From smart concept to challenging practice: How European regions deal with the Commission's request for novel innovation strategies

[Summary and Discussion] In summary, our findings suggest that the current efforts towards fulfilling the RIS3 ex-ante conditionalities are neither likely to trigger an immediate revolution in European regions' approaches towards innovation policy nor will they put an immediate or even rapid end to all the inherent challenges and contradictions of structural funding that have emerged and evolved across decades of past support periods. [...

The role of associations in regional innovation systems

This paper addressed the need for research regarding the role of associations in innovation systems. As defined here, the term association embraces not only organisations like business associations, but all actors who associate to pursue joint objectives and positively influence their (regional) innovation system. In the innovation system's perspective, these associations perform intermediary functions. As the relevant activities are often initiated by individuals acting in specific environments and circumstances, we need to consider not only the level of the organisation (i.e. meso level), but also the macro level of the innovation system and the micro level of individuals. Against the background of economic and social theory, intrinsic motivations have therefore also been discussed. External conditions, like the mode of governance and the logic of influence are also relevant as these define the framework conditions. Over time, associations may evolve in line with changes in the environment and internal developments. This evolution can be regarded as a life cycle which is specific to each association. Different types of associations and their specific functions have been mentioned using the example of Germany. While each of the listed associations can be regarded as an individual case, we can also assume that there are certain traits which are shared by all of them. Thus, we proposed four hypotheses addressing the macro level, i.e. the level of the regional innovation system, the meso level, i.e. the level of the association, and the micro level, which considers the motivations of individuals. We further proposed an empirical concept to be applied to study the role of associations in innovation systems

Cluster programmes in Europe and beyond

Dokumenty Evropského dokumentačního střediskaLuxembour

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Mapping of economic, innovative and scientific potential in Serbia

This report is prepared to identify potential priority domains for smart specialisation in Serbia. It will does this based on an approach following the smart specialisation approach by mapping the economic, scientific and innovation potential at subnational level as a preparation for prioritising domains and activity areas for public investments and beginning stakeholder mobilisation (entrepreneurial discovery process)

Cluster policy adjustments in the context of smart specialization? Impressions from Germany

While the cluster concept is foremost based on the economic principle of localization economies and cluster policies interpret this principle in several ways, smart specialization is a political tool, although the idea of the advantages of specialized economic activities is one of its basic constituents. Nevertheless, the difference in its objectives compared to the cluster concept lies in the fact that smart specialization introduces new approaches to designing regional innovation policy which focus more effectively on specific regions’ actual potentials. The objective of this chapter is to analyse the coexistence, competition and interdependence of cluster and smart specialization policies in Germany. We present evidence from four German Länder (federal states) in order to demonstrate that due to a common national policy framework and a common set of institutions affecting the regional innovation systems, variations in cluster policy and the implementation of smart specialization strategies are possible. At the end of the chapter we derive some general conclusions about the interdependence of both approaches beyond the German context

Politische Maßnahmen zur Unterstützung von innovationsbasiertem regionalen Strukturwandel

[Zielsetzung des Arbeitspapiers ...] Um das Themenfeld des innovationsbasierten regionalen Strukturwandels näher zu beschreiben, ist es Ziel des Arbeitspapiers, unterschiedliche Ansatzpunkte und Ziele für einen innovationsbasierten regionalen Strukturwandel herauszuarbeiten. Diese Ansatz-punkte werden anschließend anhand exemplarischer Beispiele von Förderansätzen näher erläutert. Damit soll aufgezeigt werden, dass es ein breites Spektrum an Instrumenten und Maßnahmen gibt, die bezogen auf einzelne Regionen bedarfsorientiert weiter ausgestaltet werden müssen, um die jeweiligen Regionsspezifika und regionalen Problemsituationen angemessen berücksichtigen zu können