Smart Stories - Implementing Smart Specialisation across Europe

Abstract

The insight that this booklet provides - thanks to the precious contribution of national and regional authorities - shows that smart specialisation has gone far beyond the mere fulfilment of the ex-ante conditionality criteria linked to Cohesion policy allocations. It has triggered a change in the way innovation-driven regional development policies are dealt with across Europe, confirming the outcome of a number of surveys recently run on this topic.

These 'Smart Stories' will drive the reader through the features of smart specialisation as it has been applied in a number of EU countries and regions, with a view to stimulating to further explore the concept and its policy implications, to identify complementarities and potential for mutual learning and collaboration. The period of strategy development has in one sense finished; however, the process of implementing and monitoring S3 will hopefully lead to many more 'Smart Stories' to be shared across all territories of the European Union.