Workshop Highlights: “Strengthening RIS3 Governance and the Entrepreneurial Discovery Process” – Chios, Greece

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As part of the RIS3 targeted support project on Lagging Regions and with the objective of supporting preparations for the next programming period (2021-27), the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) held a workshop on “Strengthening RIS3 Governance and the Entrepreneurial Discovery Process”. The event took place in the island of Chios on 28-29 November 2019 and it was organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Economy and Development and the Region of the North Aegean. It aimed to support regional and national authorities in Greece in the design and implementation of regional research and innovation policies, by facilitating cross regional learning both within Greece and internationally.

As part of the RIS3 targeted support project on Lagging Regions and with the objective of supporting preparations for the next programming period (2021-27), the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) held a workshop on “Strengthening RIS3 Governance and the Entrepreneurial Discovery Process”. The event took place in the island of Chios on 28-29 November 2019 and it was organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Economy and Development and the Region of the North Aegean. It aimed to support regional and national authorities in Greece in the design and implementation of regional research and innovation policies, by facilitating cross regional learning both within Greece and internationally.

The workshop gathered RIS3 practitioners from all 13 Greek regions and the General Secretariat for Research and Technology (the authority in charge of national RIS3). Participants also included other stakeholders in the Greek innovation system, EU colleagues (DG REGIO) and selected international experts. 

A primary objective of the workshop was to solicit views on an improved division of policy tasks for the design and implementation of RIS3 in the next programming period. Participants worked using a structured methodology developed by the JRC to identify governance architectures that could simplify and accelerate implementation. A session on implementation tools relevant to RIS3 included presentations on Economic Impact Evaluation (Attila Varga, University of Pecs), Repayable Assistance (Claudia Romao, Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation, Portugal) and Monitoring Systems (Michalis Metaxas, Innovatia Systems) 

A secondary objective of the workshop was to provide a renewed impulse on the "Entrepreneurial Discovery Process" (EDP) ahead of the next programming period. To this end, a peer review exercise of the experience with EDP of two Greek regions was carried out, aimed at the mutual exchange of lessons. This was followed by presentations of EDP approaches and experiences from elsewhere in the EU. From the Netherlands, Luc Hulsman presented an approach adopted in the Northern Netherlands that prioritises societal challenges rather than sectors. Sophie Patricio spoke about the process in the Centro region of Portugal where they have created Innovation Hubs that have brought together new combinations of actors rather than defined sectoral groups to establish goals and objectives. From Italy, expert Emanuele Fabbri outlined the revision of the RIS3 in Toscana, and its incorporation of an international positioning process in relation to FDI, global value chains and H2020. 

Click here to access event’s full agenda and presentations