Addressing the innovation gap: Lessons from the Stairway to Excellence (S2E) project

There is a considerable territorial disparity in terms of research and innovation (R&I) performance within Europe between EU15 and EU13 Member States (MSs) . The two biggest European funds, European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) and Horizon 2020 (H2020), aim at supporting the development of European competitiveness, growth, knowledge generation and as well as closing the innovation gap and promoting research excellence across Europe. Smart Specialisation Strategies (S3) play a key role in fostering an efficient and inclusive Research and Innovation (R&I) ecosystem by creating the right framework for focused investments based on selected high value added priorities and a shared vision of territorial development. Also, the European Commission's project Stairway to Excellence (S2E) is focussed on the provision of assistance to EU MSs and Regions with emphasis on promoting R&I excellence and maximising the specific value added of S3 investments such as the capacity building to support for R&I activities and exploitation of research results for raising the overall social/economic impact. This report summarises the main outcomes of the activities undertaken by the S2E team during the initial phase of the project from June 2014 to January 2017). It focuses on the S2E Country Reports – produced by the national independent experts and provided analysis on the optimal use of key European R&I funds – and the Joint Statements of S2E National Events – an outcome of national events covering the issues and main conclusions - as well as the other analytical work of the project. By picking those issues and actions common to more than one country and frequently mentioned, the main bottlenecks and possible policy actions to address these issues are summarised within three dimensions; namely, quality of R&I governance, capacity building, and innovation and commercialisation. This analysis and particularly the policy recommendations offer solutions for these issues that can also contribute to closing the innovation gap in Europe, which is demonstrated by the annual European Innovation Scoreboard comparing the performance of the EU MSs.JRC.B.3-Territorial Developmen

Synergies between EU R&I Funding Programmes. Policy Suggestions from the Launching Event of the Stairway to Excellence Project

This Policy Brief addresses the concept of synergies arising from the two major EU funding sources (The European Structural and Investment Funds and Horizon 2020) in the context of the new Stairway to Excellence Project. This project is centred on the provision of assistance to Member States who joined in 2004, 2007 and 2013 in using innovation funding under ESIFs via the early and effective implementation of RIS3 with the aim of closing the innovation gap and promote scientific and technological excellence. This Policy Brief summarises the discussion and case studies presented at the launching conference of the Stairway to Excellence Project held in Prague in October 2014. This event offered a first opportunity to identify the key elements for building successful synergies and gave a useful insight into how synergies could be achieved in practice. A diverse set of experiences from five EU countries (Cyprus, Czech Republic, France, Spain, and the UK) and an international organisation were presented. In turn, this could be a source of inspiration for other regional and national managing authorities and the research community.JRC.J.2-Knowledge for Growt

NETWATCH Mapping and Monitoring: Second and Third Exercises

The work presented in this report is based on mapping exercises providing a descriptive analysis of the networks included in the NETWATCH database (i.e. active ERA-NETs, ERA-NET Plus, Article 169/185s and self-sustaining networks). Building on previous reports, with the addition of a time dimension, through periodic collection and analysis of network data, the report monitors the landscape of schemes and provides an analysis of key aspects of the evolution of research programme cooperation within Europe. These findings aim to support policy makers to make informed decisions on the future design and implementation of related initiatives.JRC.J.2-Knowledge for Growt

An assessment of the impact of the FP7 ERA-NET scheme on organisations and research systems

The NETWATCH online platform collects and presents information to support the analysis of transnational research programme cooperation. Its content centres on the participants and activities of ERA-NETs and ERA-NET Plus. Building on these data, this report sets out an assessment of the impact of the FP7 ERA-NET scheme on stakeholder organisations and on the research systems in which they operate. In July 2012, the European Commission's ERA Communication gave renewed impetus to the realisation of ERA, targeting its completion in 2014. Transnational coordination of research at the programming level was identified as playing a prominent role in this, with ERA-NETs being a key instrument. These developments highlight the need to understand better the impact of the ERA-NET scheme. NETWATCH has accumulated substantial information on transnational research programme collaboration, which provides a solid basis for this impact assessment, together with complementary data from various secondary sources and additional data collection by JRC-IPTS. The issues addressed by the current report are threefold: -The direct impact of the ERA-NET scheme on the collaborative dimensions of national research programming practices, reflecting the extent to which the scheme is meeting its core objectives ; -The impact of the scheme on the behaviour of participating organisations and; -The overall impact on the national and European research landscape, particularly the nature and level of transnational collaborative behaviour.JRC.J.2-Knowledge for Growt

NETWATCH Policy Brief Series – Brief Nº3 - Added value of transnational research programming: lessons from longstanding programme collaborations in Europe

This brief explores the wide variety of objectives, activities and outcomes of transnational research programming in Europe. Going beyond the goal of mobilising shared research funds, it examines how collaborative networks can contribute to the achievement of a broad range of objectives related to research and innovation. It centres on the development of an analytical framework, focusing on the key motivations for establishing and participating in collaborative networks and the subsequent outcomes.Case studies are used to explore how collaborative research programming networks can contribute to a broad set of objectives related to research and innovation, ranging from the primary aims that are at the core of the programme collaboration to secondary aims with regard to research and even tertiary network aims going beyond research policies.The results have relevance for the way progress to the ERA is measured, for developing indicators for measuring impact of programme collaboration networks, for reviewing the research and innovation partnering instruments at European level, for seeing research programming networks as catalysts for collaboration in related areas, and for making barriers to programme collaboration more explicit and thus easier to address.JRC.J.2-Knowledge for Growt

Deliverable 3.3.1 Options for Assessing the Impact of the ERA-NET Scheme: an exploration of methodological approaches

The NETWATCH on-line platform collects information in support of analysis of transnational research programme cooperation. Its content centres on ERA-NETs and ERA-NET Plus, however, information is also collected on Article 185s and networks that continue but no longer receive EU support (known as self-sustaining networks). The information collected is used to map and monitor the transnational research programme landscape and to produce policy briefs on issues pertinent to the policy debate, which are also published on the platform. This report constitutes the first NETWATCH impact assessment and focuses on ERA-NETs and the development of an approach to assess their impact against the policy goals, including wider European Research Area (ERA) objectives.JRC.J.2-Knowledge for Growt

Collaboration and networks: EU13 participation in international science

In this issue - In the 2007-2013 period the overall international co-publication intensity of EU13 countries was low compared to EU15 countries. - In FP7, the EU13 countries had low participation and were again largely on the periphery of the network. - In the EU focussed co-publication network EU13 countries were outside of the core group comprised of EU15 countries. However, for the FP7 network some countries (Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland) had stronger links to the core again comprised of EU15 countries. - Germany is an important collaborative partner for EU13 countries for both co-publication and FP7 participation, Austria also appears to have an important role linking to Central European Countries. - This work suggests there is a need for EU13 countries to improve international research collaboration, particularly with EU15 Member States.JRC.B.3 - Territorial Developmen

An intervention-logic approach for the design and implementation of S3 strategies

Smart specialisation is conceptualised as research and innovation policymaking encompassed in a holistic place-based view of development. It combines an organisational bottom-up approach with a structural approach, stressing interactions among local and international actors that participate and facilitate reflexive learning processes. The issue of governance is key and multi-level governance is instrumental for advancing with the goal of the strategy on the ground. The need to connect top-down EU policies with place-based facts and ambitions that translate into competitive advantage, generating growth and jobs, makes governance the cornerstone of the smart specialisation process. In the context of the revision of the existing strategies the need to reassess the coherence of policy intervention is of crucial importance to address the local but also the global challenges faced by EU territories.JRC.B.3 - Territorial Developmen

ERA-NETs and the realisation of ERA: increasing coordination and reducing fragmentation

The primary objective of the ERA-NET scheme was to support the realisation of the European Research Area (ERA). With the new impetus recently given to the ERA concept by Europe 2020, Innovation Union, the development of Horizon 2020 and the consultation on the ERA Framework it is an appropriate time to consider whether this objective is being met. This brief draws on the European Commission's information platform on transnational research collaboration, NETWATCH. Through analysis of its comprehensive database on the nature and operation of ERA-NETs and other collaborative networks, it develops an overview of the scheme's success. There is clear evidence that cooperation has taken place between research programme actors, leading to benefits in terms of mutual learning and joint activities, most notably the number of joint calls launched. The extent to which this represents genuine coordination of European research programmes and has led to a reduction in duplication and fragmentation of activities and the achievement of critical mass emerge as key questions for the ongoing assessment activities of NETWATCH.JRC.J.2-Knowledge for Growt

Design and Implementation of Mobile Educational Games: Networks for Innovation

Research networks foster creativity and break down institutional barriers, but introduce geographic barriers to communication and collaboration. In designing mobile educational games, our distributed team took advantage of diverse talent pools and differing perspectives to drive forward a core vision of our design targets. Our strategies included intense design workshops, use of online meeting rooms, group paper and software prototyping, and dissemination of prototypes to other teams for refinement and repurposing. Our group showed strong activity at the university-centered nodes with periods of highly effective dissemination between these nodes and to outside groups; we used workshop invitations to gather new ideas and perspectives, to refine the core vision, to forge inter-project links, and to stay current on what was happening in other networks. Important aspects of our final deliverables came from looselyassociated network members who engaged via collaborative design exercises in workshops, emphasizing the need to bring the network together and the importance of outside influences as ideas evolve. Our final deliverable, a mobile educational game and a series of parallel technology demonstrations, reflect the mix of influences and the focus on iterated development that our network maintained