JRC – KAIST Joint Workshop on Emerging Issues of Smart Specialisation and Regional Innovation in the Age of the 4th Industrial Revolution

  • 25 Jul 2019 to 26 Jul 2019
  • Joint Research Centre, Room A41, Edificio Expo, C. Inca Garcilaso 3, 41092, Sevilla

This workshop presented the work of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) and of KAIST Fourth Industrial Revolution Intelligence Center (FIRIC) and identified possible collaborative research projects, aligned to the missions of the two organizations.

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Agenda and Presentations

25 July 2019

Room A41

09:30-10:00

 

Arrival and registration of the KAIST delegation 

 

10:00-10:10

 

 

Welcome

Dr. Mark Boden, Team Leader, STRIVE, Territorial Development Unit B3, JRC Seville

 

10:10-10:15

 

Tour de table – introductions of the JRC and KAIST participants

 

10:15 – 11:30

Session 1: Overview of JRC's work on Regional Innovation, Smart Specialisation and

Industrial Transitions

The implementation of Smart Specialisation, as a core concept of EC's Cohesion Policy, has triggered significant changes in the vision, implementation and governance of research and innovation policy in Europe. Important implications have emerged for the development of regional innovation ecosystems, especially in centralised countries, and in the coordination between national and regional authorities. The mechanisms by which Smart Specialisation can stimulate the generation and diffusion of new technologies and support industrial transitions are also of key importance. This session provided an overview of JRC's complex support to Smart Specialisation to advance innovation and regional development.

 

Moderator: Dr. Mark Boden

 

Dr. Mark Boden

Dr. Mark Boden provided an overview of one of JRC's major support programmes for the implementation of Smart Specialisation, which is coordinated in collaboration with DG REGIO, national and regional authorities.

 

Dr. Marina Ranga, project coordinator, Territorial Development Unit B3, JRC Seville

The presentation focused on the S3 role in catalysing the development of early-stage regional innovation systems in Lagging Regions, either by facilitating the emergence of some key research and innovation elements that were lacking or by accelerating the development of others, such as: a regional knowledge base and a dynamic learning process, institutional capacity, network integration mechanisms among key innovation actors, regional industrial specialisations, and collective identities.

 

Dr. Dimitrios Pontikakis, project coordinator, Territorial Development Unit B3, JRC Seville

The presentation introduced the activities of the Working Group "Understanding and Managing Industrial Transitions", under the JRC Project "Targeted RIS3 Support to Lagging Regions". The focus was placed on the POINT Reviews (Projecting Opportunities for INdustrial Transitions), which aim to build the evidence base for the enabling condition of good governance foreseen in the next multi-annual financing period of the EU Structural Funds.

11:30 - 12:00

Coffee break

12:00 – 13:30

Session 2:  Regional Innovation Partnerships, Clusters and Industry 4.0: A Regional and Firm-Level Perspective

Industry 4.0 transforms businesses through digitalization, automatization and robotics, and requires a rethinking of the role of innovation partnerships, especially those driven by clusters, in shaping industry. This session brought different perspectives on: the relationship between innovation clusters, global value chains and industry 4.0 in the EU and Asia; Emerging trends, research and practice that are shaping Industry 4.0.; Regional mechanisms on policy development, coordination, funding and implementation in the EU and Korea.

 

Moderator: Dr. Mark Boden

 

Dr. Ruslan Rakhmatullin, coordinator of the S3P Thematic Platforms Agri-Food and Industrial Modernisation, Territorial Development Unit B3,  JRC Seville

This presentation introduced the thematic approach to S3 and the way it can help regions improve their global competitiveness through interregional partnerships. This approach is exemplified by the three thematic platforms Agri-Food, Energy, and Industrial Modernisation, which were launched by the EC since 2015 to help regional and national actors identify synergies between their S3 and interregional cooperation to boost industrial competitiveness and innovation.

 

  • Regional Innovation Cluster for 4IR: The case of North Korea

Dr. Hyeon Dae (Heidi) RHA, researcher at FIRIC, KAIST

The speaker introduced the North Korea policy and the status of technologies (AI, IoT, CNC, Quantum Information Telecommunication, and Cyber Security) for the Fourth Industrial Revolution in North Korea. She highlighted major North Korea strategies for technology development, including the high-tech innovation cluster in Unjeong High Technology Development Zone, Pyongyang city, relying on case studies of ongoing Smart City, Smart Farm and Smart Factory projects in Pyongyang. The potential for cooperation between North Korea and South Korea to promote the development of technologies underpinning Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies in North Korea was explained.

 

Dr. Mafini Dosso, Territorial Development Unit B3, JRC Seville

This presentation introduced the GLObal Research and Innovation Analyses project (GLORIA) and highlighted current and future trends in Industry 4.0 technologies from the perspectives of R&D-intensive companies. The GLORIA project provides annual R&D rankings (EU Scoreboards and EU Surveys) and evidence on the technological and innovation dynamics of the world’s leading R&D investors. Insights from the latest GLORIA workshop on “Global corporate value chains and innovation networks in the fourth industrial era: new models of production and work organization” will also be presented.

