Monika Matusiak: Smart Specialisation for the localisation of SDGs

We are living in a time of huge challenges but also great opportunities and increasing collective understanding that it is not only economic growth that matters but also its societal and environmental impacts. European Union and its Member States co-created and committed to implementing the Global Agenda 2030 with its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This overarching and inter-related agenda can only be achieved if translated to different contexts and territorial realities at local, regional, national, and EU levels. To deliver the ambitious priorities we have set up for the years 2021-2027, we need to mobilise science, technology and innovation for sustainable economic growth, twin transitions and to answer the societal and environmental challenges we face. Smart Specialisation with its place-based logic and participative decision-making process is perfectly placed to contribute to this effort. We can do it by mobilising new types of actors and community for our entrepreneurial (or community?) discovery process; adding new dimensions to our traditional competitive advantage thinking; analysing the alternative pathways to achieve our shared vision and increasing coherence and synergies between different policies, programmes and instruments.

Our research shows that this change is already happening – only at the first scan, we have identified 26 urban, regional, national and international partnerships that use their Smart Specialisation Strategies (S3) to achieve the SDGs and their targets. The last generation of S3 delivered multiple green and digital priorities, innovations and investments. This happened bottom-up, by answering the needs of our stakeholders and communities. The new methodological approach that we have developed over the last two years aims to be SDG-oriented by design and throughout the policy cycle. It has been piloted and recognized by key UN agencies and international organizations with STI mandate. It is now recommended as one of the global methodologies for STI for SDGs Roadmaps. Are you curious how it works? Just try to answer one question: Is your innovation good for the planet? The answer can lead you towards more sustainable pathways towards recovery.