Smart Specialisation Newsletter

On May 17th, the Commission announced the 63 regions, seven cities and four Member States selected in the pilot project for Partnerships for Regional Innovation, an initiative developed together with the Committee of the Regions. Participants in the pilot action are open to share good practices and to co-develop and test tools to mobilise multiple sources of funding and policies, and connect regional and national programmes to EU initiatives for the green and digital transformations. These Partnerships will feed into the new Innovation Agenda for Europe, where innovation drives the transformation for sustainability, connecting local strategies with EU-level initiatives.

The European Startup Village Forum is part of the flagship action on research and innovation for rural communities, included in the Long-Term Vision for the EU’s rural areas set out by the European Commission in 2021. It promotes an open space where institutions and stakeholders can meet, discuss and shape action for startup-driven innovation in rural areas. A call for pledges has been launched to gather the commitment of public and private organisations to support the objectives of the Forum.

Following the high interest from EU territories and Member States to participate in the PRI Pilot Action launched jointly last month by the European Commission and the Committee of the Regions, we are pleased to announce the first PRI Pilot Plenary meeting. This will be an online event to be held in the morning of 7th July 2022. The PRI Pilot Plenary will be the main set-up for collective discussion, learning and co-creation among all PRI Pilot participants. This first meeting of the Pilot Plenary will present the policy context around PRI, the PRI Playbook and a proposal for a PRI Pilot roadmap, outlining the organisation of pilot activities. It will be an interactive event and engage in a structured dialogue with participants about modes of engagement and co-creation.

Under the theme of “Science, technology, and innovation for building back better from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) while advancing the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, the seventh multi-stakeholder forum on STI for the SDGs was held on 5-6 May 2022. The Joint Research Centre (JRC) took special part in the Thematic Session 3: Global, national, and local innovation ecosystems where the need to apply localized, evidence informed and participative priority setting processed for research and innovation investments were discussed.