Smart Specialisation from Concept to Practice: A Preliminary Assessment
We present some conceptual developments and original empirical results on how and to what extent the Smart Specialisation approach to regional innovation policy is currently being translated into strategic decisions and policy interventions in European Union regions and countries.
We break down the intervention logic of Smart Specialisation into three complementary conditions concerning the nature of the priority areas for policy intervention, the formal mechanisms for project selection, and the type of policy measures to be adopted; and we characterise those conditions in ways that can be investigated empirically. We then tests those conditions using data on the policy priorities identified in national and regional Smart Specialisation Strategies in a group of European countries, and the provisions stipulated in the calls for proposals co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under the chapter on research and innovation policy (Thematic Objective 1 or TO1).
The evidence we gathered reveals only a partial transition from the “old” undifferentiated industrial policy, typical of European regional policy prior to 2014, to the highly selective Smart Specialisation approach. We found tangible signs that regions and countries have put in place mechanisms that can circumvent the very rationale of smart specialisation. This could be the result of lobbying activities, higher political return from widespread public support measures, risk-averse attitude of policy makers, and lack of adequate institutional and administrative capacity that can be observed at national and regional level. However, an additional explanation may lie in the incentive structure established at European Union level which did not fully support the intervention logic of Smart Specialisation.
To assess the effects of Smart Specialisation, we suggest in particular focusing on the interventions that (i) address priorities which are consistent with the policy approach, (ii) apply policy measures selectively (exclusively) to those priorities, (iii) apply policy measures shaped around the specificities of each priority area.
GIANELLE Carlo;
GUZZO Fabrizio;
MIESZKOWSKI Krzysztof;
2019-07-05
European Commission
JRC116297
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