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).

RELATED DOCUMENTS

Reflection paper on harnessing globalisation (COM(2017) 240 final, 10.5.2017).

last update 07.03.2022