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Intelligence and co-creation in Smart Specialisation Strategies: Towards the next stage of RIS3
Abstract
The white paper on “Intelligence and Co-creation in Smart Specialisation Strategies” outlines some key conclusions from the Online S3 project, funded under the Horizon 2020 programme of the European Commission. The Online S3 project has produced an online platform composed of software applications and roadmaps that facilitate the design and implementation of Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisation (RIS3). Using a baseline set of methodologies for strategy design, Online S3 is advancing the understanding of RIS3 as a place-based and evidence-driven innovation policy, relying on large datasets and software for user engagement, co-creation and collective intelligence in policy design. In this white paper, the core building blocks of RIS3 are presented, as they appear in EU documents and related literature, such as ex ante conditionalities, stakeholder engagement, specialisation by diversification, entrepreneurial discovery, policy co-design, monitoring and assessment. This white paper also discusses weaknesses of the current period and what can be done better in the near future; thus, puts RIS3 in retrospect and prospect for 2021-2027. At the same time, it looks into critical dimensions for the next stage of RIS3, focusing on how strategies can be improved by datasets and software, enabling the implementation of complex methods; thus, facilitating collective intelligence and co-creation of solutions, which both are able to usher a transition from the triple to quadruple helix model of collaboration. Finally, the annex presents a short description of the 28 software applications and the 4 roadmaps hosted on the Online S3 Platform, which enable the use of datasets and sophisticated methodologies by policy-makers.
... For example, the design of S3 for the 2014-2020 period successfully involved a vast array of different regional and national actors, but civil society was rarely among them, limiting S3s to the triple-helix model rather than the updated quadruplehelix advocated by the Commission [55], much less the quintuple-helix model, which also includes the environment [59]. Therefore, a key goal of the new S3s is to encompass environmental as well as societal challenges [60]. In the coming years, smart specialisation should be based on the three main pillars of sustainable development (people, the environment and the economy) [61]. ...
... The maturation of Internet technologies and online services during the period in which the first stage of S3 was applied paves the way for greater use of web services and data analytics to design and implement the methodologies of new S3 across regions, as illustrated by the accomplishments of the Online S3 project [60]. In addition, the new S3 can help clear the democratic deficit within civil society in the context of bottom-up policies to sustain regional growth based on local needs and conditions [60]. ...
... The maturation of Internet technologies and online services during the period in which the first stage of S3 was applied paves the way for greater use of web services and data analytics to design and implement the methodologies of new S3 across regions, as illustrated by the accomplishments of the Online S3 project [60]. In addition, the new S3 can help clear the democratic deficit within civil society in the context of bottom-up policies to sustain regional growth based on local needs and conditions [60]. ...
European regions are facing many important challenges, as the need to recover from the pandemic coincides with the need to carry out the green and digital transitions foreseen in the European Green Deal, making the task harder, especially for less-developed regions. The paper considers making use of regional intellectual capital in the context of smart specialisation strategies (S3) as the most effective way to address these challenges and achieve smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. This is viewed through a closer look at two specific cases of Greek regions that are behind the EU mean in terms of development and innovation: Central Macedonia and Western Macedonia. Development trends, available intellectual capital and current smart specialisation strategies in these regions are examined. These result in concrete, evidence-based suggestions on how they can make maximum use of intellectual capital for the next generation of smart specialisation strategies to achieve growth via a focus on more innovative and sustainable activities.
... The impact of technological advancement on upgradation of industrial structure can be observed through many channels, such as automation, advanced machinery, process optimization, innovations, and environmental sustainability [10]. Automation and advanced machinery enable faster and more accurate production processes and enhance the overall operational performance [11]. Industries can achieve higher output levels with fewer resources, leading to increased productivity [12]. ...
... These economies saw considerable economic and industrial upgrading, first in Japan and East Asian countries, then in Southeast Asia, and finally in China [35][36][37][38]. The fact that "India's 2011 National Manufacturing Policy aimed to increase manufacturing's contribution to the GDP to 25% while creating 100 million manufacturing jobs, speaks about the country's belief in upgrading the industrial sector" [11]. The Philippines created a thorough manufacturing road map in an effort to reverse over 50 years of steady deindustrialization [39]. ...
