The coronavirus pandemic is having a huge socio-economic impact in the EU. It is crucial to mitigate this impact with policies to make European economies and societies more sustainable, more resilient and better prepared for the challenges and opportunities of the green and digital transitions. The EU has put in place an unprecedented recovery plan that will lead the way out of the crisis and lay the foundations for a modern and more sustainable Europe. The next Multiannual Financial Framework, coupled with NextGeneration EU, the temporary instrument designed to boost the recovery, will be the largest stimulus package ever financed through the EU budget. Developing a sustainable and innovative industry is crucial to deliver on the twin green and digital transitions, and the EU is investing in the industrial sector for a modern, clean and fair economy. Place-based innovation strategies also play a major role in this regard and will be an important tool to implement the recovery plan.

In the Smart Specialisation approach, the transformative function of the policy is implemented through highly selective policy interventions focused on specific priorities defined as economic activities at the interception of sectors, technology applications, and societal challenges. Smart Specialisation does not aim at providing generic support across the board, but rather it concentrates public investment only on those emerging areas that are believed to have the highest potential to generate growth and jobs.

The evidence available after several years of policy implementation shows that the selective logic of intervention of Smart Specialisation has been only partially implemented. This is true for all types of regions and countries. In particular, regions that are less developed and receive the greatest amount of EU funds in absolute terms, tend to invest in too many or too broad priorities. This is partially justified in view of guaranteeing an efficient absorption of public investment; nevertheless, it reveals that there is scope for improving on both the fronts of policy design and policy delivery, distinguishing between the need to maintain certain horizontal interventions and the goal of providing selective support in the spirit of Smart Specialisation.

In any case, continuous monitoring and evaluation will be critical to assess the evolution of the Smart Specialisation Strategies for Sustainability. In fact monitoring and evaluation are at the core of its governance. These innovation strategies are by now well established, so it is more and more important to ensure that this component is present and reinforced. Strategies not only require ex-ante evidence but also ongoing and ex-post sources of policy intelligence to monitor and evaluate whether the goals of the strategy are being achieved. As to successfully implement new strategic directions, it is preferable that they are endorsed by all the regional stakeholders involved in the strategy. In this sense, JRC aims to support regional policy makers with the provision of tools and methods combined with indicators helping them to better anchor their strategy in their ecosystems.

Over the new programming period for 2021-2027, Smart Specialisation is expected to continue to play a major role towards regional development[1] and cohesion, with the deployment of five broad policy objectives[2] including the enhancement of sustainable growth and digitalisation. It is featuring a new thematic enabling condition, focusing on "Good governance of national or regional smart specialisation strategy", and composed of seven fulfilment criteria covering the main success factors of Smart Specialisation strategies, with respect to design, implementation and monitoring and evaluation mechanisms.

In this context, the Joint Research Centre’s Unit on Knowledge for Finance, Innovation and Growth (B7) will be supporting stakeholders at various territorial levels to develop their own innovation-driven economic transformation agendas, incorporating the green and digital transition processes. The Unit will also support DG REGIO in the assessment of the enabling condition, focusing on the role played by S3 governance, territorial stakeholders’ involvement in the entrepreneurial discovery process, and monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to buttress the recovery drive, not losing sight of the aforementioned transition processes.

Xabier Goenaga

Footnotes:

[1] Common Provisions regulation (11 December 2020 version) with a reference to the smart specialisation enabling condition on page 390 of the document ST 13693 2020 INIT
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=consil%3AST_13693_2020_INIT  

[2] European Regional Development Fund and Cohesion Fund regulation (11 December 2020 version)
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=consil%3AST_13716_2020_INIT