Strengthening innovation in Europe’s regions: Strategies for resilient, inclusive and sustainable growth

SUMMARY OF:

Commission communication – Strengthening innovation in Europe’s regions

WHAT IS THE AIM OF THE COMMUNICATION?

It aims to:

boost the innovation and competitiveness potential of the European Union’s (EU) regions, as a basis for sustainable growth;
increase interregional cooperation, which is a key element in globalised economies;
increase the focus on less-developed and industrial transition regions;
improve and build on joint work across EU policies and programmes supporting innovation.

KEY POINTS

Smart specialisation

The communication promotes a smart specialisation strategy for EU regions.
The strategy was initially integrated into the reformed EU cohesion policy for 2014–2020 to maximise the positive impact on growth and jobs.
It focuses on:
- identifying the region’s own strengths and comparative assets;
- prioritising research and innovation investment in competitive areas;
- defining a shared vision for regional innovation.

Key challenges

The European Commission identifies four key challenges in the communication and sets out proposals to tackle each one.

1.
Boosting innovation capacity in less-developed and industrial transition regions
The Commission proposes:
- continued support from the smart specialisation platform to implement national and regional smart specialisation strategies;
- promotion of an EU-funded pilot action, Horizon 2020 policy support facility (now Horizon Europe 2021–2027 policy support facility), including a number of volunteer regions to help reform their innovation systems based on their smart specialisation strategies;
- use of the Technical Support Instrument (TSI) to help design and implement reforms.
2.
Increasing cooperation in innovation investment across regions
Building on existing smart specialisation actions such as the Vanguard initiative, the Commission proposes:
- an EU-funded pilot action, supported through the European Regional Development Fund, to scale up interregional innovation projects in cooperation with EU Member States – 5 to 10 thematic partnerships will be created with policymakers, researchers, businesses and other innovators, targeting economic sectors with high added value.
3.
Reforming regional innovation systems
To encourage reform and address the needs of smart specialisation strategies of less-developed and industrial transition regions, the Commission will step up its efforts to encourage Member States to make full use of available EU support. A pilot action is set up to facilitate the combined use of existing EU instruments and programmes managed by the Commission together with cohesion policy resources.
4.
Facilitating synergies between EU policies and instruments
- A number of regional, national and European policy instruments help promote research and innovation, growth and competitiveness, and interregional cooperation.
- Having already taken steps to promote and simplify combinations and synergies between the European Fund for Strategic Investments, Horizon 2020 (now Horizon Europe) and cohesion policy funds, the Commission proposes:
  - to continue to work with national and regional authorities and help them combine the funds, in particular by clarifying synergies with State aid and public procurement;
  - to look at providing assistance on the ground by means of dedicated investment envoys, who would act as a first point of contact for local people and bodies involved, to maximise the impact of different EU funds.

BACKGROUND

For further information, see:

Challenges ahead: boosting innovation-led growth in EU regions – press memo (European Commission).

MAIN DOCUMENT

Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions – Strengthening Innovation in Europe’s Regions: Strategies for resilient, inclusive and sustainable growth (COM(2017) 376 final, 18.7.2017).

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