A country’s industrial structure plays a pivotal role in determining its competitiveness, growth, and sustainability. Recently, many Asian countries have experienced significant economic upgradation and transformation and have emerged as major players in global trade. It is crucial to understand the factors contributing in upgradation of industrial structure of Asian economies for their continuous progress and it is little focused in literature. This study explores the effect of labor quality and digitalization on the upgradation of the industrial structure in 32 Asian countries covering the time period from 2010–2021. Multiple econometric techniques are applied for a comprehensive analysis of data, and the findings show that high-quality labor has a positive contribution to upgrading the industrial structure. Moreover, digitalization upgrades the industrial structure by improving connectivity, fostering collaboration, and enhancing productivity. Based on the findings of this study, Asian countries should prioritize investments in education and skill development to enhance human capital quality. Additionally, they should promote policies that facilitate digitalization, including investments in digital infrastructure, the development of digital skills, and the creation of a supportive regulatory environment. Thus, Asian countries can accelerate the upgradation of their industrial structure, leading to sustainable economic growth, increased competitiveness, and improved living standards.
... The governance scheme for the S3 in Friuli Venezia Giulia has been subject to streamlining where the region worked to put in place a more functional governance structure that seeks to ensure effective engagement of the quadruple-helix actors (businesses, government, academia, civil society) as suggested by the EC (Komninos et al., 2018). The new governance architecture became operational in December 2019, and Region considers it fitted for the new 2021-27 S3. ...
Smart Specialisation Strategy is a place-based EU policy that seeks to enhance regional competitiveness through leveraging and bolstering innovation in the selected priority areas (industries or technologies) in each region. The new iteration of S3 requires developing cross-border collaborations with regions possessing complex and complementary technological expertise currently missing in a region to upgrade its technological evolution. The reason for this is that new growth opportunities arise from recombining existing technological capabilities while more complex technologies offer strong competitive advantage. This paper presents a simple roadmap for regional S3 internationalisation and the results of an in-depth case study on the opportunities for and barriers to S3 internationalisation in Friuli Venezia Giulia (FVG), a region in the North East of Italy. The paper develops recommendations on how to make the most of the Research, Technology, Development and Innovation endowments in FVG through enhancing the innovation-internationalisation nexus in order to improve competitiveness of the region.
... Thus, a new design of S3 should provide a more cohesive and comprehensive user engagement within an inclusive quadruple helix approach, which involves authorities, universities, enterprises, and society (Carayannis and Campbell 2009;Carayannis et al. 2018a, b, c;Carayannis et al. 2018b;Carayannis and Rakhmatullin 2014;Thomas 2017). Currently, stakeholder engagement is based on triple than quadruple helix participation (Komninos et al. 2018b). Moreover, as Severijns (2017, p. 6) states clearly in his review of the history and future of regional innovation policy in Europe "at the end of the day the human factor counts most," it is reasonable to expect that conclusions about the role of the human factor in innovation would be particularly useful in the formulation of next generation of innovation policy. ...
Innovation is considered a key driver for economic growth and is usually studied in the form of systems, with the regional level being arguably the most important. Despite constantly improving technological infrastructure, the human-related aspects of innovation are still the most important part of the innovation process. The human factor in innovation essentially consists of three components: (1) human capital, which refers to education, knowledge, and skills; (2) social capital, which refers to the strength of social links and social coherence; and (3) psychological capital, which refers to peoples’ values, attitudes, and behaviors. The research findings confirmed this view and showed which specific indicators of the three types of capital had a significant impact on innovation output. A new, extended regional innovation scoreboard emphasizing the human factor, is proposed. Also, based on the findings, and bearing in mind current EU innovation policies, a number of measures are proposed in order to suggest “more human” smart specialization policies in order to increase innovation in European regions and coherence between them.
This chapter investigates the core building blocks of externality emergence, having the various proximity forms as a key aspect of diversification. More specifically, we will use routines as a starting point for our analysis connecting them with productivity and innovation processes. Empirical examples will enable us to decompose a set of routines into their main entities, for which we will identify a set of digital elements that can be used to reproduce those routines in digital space toward empowering externalities. This chapter aims at developing a concrete theoretical bridge between the abstract notion of externalities and the physical elements of the digital space.
