ICTIMED

The ICTIMED event featured Prof. Foray as the keynote speaker. His presentation emphasised, appropriately, the need to avoid emphasising sectors and thinking in sectoral terms when addressing smart specialisation. He also undescored the importance of a bottom-up approach in pursuing smart specialistaion strategies. His presentation showed how much smart specialisation has travelled and has matured since its early years. The audience, and set of speakers, included key academic figures in Cyprus, as well as representatives of the government, including the office of the President of the Republic of Cyprus. There were a few questions addressed to Prof. Foray, who had to leave soon after his presentation, and an academic discussion that emerged at the end regarding ways to think about strategies, as well as many practical questions regarding who registers in the S3 Platform, when, why, how, etc. All in all, the process is at an early stage in Cyprus, but there is much and serious interest in the process and its outcomes. Interestingly, the audience included an important representation of local authorities from throughout Cyprus. Perhaps also indicatively, it was not held in the capital.