RELOS3 targets Objective 4 of the Bologna Metropolitan Strategic Plan 2.0 (PSM).  This involves the promotion of entrepreneurship, innovation of supply chains and manufacturing. The PSM 2.0 and its Objective 4 is related to the Emilia-Romagna RIS3, in order to avoid resource leaks and to favour shared addressed, concrete and effective objective.

In fact the key sectors identified at regional level by S3 reflect the Bologna's specializations and growing sectors. It aims at fostering new production concepts and new business models, giving value and strength to the development of highly innovative areas with high potential for growth and employment absorption.

This will also enhance the strategic link with training and research, in order to strengthen the Science, Technology and Engineering culture which is typical in the area. It fosters a public and private system of integrated services in support of the promotion of entrepreneurship, with the aim in 2020 to increase our business start-ups by 20 percent.

In order to consolidate the Bologna positioning improvement targets for PSM are:

To improve industrial specialization, in particular advanced manufacturing, sectors with high growth potential and Science, Technology and Engineering jobs for a better matching between offer and needs of enterprises.

To promote innovation and improve the link between research and industry by categorizing the support services, through a detailed action plan, involving the major local actors. This improvement is aligned with specific objective 3 of RELOS3 project.

The Operational Programme for the Wielkopolska Region 2014-2020, Thematic objective 1 and 3, Priority axis 1 main features are to make tight connections between support of R&D technology and innovation with the competitiveness of the SME. It is designed to facilitate management and development of regional smart specializations.

The current presence of RIS3 deployment strategy in Operational Programe - Priority Axis 1 together with the monitoring of present and possible smart specializations could be improved:

Wielkopolska is one of the most diverse regions in Poland. Distinct differences are noticeable at the level of sub-regions so there is a need to fit the innovation policy to the local specifics and to go deeper with the Entrpeneurial Discovery Progress to subregional and local levels.

One of the strategic RIS3 programmes “Proinnovative local government” aiming to deploy RIS3 and EDP at the local level, as well as building up innovation ecosystems, should have a more important reflection in Operation Programmes.

The existing monitoring system of RIS3 and the underlying Operational Programme could pay more attention to identify possible new smart specializations within the Entrepreneurial Discovery Process.

Improved monitoring mechanisms through RELOS3 would be true value for the regional policy in the present and the future financial period as Operational Programme could reward projects that covers subregional specializations in special in the industrial area, particularly if they involve the Quadruple Helix in its entirety.

The Northern Netherlands Specialisation Strategy (RIS3NNL) will be deployed through the Operational Programme North.  For RELOS3, especially Priority Axis 1: To promote research, technological development and innovation is of interest, and particularly priority axis 1b: Innovation 2020.

The Quadruple Helix is present within RIS3NNL.  Companies, knowledge institutions, citizens and government (at all levels) are connected and work together.  They are all geared around smarter innovation.  The Northern Netherlands wants to be a ‘smart region’ and thinks of itself as ‘Living Lab’.

In Emmen, the chemistry sector is the dominant sector, it is a Key Enabling Technology for advanced materials.  Although the strategic overview and focus on the horizon has been important for setting up, the practical implementation can sometimes be tough.  Even for big local authorities in Emmen it can be difficult to develop suitable local strategies.

Important reasons for Emmen to be involved in the project and to improvement the current situation is that currently, RIS3NNL does not foresee a procedure to link projects with funding from other programmes or initiatives (from public sources such as the EU, national and provincial programmes, but also crowd-funding, or cooperatives). By aligning and creating more flexible cooperation between these type projects with hybrid funding, the impact of actions will increase.

In Emmen itself, particularly the chemistry sector is important.  Developing the green chemistry and feeding this back into the OP could be a real asset to the PI.

Priority 2 (Tartu is a city of smart entrepreneurship) of the policy instrument includes three objectives and the current project would mainly focus on two of them:

• The enterprises in Tartu are of great vitality and create high added value (Objective E6)
• Tartu has attractive investment environment and is the best place for starting business in Estonia (Objective E7)

Among other issues the policy instrument notes the importance of developing networks between public and private actors which links with the objectives of RELOS3. Tartu targets concrete smart specialisation sectors selected on a national level, e.g. ICT, advanced manufacturing, and biotechnology. The main goal is to increase the region's economic growth and provide jobs by supporting a shift towards high technology sectors.

It would be necessary to improve the policy instrument by:

• Defining a more systematic roadmap and mechanisms for the city government to enable and boost a desired change in the future.
• Strengthening entrepreneurial ecosystem in the region to support companies in order to increase the number of sustainable and successful companies and jobs in the fields of smart specialisation
• More result-oriented. If the business environment influenced by the city is not good enough then the local companies might move out (the number jobs would decrease) and obviously it would be nearly impossible to attract new and high-tech companies.

*** THE REGION OF WESTERN MACEDONIA IS NO LONGER A PARTNER IN THE RELOS3 PROJECT ***

Malta Enterprise will address three specific parts of the Operational Programme for European Funding in the nation ERDF OP.  These are:

• Investing in research, technological development & innovation.
• Enhancing R&I infrastructure and capacities to develop R&I excellence, and promoting centres of competence, in particular those of European interest.
• Stimulating participation in R&D&I through the development of the necessary public infrastructure in line with the Smart Specialisation Strategy.

This instrument aims to support actions to develop public infrastructure for the creation of multi-disciplinary research to enable Malta’s increased participation in research, resulting in increased collaboration across sectors as well as in the Quadruple Helix.  Thematic specialisation areas mentioned in the National Research and Innovation Strategy 2020 include: maritime, aviation, health and resource-efficient buildings.

REASONS TO BE IMPROVED:

-Is necessary to assist the policy owner to improve appropriate tools for RIS3 deployment at local level as a part of the regional innovation policy

-Suggest private-public initiatives in line with the Regional Smart Specialization

-Assist other R&D projects led by public sector in the framework of Smart Specialization and create a closer collaboration network with all the relevant innovation actors in the country.