In this chapter, a specific focus is given on the main dynamics rising within and between the various spatial elements that are responsible for shaping modern societies and economies. Dynamic processes, such as agglomeration economies, changing organizational structures, and mobility patterns, are decomposed into their fundamental elements and building blocks for revealing their underlying mechanisms. The role of technology on facilitating these processes is investigated, trying to identify the ways in which it can fill the gaps and drawbacks of traditional forms of space. How can digital space enhance agglomeration economies? Which organizational structures can benefit from novel technologies? What is the role of digital space in changing mobility patterns?
Despite the extent and importance of the Smart Specialization strategies, achieved in a short co-hesion policy period of 2014-2020, the evidence on the assessment of its actual effect on the eco-nomic development and the mobilization via the Smart Specialization implementation of the re-gions is still pending. In the light of green transformation, accelerated by the European Green Deal, at the heart of Smart Specialization strategies of EU regions is to avoid fragmentation and to reach a complementary in reaching the joint EU ambition of climate neutrality by 2050. This article aims to demonstrate how to identify the region-specific (place-based & bottom-up) pathways for green transformation and align them with the European Green Deal-focused Smart Specialization strategies in regions, using moderated co-creation in DPSIR analysis and policy modeling. The findings of this article are based on the moderated experimental experience from the two inter-connected projects in the area, i.e. “LARS” and “GRETA”, implemented in the Baltic Sea Region (October 2017- September 2021). The research proposes how moderated learning and knowledge transfer between matured innovators and young innovators embodies the identification of place-based pathways and help develop political course recommendations for green transfor-mation, thus solving the homogeneity issues of the Smart Specialization strategies.
This research paper focuses on pathways towards a digital and green transition. We assess a generic pathway for the transformation of industry ecosystems in cities and regions based on processes of prioritisation, ecosystem identification, and platform-based digital and green transition. We start with problem definition and hypotheses; review related works on transition pathways, such as digital transition, green transition, system innovation, industry ecosystems, and multi-level perspective of transformation; assess the generic pathway with case studies; and conclude with a discussion of findings, outline of conclusions, and policy implications. Overall, the paper investigates pathways, priorities, and methods allowing public authorities and business organisations to master the current industrial transformation of cities and regions introduced by the twin digital and green transitions as an opportunity for radical change of city ecosystems, innovation leapfrogging, and system innovation.
Intellectual capital is an overarching concept that includes the intangible, human-related factors that are relevant to the innovation process, such as human capital and social capital. In the present study, intellectual capital was assessed by indicators measuring different aspects of human and social capital. Factor analysis demonstrated the existence of three underlying factors, with all variables of the model having important contributions to them. A linear regression analysis indicated that 8 out of the 12 variables of intellectual capital used have a statistically significant impact on the measure of innovation output. These findings were discussed and their implications for policy were considered. The paper provides research evidence on the importance of intellectual capital for innovation output and discusses potential ways to achieve smart, sustainable and inclusive growth in the context of the next generation of sustainable smart specialisation strategies.
Engineering is crucial for the economic success of products and services. However, the criteria for success change: Price, quality and functionality are no longer the only key factors. Instead, engineering increasingly creates the prerequisites for future business models by supplying supporting services and new ways of product upgrades. In the future engineering will accompany the entire lifetime of a product.
Against this background, it is extremely advantageous if operational interaction between companies, which is taken for granted today, also reflects in a process of collaborative engineering. In this way, manufacturing being strongly characterised by a division of labour and multi-component-systems can be mapped in a joint engineer- ing process involving multiple companies. As a result, components and end products can be better coordinated in the initial design phase. Should any changes or further developments occur at a later point in time, component manufacturers, system integrators as well as new stakeholders can develop the system further without the need to carry out time-consuming data transformation or stock-taking processes.
Most of today’s experiences in collaborative work can be found in research and development (R&D), i. e. primarily during the pre-competition phase. This interaction is often described by the catchword ‘open innovation’. Close co-operation models have also made their inroads into manufacturing, one example being automobile production with its supplier network. Moreover, subcontracting engineering services have become common practice today. Subcontracting, however, refers to limited and rather temporary business relationships that are additionally based on clear-cut contractual relationships (commissioning). The collaboration model, on the other hand, is based on equality. Regional innovation clusters, for example, represent such an ecosystem aimed at equality and long-term strategic partnership that has proven to be economically successful in recent decades.
