S3 creates regional innovation hubs

Portugal

Centro (2016)

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Centro Regional Coordination and Development Commission

The design of our S3 has increased the level of participation in policy making. Instrumental to this was its integration with wider reflections on a new regional action plan that underpins the ESIF Operational Programme. Together the package is known as CRER2020, an acronym that includes competitiveness and resilience, and translates as 'believe' in English. This regional vision was built through brain storming sessions with more than 700 people and 300 entities. It was articulated into a 'Regional Wikipedia' made up of 42 sections on different social and economic themes.

The S3 exercise emerged naturally from this wider process, with innovation actors becoming part of a governance structure that includes a coordination council, a management team, an expert advisory board and a regional forum. In Centro we recognise that stimulating fertile platforms of related variety, governance and monitoring are the main factors that will influence the success of our S3.

Centro’s S3 priorities are built around four innovation hubs: Sustainable industrial solutions, Valorisation and efficient use of natural endogenous resources, Technologies for the quality of life and Territorial innovation. The latter was a natural outcome of the strong participation of territorial interests, including Local Action Groups that follow the Leader approach. Furthermore, these hubs overlap with the most important regional clusters.

Participation in strategy design is spilling over into the implementation phase. The S3 hubs, which are coordinated by well-known personalities can bring people together and foster cooperation. These are the leaders and protagonists that are driving our S3 from the bottom up.
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In Centro we recognise that stimulating fertile platforms of related variety, governance and monitoring are the main factors that will influence the success of our S3.