About

The Entrepreneurial Discovery is the participatory process whereby stakeholders support the choice and reflection on S3 priorities, whilst building the policy capacity for sustained engagement with the RIS·process.

Participation is central to S3, this is why the fourth fulfilment criterion of Policy Objective 1 “A smarter Europe by promoting innovative and smart economic transformation” is precisely concerned with this aspect. Regions have indeed been required to have an S3 with an “Effective Functioning of Entrepreneurial Discovery”.

The EDP has been considered a significant novelty of Smart Specialisation Strategies and has contributed to increase dramatically the level of stakeholders’ engagement in the research and innovation policy.

Over the years, the concept has evolved in two significant ways: the EDP has become a continuous process and the stakeholders base has been widened.

From a one-off EDP to a continuous EDP

Entrepreneurial discovery started, in 2014-2020, as a “one-off” exercise implemented as part of the strategy definition. Over time, it became clear that it was not sufficient to engage stakeholders only in the identification of S3 priority areas. Currently, regions are engaged in a sustained interaction with the territory, over the implementation, monitoring, revision and evaluation of the strategy.

From a triple-helix EDP to a quadruple-helix EDP

If at the beginning the focus of the EDP was largely on the triple-helix of public, private and research sector, it became clear that the pool of actors to engage in innovation policy is broader. The challenges that S3 aims to address are societal, not just technological, this is why it is important to also include input from citizens and civil society, when developing and implementing Smart Specialisation Strategies.

S3 CoP publications

External initiatives and publications