors to a RIS3 approach in a less developed region. The paper argues that whilst the experience of developing a regional RIS3 offers strong learning benefits, the effectiveness of this will be dependent on supporting institutional structures

Do anchor infrastructures matter for regional Smart Specialisation Strategy? The case of Alentejo

Do anchor infrastructures matter for regional Smart Specialisation Strategy (RIS3)? This paper investigates the potential of anchor infrastructures to leverage RIS3. An exploratory case study approach is employed. The data are derived from a huge infrastructure project in the Portuguese region of the Alentejo. The study reveals the effectiveness of investment in anchor infrastructure and its contribution to leveraging RIS3. The findings provide insights into the contribution of large public investments in RIS3, identifying key impacts along several important dimensions, shedding a light on one important dimension in Smart Specialisation studies hitherto ignored

Capacity-building barriers to S3 implementation: an empirical framework for catch-up regions

In this paper, we investigate the implementation challenge of Smart Specialisation Strategies (S3) in catch-up regional environments, through the lens of capacity building. We analyse capacity building at two levels: micro-level (individual organisations) and meso-level (regional inter-organisational networks). We use empirical evidence from 50 interviews conducted in the period 2015–2017 from two Greek regions dramatically hit by the economic crisis (Crete and Central Macedonia). We argue that in the Cretan and Central Macedonian context, the difficulty of implementing S3 is directly linked with firms’ lack of adsorptive capability to exploit university-generated knowledge, university knowledge that is too abstract for firm’s to easily acquire, as well as to the capability of regional actors to build inter-organisational networking that fits their strategic needs

European Parliament Preparatory Action: "Actual and desired state of the economic potential in regions outside the Greek capital Athens" Final Report

This is the final report of the European Parliament Preparatory Action: "Actual and desired state of the economic potential in regions outside the Greek capital Athens" (hereafter Preparatory Action or PA). It reviews the key activities of this preparatory action, its impacts, the remaining barriers to RIS3 implementation and presents a perspective on the way forward. Providing hands-on support to the refinement and implementation of the RIS3 strategy in the Greek Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace (REMTh) has entailed the following activities: • Mutual learning: this has at core element of the preparatory action, and has offered a unique opportunity to all the stakeholders involved to share experiences and build a common understanding of RIS3, its potential and the real challenges to its implementation. • Optimisation of the Entrepreneurial Discovery Process (EDP) – the design, implementation and adaptation of a systematic participatory methodology for the EDP, centred on thematic focus groups. These events enabled the generation and articulation of innovation ideas and initiated the first necessary steps towards concrete projects. • Capacity building - two dedicated working groups were organised: one centred on issues of human resources mobility and one on RIS3 governance. Relevant stakeholders, under the guidance of an expert, discussed and formulated plans on how to tackle the different challenges at stake. • Identification of bottlenecks and systemic failures in RIS3 implementation - the region has good potential for diversification, but faces a wide set of legal and administrative barriers, which need to be addressed to enable the allocation of structural funds and other resources to support RIS3 implementation in an optimal way. • Communication and codification of activities - with the aim of replicating or adapting the activities of the preparatory action and the emerging learning opportunities for other regions, outcomes of all the events have been published on-line, as have methodological guidelines for the EDP process. Furthermore, further publications from these activities are foreseen in the near future. • Supporting tools for internationalisation and collaboration. The preparatory action has developed a set of online resources that aim at guiding the region in increasing its international outlook to RIS3 and its collaboration between research and industry. The Preparatory Action generated some very concrete impacts on the regions, among which the main ones are: • The mobilisation of a critical mass of researchers and business people (600+ people), which actively participated to the EDP focus groups and PDL events. This bottom-up process has increased mutual trust, created a 'momentum' in initiating change and increased the understanding of what RIS3 can contribute to this change. • The appreciation of networking and research-business collaboration across stakeholders and especially between research and business. Indeed, some informal networks have been organised, for instance in the wine and marble sector. • The creation of an action plan for both RIS3 governance and mobility of human resources. • Both the Managing Authority and regional stakeholders have better access to international counterparts, both in governance of RIS3 and in performing research and innovation. • The project has also determined a shift in perception as far as the European Commission is concerned, which is now perceived more as a collaborator. • The PA has stimulated and accelerated a discussion between the EC, regional and national authorities which has help to clarify – for the whole country – several aspects of RIS3 and Structural Funds. • The preparatory action has significantly influenced the way to design and implement the development strategy for the Region by engaging all relevant stakeholders from the outset.JRC.J.2-Knowledge for Growt

Preliminary report on KETs priorities declared by regions in the context of their work on Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisation (RIS3)

The KETs preliminary report consists of information on KETs and Smart specialisation that the S3 Platform has developed and diffused in different forms, as well as relevant information that has been identified by participation in different kinds of events. The first part of the report focuses briefly on the role of KETs in smart specialisation as a means of regional development, i.e. the policy rationale for regions to invest in KETs. The second part summarises policy recommendations and tools with regard to Smart Specialisation and KETs, as have been identified in events on the topic, where the S3 Platform has participated. The third part provides maps on regional priorities related to KETs. The data for this section come from the new web-based priority mapping tool called Eye@RIS3. This tool displays a range of priorities identified and declared by regions for their RIS3 and includes, the names of the regions that are in the database (69), the names of those that have indicated a priority with relation to KETs (48 in total), a list of the priorities related to KETs (96 -around 20% of the total number of listed priorities), connection to regional innovation scoreboard, and connection to patent data as an indicator of regional capabilities. The report presents the following initial conclusions and envisaged next steps: i) Regions tend to indicate that in the context of the RIS3, exercise horizontal priorities need to be defined and that these could involve the diffusion and/or application of KETs; ii) still there are many questions related to state aid and financing of KETs; iii) all types of regions aim for KETs: not only leaders, but all of the range from leader to modest; and iv) around 2/3 of all regions whose data are included in the "Eye@RIS3" database mention KETs as a priority of their RIS3. Around 20% of all priorities declared by regions whose data are included in the "Eye@RIS3" database are related to KETs.JRC.J.2-Knowledge for Growt