In the context of this study, face-to-face and group interviews were conducted with 36 experts from companies and research institutions in order to learn about their views regarding the challenges of collaborative engineering in the fields of technolo- gy, work organisation, economics and law and/or to obtain their feedback on a draft version in a review workshop.
It was found that it was still too early for a detailed strategic roadmap for the concrete implementation of collaborative engineering. The status quo and foreseeable steps to create the basis for collaborative engineering can nevertheless be well described:
From a technical perspective, foreseeable and necessary steps to take are the development of data and exchange formats being compatible across domains and value chains, the ability to ensure data consistency among collaborators and the development of tools that allow for a task-specific dimension reduction. Artificial intelligence will be included in engineering as a newly available capability. As an engineering tool, however, the employment of artificial intelligence will continue to be limited to routine tasks in the foreseeable future due to the technology’s current state of development.
Whilst engineering, especially with regard to its creative component, is less likely to be fully automated, changes in work culture will definitely take place: Heterogeneous teams, agility and quasi-parallel work present new challenges. Regional and technical cultural differences can only be overcome by strengthening interdisciplinary communication skills and developing a culture of communication.
The challenge of data management and storage in future collaborative engineer- ing is one example that illustrates the complexity due to the close interaction between different examination levels. Here, technical aspects as well as economic and legal factors will be crucial for all future developments. Both centralized platform concepts and decentralized peer-to-peer solutions appear to be promis- ing and have their pros and cons for different use cases. Accordingly, it remains to be seen which solution for collaborative engineering and the associated value chains and business models will prevail in the capital goods industry.
The legal situation in collaborative engineering is worrying for users in various respects. Conventional approaches fail to map global value chains to national legislation adequately. Strongly internationalised copyright or patent law will have a key role due to the importance of the ‘level of creativity’ characterizing individu- al and collaborative engineering services from a legal point of view. On the other hand, the legal concept of ‘data sovereignty’ as the basis for business models in a data-driven economy is only in its early development phase. Elaborated contractual agreements can compensate for this, but might lead to an image of asymmetric market power.
The concept of the digital twin will have to be expanded in order to fulfil its key function as a virtual image of products, services and processes and to reflect all the observation levels relevant for the engineering process itself. This expansion will, for example, enable the simulation of business models for economic potential evaluation, incorporate information regarding the authorship and expertise of individuals, establish collaborative business and participation models and also take nationally applicable regulations and laws into account. The expanded digital twin will hence become the key element of success for the widespread use of collaborative engineering.
The handbook aims at taking stock of the Smart Specialisation experience and presenting its current state of the art, both in terms of conceptual developments and practical implementation.
In the European Union (EU) multiple levels of governance interact in the design of public policies. Multi-level policies require a variety of evidence to define problems appropriately, set the right objectives and create suitable instruments to achieve them. How such a variety of evidence is used in practice, however, remains largely elusive. In 2013, the reformed EU Cohesion Policy brought about a sea change in the way governments must justify their investment priorities to support innovation and economic development. One of many new 'ex-ante conditionalities' sought to improve the design of regional innovation policies by putting strong emphasis on the underlying evidence base of policy strategies. A multitude of data sources had to be combined to meet this novel requirement in 120 regional and national strategy documents. Combining various data sources meaningfully was a necessary first step to engage with stakeholders from relevant business and research communities to jointly develop and decide on priorities for public investments. Stakeholder organisations had the opportunity to contest insights coming from official statistics. But how do governments reconcile insights from socio-economic analyses with differing views from stakeholders? We illustrate how such contestation of evidence has unfolded in the Basque Country. In this region, socio-economic analysis and broader stakeholder consultation rapidly confirmed three investment priorities that had been already quite established. Stakeholders from local governments, universities and other government departments contested this choice as not fully representative of the local potential and societal needs. Through their participation in a multi-stakeholder body advising the government they succeeded in adding four priorities that address local societal issues: sustainable food, urban living, culture and environmental protection. Our findings underline that rational planning using statistics gets governments only so far in meeting pressing societal challenges. Stakeholders contesting and complementing statistical insights make policies more responsive to local needs.
