The Region is primarily defined by the Adriatic and Ionian Seas basins. It connects eight countries: four EU Member States (Croatia, Greece, Italy and Slovenia) and four candidate and potential candidate countries (Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia), together accounting for more than 70 million people.
Though the EUSAIR strategy does not contain a special pillar on the collaboration regarding the research and innovation (R&I), the main thematic pillars of the strategy: ‘Blue Growth’, ‘Connecting the Region’, ‘Environmental Quality’ and ‘Sustainable Tourism’ also contain the R&I areas indicated in the smart specialisation strategies of the EU countries and regions.