Postponed - SMARTER 2020 Conference Webinar series - Smart Specialisation: evidence, lessons, challenges and opportunities

Summary

We are sorry to inform you that this webinar had to be postponed due to unforeseen circumstances beyond our control. As soon as a rescheduled date has been confirmed, further details will be published here.

Smart Specialisation: evidence, lessons, challenges and opportunities

Smart Specialisation has been an integral part and an ex ante conditionality of 2014-2020 Cohesion Policy, which led EU Member States and regions to develop over 120 Smart Specialisation strategies, driving research and innovation investments of over EUR 40 billion provided by the EU (EUR 68 billion including national co-financing). These strategies are currently being implemented by involving national and/or regional managing authorities and stakeholders, such as universities and other research and higher education institutions, businesses, industry and social partners in a collaborative process.

Over the next programming period for 2021-2027, Smart Specialisation is expected to continue to play a major role towards regional development and cohesion in general and a smarter Europe by promoting innovative and smart economic transformation in particular. In practice, it will be the subject of a new thematic enabling condition, i.e. "Good governance of national or regional smart specialisation strategy", made up of seven fulfilment criteria covering the main dimensions of the Smart Specialisation policy concept.

Against this background, this webinar will explore the following main components of Smart Specialisation Strategy: governance, the entrepreneurial discovery process and monitoring and evaluation. In particular, the debate will provide an overview of the main theoretical underpinnings and developments on these components, as well as some empirical evidence from around 20 case studies. The implications for the future of Smart Specialisation Strategy in the next programming period (2021-2027) will also be discussed.

Agenda

10.00-10.10 Welcome and Opening - Manuel Palazuelos (Territorial Development Unit, Joint Research Centre, European Commission)

10:10 -10:25 Peter Berkowitz (Head of Unit, Smart and Sustainable Growth, Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy, European Commission)

10:25 – 11:15 JRC research project on the Smart Specialisation experience: reflections on governance, entrepreneurial discovery process, monitoring and evaluation

• Fabrizio Guzzo (Territorial Development Unit, Joint Research Centre, European Commission)
• Laura Polverari (University of Padua)
• James Wilson (Orkestra-Basque Institute of Competitiveness)
• Francesco Prota (University of Bari)

11:15 – 11:25 Q&A

11:25 – 11:30 Concluding remarks by Peter Berkowitz

Moderator: Manuel Palazuelos