Interregional Collaboration

About

Supporting trans-regional value chains, in shared priorities areas, is a key objective of Smart Specialisation. This is why the seventh 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 develop “Measures for international collaborations” in their S3s.

Through Smart Specialization, EU regions have increasingly engaged indifferent types of collaboration activities, linked to different EU instruments. Building on these networks, the seventh criterion is closely linked to the development of joint projects in shared S3 priority areas, among other things, through the development of Smart Specialisation Thematic Partnerships and the deployment of the I3 Instrument.

Critical aspects to be explored within the S3 CoP include:

The strengths and weaknesses in the adoption of new technologies by SMEs
The failure of universities and RTOs in meeting the needs of companies in their ecosystem
The inefficiencies of innovation agencies in facilitating knowledge flows and coordination problems with other public agencies
The lack of knowledge transfer from multinational companies to national companies

Working Group on Interregional Collaboration activities

The Working Group on Interregional Collaboration

The S3 CoP Working Group on Interregional Collaboration kicked off in June 2023 and pursues the following aims:

To collect and document knowledge and good practices in different European regions
To identify common needs, problems, and challenges
To co-develop, support, deploy and monitor solutions to such challenges

The working group meets twice a year, for three years, and comprises experts from the quadruple helix.

It works towards identifying and discussing a set of implementation challenges, devising activities to address them through peer-learning and expert support directly with regions. All the outcomes will be published and elaborated to ensure that they can be of support to all EU regions.

WG Interregional collaboration factsheet

WG Interregional collaboration leaflet

Find out about participants and scheduled meetings

Webinars

The S3 CoP Working Groups have organised a series of webinars to explore the work of the Working Groups. You can find the recordings here.

S3 CoP WG on Interregional Collaboration outputs

Policy paper: Leveraging funding for Interregional Collaboration

Working Group on Interregional Collaboration – Concept note

WG Interregional Collaboration Kick-off Minutes

Input Note 1: The challenge of capacity for interregional collaboration

Input Note 2: The challenge of capacity for interregional collaboration

Thematic platforms

I3 instrument

External initiatives and publications

Methodological Manual Developing Thematic Interregional Partnerships for Smart Specialisation

Rakhmatullin, R., Hegyi, F., Ciampi Stancova, K., Gomez Prieto, J. and Mieszkowski, K. (2020) Methodological ManualDeveloping Thematic Interregional Partnerships for Smart Specialisation, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, doi:10.2760/3582, JRC116630.

Internationalisation of the next Smart Specialisation Strategy

OECD (2021), Internationalisation of the next Smart Specialisation Strategy: Opportunities and barriers in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, OECD Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED) Papers, No. 2021/09, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/067c3a60-en.