Services to Support Partnerships

Why Services?

Services are designed to support partnerships in their development and collaboration. Each service aims to facilitate the smooth execution of activities that are essential for partnerships to progress. The services provided by the S3 CoP secretariat are designed to address these needs, related to the overall learn, connect, demonstrate, scale-up and commercialisation model. While some partnerships may have already completed certain steps, others may still require assistance in select areas.

Which Services Are Available?

The S3 CoP Secretariat proposes eight services including:

• Training and Capacity Building on interregional collaboration, including support for community backing to support partnerships in assessing interregional collaboration, developing a shared vision, and overcoming challenges. It includes guidance materials, workshops, one-on-one consultations, and support for engaging quadruple helix actors. The outcome is informed lead partners capable of effectively involving relevant stakeholders in smart specialisation partnerships.
• Governance: The governance service supports partnerships with unstructured collaboration by helping identify lead regions, establish a governance framework, and formalize financial and reporting structures. It includes meetings, best practice exchanges, and guidance on organizing activities. The expected outcome is a proposal for a well-defined governance structure for the partnership.
• (Re)Scoping: The Re(Scoping) service helps partnerships refine or update their activities, either by detailing initial collaboration opportunities or adapting to changes in priorities, participation, or the R&I landscape. It includes a kick-off meeting, regional surveys, and an analysis of results to define common priorities. The outcome is a scoping note with potential pathways for the partnership and a proposal for next steps.
• Mapping: The mapping service helps partnerships identify and understand the competences of participating regions, which is essential for developing demonstration projects. It includes a survey to gather data on relevant competences and an analysis of the results. The outcome is a mapping report outlining the competences of each region in relation to the identified priorities.
• Smart Partnering: The smart partnering service helps partnerships address gaps in competences by identifying and engaging new, complementary partners, such as RTOs or service providers, particularly in underrepresented regions. The expected outcomes are a list of potential new partners and outreach to assess their interest in joining the partnership.
• Funding, Finance & Investment Assistance: The funding, finance, and investment assistance service helps partnerships find the financial resources needed for interregional collaboration projects, whether public or private. It includes support in matching funding opportunities to partnership needs, identifying appropriate funding instruments, and guidance from successful applicants. The expected outcome is a more structured approach to identifying relevant funding opportunities for the partnership's activities.
• Demonstration: The demonstration service supports partnerships in designing and developing pilot or demonstration projects. It includes help with scoping activities, structuring partner involvement, and creating tools for generating joint projects. The expected outcomes are the design of a demonstration project and the development of tools to facilitate future project generation within the partnership.
• Scale-up & Commercialisation: The scale-up and commercialisation service supports partnerships in accessing new markets and accelerating the growth of companies. It includes positioning SMEs within the European landscape, linking them to relevant EC instruments, and sharing information on soft-landing services. The expected outcomes are access to scaling services in other regions and enhanced capacity for commercialising research results.