Modern cities face today a wide range of problems (crime, pollution, traffic congestion, unemployment) which affect the whole spectrum of economic and social life in the urban space. Although the design and implementation of urban strategies targeting such complex problems constitutes a task of governmental and municipal authorities, more recent views place the matter very close to the collaborative efforts of individuals through the sharing of responsibility and participation to active planning. In recent years, response and participation of citizens has been elevated through the use of social media and the development of web-based tools and collaborative platforms, the power of which has proven to be significant in many cases. This article, based on the experience of two research projects, studies a number of web based applications and digital platforms that serve as facilitators for the participation of citizens in activities of collaborative innovation. More specifically, by examining the dynamics of such tools on different stages of the innovation process, from idea generation to experimentation and financing, we discover new forms of interaction and engagement among different actors of the innovation ecosystem. Such forms of collaboration allow the emergence of collective intelligent which can enhance or even replace the efforts of responsible authorities, as they lead to more innovative and effective solutions, more informed decisions, while it can also ensure wider acceptance by the community and the relevant stakeholders.
The paper discusses the conditions that allow diverse phenomena such as 'smart growth', 'smart specialisation', 'smart cities', and 'smart communities' to be considered as constituting components of the 'smart everything' paradigm. We look at the features of the smart everything paradigm and how it relates to this group of concepts that describe the current dynamics and policies of development. We argue that the unifying condition allowing such diverse phenomena to be aggregated under the 'smart everything' paradigm is the creation of cyber-physical systems of innovation, based on Internet and worldwide web platforms that orchestrate disruptive innovations, social innovations, and eco-innovations. The paper concludes with some modifications in the knowledge-based development theory that derive from the smart everything paradigm and the wide use of Internet platforms to sustain collaboration, awareness, and growth.
This paper reports on the findings of the Online-S3 project, funded under the Horizon 2020 Programme (ISSI-4-2015), which tries to address the challenge of strengthening regional smart growth policies by developing an online platform for policy advice. The Online-S3 Platform offers a web-based environment for supporting the design, implementation and assessment of Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisation (RIS3) aiming to enrich the methodological framework that is being used towards enhancing smart growth policy design processes in EU regions. The paper first provides an overview of the Online-S3 platform, and then, focuses on the applications that could be used to help regional and national authorities during the priority setting phase of a RIS3 strategic planning process. Given that this phase relates to the identification and selection of specific sectors that can be used as flagships to support regional growth, the Online-S3 Platform offers a great tool towards enhancing the effectiveness of the smart growth paradigm.
The notion of a territorial entrepreneurial discovery process has gained much traction through its appearance at the core of smart specialization strategies. This paper uses evidence from eight European regions to explore what in practice is conditioning the emergence of new forms of quadruple-helix governance that underpin this concept. The paper develops a framework that highlights the key factors that have conditioned the governance of RIS3 design and are likely to continue to shape emergent regional entrepreneurial discovery processes.
This article suggests the Entrepreneurial Discovery Process (EPD) that underlies Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisation (RIS3) is not so much caught in the transition from the Triple to the Quadruple Helix, as rooted in a division within civil society. In particular, rooted in a division within civil society, over public trust in the EDP and around the democratic deficit of RIS3. Over public trust in the EDP and around the democratic deficit of RIS3 as a transgression, which centers attention on the participatory governance of science and technology, which is regressive in nature and whose knowledge economy seeks to overcome such limitations as part of the search for sustainable regional growth that serves civil society.
The European Commission, through Carlos Moedas, Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, invited Professor Mazzucato to draw up strategic recommendations to maximise the impact of the future EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation through mission-oriented policy. This report is the result of Professor Mazzucato’s reflections based on her research, with inputs through a consultation process with internal and external stakeholders of the European Commission.
This paper summarizes the outcomes of a literature review on smart cities and goes on to provide an overview of the critical insights it offers. Bypassing mainstream academic readings of the subject and offering a critique of the Smart City Ranking, future internet development and Triple Helix models, the insights this review offers go beyond the state-of-the-art. That is to say, beyond the status of Smart City Ranking and articulations of the future internet development thesis, by overcoming the criticisms which «mode 2» and «mode 3» accounts of knowledge production otherwise levy at the Triple Helix model. The critical synthesis that is set out in this paper presents the metrics of a future internet-based governance discernable as a measure of wealth created from the intellectual capital of these technologies and their applications as urban and regional innovations.