Alentejo selected for European Union regional innovation pilot project

From Portugal, the regions of the Azores and North were also selected

Alentejo is one of the 63 European regions selected for the pilot project of partnerships for regional innovation, an initiative developed jointly with the Committee of the Regions.

From Portugal, the regions of the Azores and the North were also selected, as well as, at European level, seven cities and four Member States.

Participants in the pilot will share best practices and jointly test and develop tools to mobilize multiple sources of funding and policies, as well as to connect regional and national programs with EU initiatives for ecological and digital transformation.

Participants in the pilot project will explore new partnerships for regional innovation based on the 'Tactical Handbook on Partnerships for Regional Innovation', an initial guidance document published last week by the Joint Research Center.

The partnerships are based on the future Innovation Program for Europe, helping to integrate initiatives and investments at national and EU level.

The Portuguese Elisa Ferreira, European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, said that “cooperation and innovation are essential ingredients for the sustainable and resilient development of EU regions. All territories have an innovation potential that needs to be tapped, so I welcomed the great interest raised by the call for proposals'.

“I look forward to the results of the pilot project and hope that it will help to bridge the persistent divide in the field of innovation between regions, which limits the performance of the EU as a whole”, added Elisa Ferreira.

Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, said: “It is only possible to build stronger, cleaner economies and fairer societies if innovation is at the heart of the EU's policy agenda. We need innovation in all regions and all countries, connected to each other, in order to succeed in the ecological and digital transitions. These partnerships allow us to build bridges to facilitate investment synergies and innovative solutions. I look forward to the innovative ideas and approaches they will develop together.”

The president of the European Committee of the Regions, Apostolos Tzitzikostas, added that “by promoting innovation, we strengthen local resilience and improve the ability of our local communities to face emergencies, protect citizens and support local economies”.

“In this context, we count on Commissioners Elisa Ferreira and Mariya Gabriel to work together on partnerships for regional innovation, which are a fundamental instrument for coordinating all available funds to spread innovation on the ground, focusing on making our regions , more energy-efficient and sustainable towns and villages", added the President of the Committee of the Regions.

The invitation attracted wide representation of the EU's innovation ecosystem, from Member States such as Slovakia – which participate at national level – to a wide range of EU regions such as Andalusia, the Azores, the Hauts-de-France region , Ostrobothnia, Subcarpathia, the North Aegean region, Emilia-Romagna and several others.

The invitation also triggered a process of collaboration and networking, from the bottom up, bringing together many participants within the framework of multi-regional networks.

Participants include, for example, the Baltic Sea region, the Bioregions Mechanism and an expanded 'Cities 4.0' consortium (Leuven, Bologna Turku), which also involves Eindhoven (NL), Espoo (FI) and Cluj-Napoca (RO ).

 

Elizabeth Ferreira

Tactical Manual of Partnerships for Regional Innovation

Participants in the pilot project will explore new partnerships for regional innovation based on the 'Tactical Handbook on Partnerships for Regional Innovation', an initial guidance document published by the Joint Research Centre.

This handbook proposes a wide range of governance instruments and mechanisms to strengthen the coordination of regional, national and EU innovation policies in order to implement Europe's green and digital transitions and tackle the EU innovation divide.

The introduction of local missions to coordinate actions according to a coherent directional logic is a central element of the proposed approach, allowing the exploration of broad policy combinations for systems-level innovation.

During the pilot action, participants will test the relevant policy instruments while developing operational guidelines.

The Tactical Manual and the pilot action should also promote good practices, facilitate learning through experimentation and support public administrations and the ecosystem in general. The pilot action will have no impact on the current programming process for the 2021-2027 funds.

 

Context

Partnerships are based on future new Innovation Program for Europe, helping to integrate initiatives and investments at national and EU level.

This is a direct effort to improve innovation ecosystems as a key area to improve Europe's innovation performance.

The main objective is to strengthen the interconnection of regional and local innovation ecosystems, as well as Europe's sustainable value chains and deep technology sectors.

Partnerships are a complementary approach, building on positive experience with smart specialization strategies.

Smart specialization is a locally based approach stemming from EU cohesion policy, which seeks to identify strategic areas of intervention based on an analysis of the strengths and potential of the economy, as well as an entrepreneurial discovery process with broad stakeholder participation. interested.

Smart specialization focuses on innovation and plays an important role in supporting research and innovation in order to ensure the sustainable and resilient development of all regions in Europe.

The participation of the selected territories will take place individually or within the framework of six different networks of EU regions and cities. In total, 23 Member States are represented among the participants in the pilot action.

The call for expressions of interest was open between March and April of this year.

 

 



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