The significant role of human capital and higher education in place-based development and innovation in response to the twin transition is increasingly recognised within the European policy and funding context. This research attempts to quantify the extent to which the ERDF – as one of the most...
Addressing complex challenges requires different tools, mindsets and approaches from those traditionally used, which contributed to create some of these challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, raising inequalities. Focusing on one is not sufficient and understanding their...
Higher education institutions (HEIs) are increasingly expected to contribute to regional development and transformative innovation and heralded as actors of change in the context of the twin transitions and European recovery and resilience. Knowledge Alliances and European University alliances...
Countries and regions in Europe increasingly engage in new approaches to research and innovation policies aiming to address societal challenges and ambitious sustainability goals. This is partly in response to the increasing gravity and urgency of these challenges experienced across Europe and...
This paper provides insights on the potential macroeconomic impact of the governance of the European innovation policy called Smart Specialisation. We use original empirical data on the implementation of the policy, which is funded through a dedicated financial envelope of the 2014–2020 EU...
The Western Balkan economies are carrying out the Smart Specialisation process by following the Smart Specialisation framework for the EU Enlargement and Neighbourhood Region, with the support of the Joint Research Centre. One of the crucial stages of the process is to identify priority areas for...
Connectivity plays a crucial role for innovation and may counterbalance the disadvantage of being located in less developed and remote areas. This report gathers together insights from scientific literature on the role of connectivity and can inspire activities in interregional cooperation...
Transformative innovation policies argue for directionality in science, technology, and innovation (STI) activities, in the sense that activities should respond to addressing societal challenges. This paper answers two questions: How can directionality be defined and operationalised to support...
The paper addresses one of the major weaknesses of transformative innovation policy: the lack of solutions for institutionalising experimentation beyond pilots. Drawing insights from literature and real-world examples, it provides tentative advice on how policies should be designed to increase...
This paper examines a series of ‘innovation policy engineering’ problems which are related to directionality, mission and transformative objectives. Solving these problems will be central to the effectiveness of smart specialisation strategies and of partnerships for regional innovation.
