1. Regional Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisation
28 March 2017
Regional Innovation Strategies
for Smart Specialisation
How to Develop a RIS3
Xabier Goenaga
Head of Unit
Knowledge for Growth
Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS)
Joint Research Centre
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2. The current S3 Draft Guide
Edited by JRC IPTS in association with DG REGIO and with contributions from:
D. Foray, J. Goddard, P. McCann, K. Morgan, C. Nauwelars, R. Ortega-Argilés
A number of Commission officials from various DGs
Preliminary version circulated among ST and MG Dec 2011 and will be presented to regions in Jan 2012
To be reviewed in 2012 after feedback from users, MG, …
The contents
Policy rationale
Governance issues
Practical steps to design a RIS3
Peer review and monitoring
Examples from case studies
Policy instruments and horizontal dimensions

3. Policy intelligence pool Policy mix & pilots & targets
10 practical steps (non-sequential!) towards a RIS 3 – in a context of entrepreneurial process of discovery
Analysis
Scenarios
Scope & process
Policy intelligence pool
Priorities
Vision
Policy mix & pilots & targets
Review & Update
Monitor&
Evaluate
Communication

4. Step 8: Strategic policy intelligence
Running a RIS3 requires regional authorities to develop new skills and capacities
Policy intelligence units with a qualified staff need to be established within the governance structure, to support the learning process of regional authorities
An important mission of policy intelligence is to access and use knowledge from foreign regions and countries

5. Step 3 – Analysis of regional potential
Analysing and assessing the potential crucial for prioritisation process
Encourage and observe the outcome of the entrepreneurial process of discovery (EPD)
Different regional typologies
Build on advantages
Supporting transformation

6. Step 1: Proposing a vision – “we have a dream”
Shared Vision on the potential of the region and main direction for its international positioning:
political endorsement
mobilizing power
ambitious but still credible
A Top Technology Region!
Unique cross-boarder region of Brabant, Limburg, Liège, and North Rhine-Westphalia
The aim is to create a region that can compete internationally and thereby guarantee employment and prosperity for its inhabitants
The focus is to close the gap in the “Knowledge-to-Skill-to-Till” chains in three specified sectors: Chemicals & Advanced Materials, High-Tech Systems, and Health Sciences

7. Step 4 – Scenarios Develop broad scenarios
Discussion with wide regional audience
Realistic view of the region’s position within an international perspective

8. Step 2: Process and governance – Ensuring participation and ownership
Define its scope and its expected goal
different stakeholders WILL have different expectations and agenda
Encourage a EPD. Participation of the key actors
A wide view of innovation
Also services, public sector and non-technological innovation
Collaborative leadership
Lahti region in Finland
Low level of education
Low average household income
No university
Low in most innovation indexes.
Inefficient Cluster policy
environment
New action model and new innovation environment!
collaboration of all strategies, plans and bodies in the region
Links to the most relevant R&D institutions outside the region
expertise serving all industries and clusters
among the most innovative regions in Finland
design
Practise based innovation

9. Step 5 – Selection of Priorities
Decision-making step
Clear criteria for filtering priorities
Good governance is key
Avoid risk of capture by interest groups and of lock in into traditional activities
Outcome of EPD
MODERNA - Navarra's New Economic Regional development model
Identified new business opportunities in following sectors:
Design and creativity
Services to persons: related to active ageing, persons with difficulties, favour family life and work reconciliation
Other: the audiovisual sector and personal safety, heritage and information.

10. The result of an entrepreneurial process of discovery (EPD)
Reveals the domains of R&D and innovation in which a region is likely to excel given its existing capabilities and productive assets
WHAT IT IS
WHO IS INVOLVED
“a self-discovery process¹”
involving entrepreneurial trial and error as well as public policy to create more incentives for those entrepreneurs who are taking the risk of experimenting in new activities
Entrepreneurs must be understood in a broad sense
firms
higher education institutions, public research institutes,
independent inventors and innovators
[1] R. Haussmann and D. Rodrik, “Economic development as self-discovery”, Journal of Development Economics, vol.72, December 2003

11. Step 6: Definition of policy packages
The broad action lines corresponding to priorities
Action Plan
Pilot projects
Experimentation of new policies to support good design
Input for updating priorities
The Action Plan should define:
Programmes, instruments, initiatives to feed the actions
Target groups
Actors involved and their responsibilities
Timeframes
Funding resources for specific groups and projects

12. Step 10: (Peer) Review and update of RIS3
What to review?
Being Place Based
Achieving Critical Mass
Entrepreneurial Discovery
Being Outward-Oriented
Being Future-Oriented
Well performing system (IU self assessment tool)
Formulating and implementing a RIS3 is a continuous process
Need to regularly adapt and update the strategy
Information and new insights are gathered during implementation and are incorporated into a new version of RIS3

13. Step 7: Monitoring and evaluation
Monitoring aims at verifying the correct and efficient implementation of activities
Evaluation aims at verifying whether and how policy goals are met – based on outcome indicators
OUTCOME INDICATORS
Each region chooses, according to
agreed general principles, those
indicators that are most suitable to
track the progress of its own
programmes towards place-based
policy goals
A strategy might be aimed at more than one outcome (i.e. different dimensions of well-being and progress)
The choice of outcomes should be the result of a deliberative process
Outcome targets are established whenever possible, i.e. the values of the outcome indicators which policy action aims to achieve

14. Step 9: Communication of the RIS3
Good communication is crucial:
To ensure RIS3 endorsement by all stakeholders of the region
To possibly embark new stakeholders, that are not yet part of the project
Informing the public opinion of the necessity to support the development of knowledge-based businesses
Communication is needed all along the process (in all the design steps)
What is most needed
4 lessons from past RIS:
Positioning the RIS3 project in a national and European context
Identifying the different stakeholder groups and their different needs
Traditional tools (press campaign, web, seminars …)
Active tools (targeted visits to stakeholders, local meeting, discussions …)

15. Thank you! Knowledge for Growth Unit:
The Smart Specialisation Action website: