The JRC Lagging Regions project and the S3 platform are jointly producing a MOOC on RIS3 Monitoring. Available from March 2018 and free of charge, this MOOC is addressed to all those with an interest or a stake in monitoring RIS3. Please answer a five minute survey if you are interested in learning more and share your needs.
The S3 Platform provides a combination of mapping tools that allow users to identify regions' economic domains of specialisation, facilitating statistical analysis as well as transnational cooperation and the creation of partnerships throughout Europe. The Eye@RIS3 tool update includes economic, scientific and policy priorities. Moreover, the most recent RIS3 strategies available can be consulted online. National/Regional managing authorities are kindly asked to check whether the information given are correct and revise the database if necessary.
In the era of globalisation, European regions need to take up the challenges of economic modernisation, and thus embrace innovation, digitisation, decarbonisation and human skill development. In its endeavour to further help Europe's regions invest in their niche areas of competitive strengths, the European Commission is proposing a new set of actions, highlighted in its Communication "Strengthening innovation in Europe's regions: towards resilient, inclusive and sustainable territorial growth strategies".
This independent annual RIS3 survey seeks to clarify local determinant factors for policy design and to identify obstacles to policy implementation that the European Commission could help remove in the future. Deadline: 30th September.
Through its adoption and adaptation towards regional development, the smart specialisation concept has become a powerful instrument for place-based innovation-driven growth. A prime example is Romania, which has sought to build capacity at the sub-national level through the involvement of Regional Development Agencies (RDAs), six of which have developed their own S3. The RDAs have produced Regional Concept Notes based on a common methodology to shape planned investments in R&I.
The Smart Stories reflect the way in which managing authorities have used the S3 concept to develop their own innovation-driven development policies at national and regional level. This month, the testimonial from Slaskie Voivodeship (Poland) is presented, with a focus on their innovation monitoring system based on specialised observatories and smart indexes.
An Innovation Camp is a co-creation experience intended to activate a collaborative dynamic among "quadruple helix actors" , including managing authorities, businesses, research bodies and the civil society. With the support of the S3 Platform, Catalonia is the second Region after Lapland, that uses this methodology as a tool to foster S3 implementation.
The next S3 Newsletter will be issued in September.
The latest issue of Panorama magazine is a special edition dedicated to discussion of Cohesion Policy post-2020. The Cohesion Forum on 26-27 June 2017 in Brussels is an important milestone in this process. It provides the testimonials of EU institutions representatives, national governments, regional authorities, various associations and universities on this key EU policy.
The conference "Smart Regions 2.0 - "Maximising Europe's innovation potential" that was held on 1st-2d June 2017 in Helsinki has given the opportunity to national and regional authorities to share experience on the implementation of smart specialisation. Best practice and lessons learnt were highlighted, and a debate took place on the future of innovation in the context of European regional development with senior representatives from the European institutions and national and regional governments.
The open public consultation of the interim evaluation of the COSME Programme for the Competitiveness of Entreprises and SMEs (2014-2020) is available until the 31st of August. The target groups are SMEs, intermediary bodies that provide support services to SMEs, financial service providers, cluster secretariats, public authorities, etc.
The audio recordings of all the parallel sessions of the EU Developments Days are available. Among them, that of the lab debate organised by JRC-Seville on Territorial Innovation Policies in the context of Africa-EU cooperation.
Through its adoption and adaptation towards regional development, the smart specialisation concept has become a powerful instrument for place-based innovation-driven growth. An example would be the case of Andalusia (Spain) where the "Entrepreneurial Discovery Process" has enabled local actors to design a participatory and joint decision-making process.
The Smart Stories reflect the way in which managing authorities have used the S3 concept to develop their own innovation-driven development policies at national and regional level. This month, evidence is presented from Algarve (Portugal) with a focus on diversification from a dominant industry .
The report "Smart Specialisation in EU and Chile: challenges and opportunities" focuses on the EU-Chile policy learning dialogue that took place in November 2016 at the Joint Research Centre - Seville. It introduces the "Policy Learning Dialogue methodology for Smart Specialisation" as a way to facilitate interactions between stakeholders and focuses on the national and regional innovation system in Chile.
Following the event on "Smart Specialisation in Latin America", the smart specialisation platform invited stakeholders to share their views on the progress of S3 in their respective countries. Experts from Brazil, Peru and El Salvador provided their testimonies.
Through its adoption and adaptation towards regional development, the smart specialisation concept has become a powerful instrument for place-based innovation-driven growth. An example would be the "Brightlands programme" developed in the Dutch region of Limburg, which provides support to university campuses for creating science and industry clusters.
The Smart Stories reflect the way in which managing authorities have used the S3 concept to develop their own innovation-driven development policies at national and regional level. This month, evidence is presented from Bulgaria with a focus on stakeholders' engagement.
The S3 Platform welcomes the participation of 120 regions and Member States in 21 partnerships under the Agri-food, Energy and Industrial Modernisation Thematic platforms to investment pipeline projects. The Smart Region 2.0 event which will take place on 1-2 June 2017 in Helsinki, will enable stakeholders to meet and discuss on national and regional innovation investments and share experiences and lessons.
The S3 Platform's pilot project with Serbia, Moldova and Ukraine is entering its operational phase, which includes the mapping of economic, scientific and innovation potential, with the contribution of an expert team and local partners. Policy-makers and analysts from partner countries confirmed their strong commitment for this evidence-based and participatory process during a recent three-day meeting in Chisinau (MD). The mapping results will serve as a basis for planning and implementing a series of stakeholder dialogues to develop detailed priority domains and cross-sectoral niches jointly.
