Excellence in Cohesion: Exploring Synergies between Smart Specialisation Strategies and Knowledge and Innovation Communities

While European Cohesion Policy and the innovation policy of the European Institute for Innovation and Technology have clearly distinct rationales, the similarities seem many: the bottom-up approach, the central role for business and research and education actors, the focus on both market potential and on addressing societal challenges, a shared governance and monitoring between stakeholders, etc. Intentions also exist within both policies to support the development of European level value chains by linking regional initiatives. Looking at current practices, exploring potential linkages between specifically Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) and Regional Smart Specialisation Strategies (RIS3) may reveal important opportunities for synergies. In this context this paper looks at the conceptual similarities and differences between the concepts of RIS3 and KICs, and places them in the wider landscape of European research and innovation instruments. Findings from the conceptual comparison are applied to the thematic field of climate change, in order to identify current collaboration practices, potential synergies for increased coordination, and related barriers. Results have implications for potential increased collaboration at different levels of implementation, and give input to further development of the theoretical basis behind the concepts of RIS3 and KICs.

HAEGEMAN Karel;  KONNOLA Totti; 

2015-06-23

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd

JRC96032

978-951-38-8317-1,   

2242-122X,   

http://www.vtt.fi/inf/pdf/technology/2015/T221.pdf,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC96032,