13:30 – 14:30

Lunch

14:30-15:45

Session 3:  Work and Inclusive Growth in the Era of the 4th Industrial revolution and S3

Expanding participation, ethic and values are emerging concerns and issues that are inspiring new questions for governance of emerging technologies. This session addressed emerging technologies’ application, participation and platforms for inclusive growth. In particular, emerging questions-on social-political implications of radical technologies, social problems, policy analysis and recommendations, and a roadmap and platforms for inclusive technologies were addressed.

 

Moderator: Prof. So Young Kim, Head of KAIST Graduate School of S&T Policy

 

  • Integrating Technological and Social Innovations in the Context of the 4th Industrial Revolution

Prof. So Young Kim, Head of KAIST Graduate School of S&T Policy

The speaker discussed high-stake issues accompanying the global governance of emerging technologies driving the 4th Industrial Revolution.

 

Dr. Cornelius Kalenzi, Postdoctoral Fellow at FIRIC, KAIST

The speaker explained emerging developments of global and local platforms for inclusive growth and governance of AI in the age of the 4th Industrial Revolution.

 

  • The changing nature of work and skills

Dr. Santo Milasi , B7 Knowledge for Finance, Innovation and Growth Unit, JRC  Brussels

The presentation described how the digital revolution is causing significant changes in the world of work. It discussed the impact of technology on the number, nature and structure of jobs, and the implications for skills needs, which are evolving in the EU towards digital and non-cognitive skills. It also analysed the recent upwards trend in new forms of employment in the EU, and included results from a new JRC-Eurofound study on the patterns of occupational change in EU regions.

 

15:45-16:15

Coffee break

16:15-17:30

Session 4: Digital economy

This session took a closer look at key changes arising in the Digital Economy, such as Blockchain projects and Open Government Data, and their implications for public administration and the private sector.

 

Moderator: Prof. So Young Kim, Head of KAIST Graduate School of S&T Policy

 

Dr. Kibae Kim, senior researcher at FIRIC, KAIST

The speaker introduced cases in which regional governments of Korea adopt Blockchain to build their own regional economies and integrate them with their public services. He also analysed the business principles of Blockchain, i.e. decentralized automation, platform architecture, cyber-physical media, and cryptocurrency; as well as compare them with similar concepts such as tokens, securities and cyber currency. The analysis results raise a doubt whether the business principles of Blockchain could support achieving those goals of regional governments and be advantageous for similar technologies.

 

Dr. Dimitris Mavridis,  Digital Economy Unit B6, JRC Seville

This presentation provided an overall picture of JRC's Digital Economy Unit B6, focusing on its Strategic mission, Project rooster, Digitranscope and  AI Watch (AI Observatory)

 

  • The Role and Effect of APIs in Digital Innovation and Good Governance

Dr. Dimitris Mavridis

The Open Government Data movement is nearing a decade of existence, but the effects of this policy initiative are still largely impalpable. This talk provided an analytical framework for the investigation of the value chain that delivers public sector information assets to final users through the intermediation of a layer of digital innovators. It also highlighted the opportunities and challenges of this technological improvement in the delivery of public sector information assets, focusing on two areas: digital innovation in the private sector, and good governance.

17:30-17:45

  • Wrap-up

 

Muchas gracias!

Practical Information

When
25 Jul 2019 to 26 Jul 2019
Where
Joint Research Centre, Room A41, Edificio Expo, C. Inca Garcilaso 3, 41092, Sevilla
Registration Information
By invitation

Description

This workshop presented the work of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) and of KAIST Fourth Industrial Revolution Intelligence Center (FIRIC) and identified possible collaborative research projects, aligned to the missions of the two organizations.  

The Fourth Industrial Revolution Intelligence Center (FIRIC) was created in July 2017 at KAIST to lead global research and collaboration on the technological and socio-economic impacts of the Fourth Industrial Revolution by monitoring the trends of emerging technologies on a real-time basis, as well as by pioneering new approaches to policy and governance issues accompanying the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

KAIST (formerly known as Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, KAIST since 2008) was established in 1971 in Daedeok Innopolis, Daejeon as the first national research university focused on science, technology and engineering, with the mission to educate elite human resources needed by the country. KAIST has gained high visibility and prestige in the worldwide science community, as illustrated by Thomson Reuters' ranking it 1st in the top of the most innovative universities in the Asia Pacific region in 2016, 2017 and 2018 , while being also the 6th among the world's most innovative universities in 2016 and 2017.  

The workshop was a follow-up to a bilateral meeting at KAIST in April 2019 between a JRC officer and KAIST faculty from the Graduate School of S&T Policy and the School of Business and Technology Management, in conjunction with the JRC officer' s participation as a speaker in the 2019 edition of Times Higher Education’s Innovation and Impact Summit” (2-4 April, 2019) organised together with KAIST on the theme “The transformation of universities’ impact in the fourth industrial revolution”.

Participants

JRC staff and a four-people KAIST delegation, headed by Professor So Young Kim, Head of the KAIST Graduate School of Science & Technology

Contact

Dr. Marina Ranga

(email: Marina.RANGA@ec.europa.eu)

Venue

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