The S2E national events took  place during 2015/2016 and provided a unique platform for a better understanding of the European and national R&I ecosystems. The main lessons are summarized in a S2E Policy Insight which shows how the Smart Specialisation Strategies (S3) and synergies between different European national funding can help closing the innovation gap across European territories.

Objectives of the National Events

• A better understanding of national (and regional) innovation ecosystem(s) with a special emphasis on the identification of obstacles, barriers and potentials to innovation (also refering to the S2E National "facts and figures" document)
• Raising awareness of the actions needed to enable synergies between different EU funding programmes for research and innovation
• Sharing experiences in combining Structural Funds and Framework Programme to improve excellence in R&I systems
• Drawing lessons for the future and identifying follow-up actions to enhance the potential synergies between different EU funds in the Member State

Who attended?

Participation was by invitation only.  The number of planned participants usually was around 70 people, amongst:

• National and Regional Managing Authorities
• National Contact Points from the past Framework Programmes and Horizon 2020 and other EU-funded programmes
• National and Regional authorities in charge of smart specialisation strategies
• Members of the Horizon 2020 programme committee
• Selected national and international experts on EU funding programmes and regional policy
• Selected representatives from businesses
• Selected representatives from universities, research centres and any other organization with experience and/or interest in EU-funded programmes

S2E National Events

• 22 Sep 2016: CYPRUS workshop in Nicosia
• 14 Jul 2016:  BULGARIA National Event in Sofia
• 22 Jun 2016: ROMANIA National Event in Bucharest
• 24 May 2016: HUNGARY National Event in Budapest
• 27 Apr 2016: POLAND National Event in Warsaw (this event was followed on 28 Apr by an Implementation of the Smart Specialisation Strategies (S3) workshop)
• 06 Apr 2016: SLOVENIA National Event in Ljubljana (this event was followed on 07 Apr by an Implementation of the Smart Specialisation Strategies (S3) workshop)
• 11 Mar 2016: ESTONIA National Event in Tallinn
• 03 Mar 2016:  CZECH REPUBLIC National Event in Prague
• 30 Oct 2015:  LITHUANIA National Event in Vilnius
• 01 Jul  2015:  MALTA workshop (in the context of the 02 July RIS3 Workshop with the Maltese Managing Authority)
• 25 Jun 2015: SLOVAKIA National Event in Bratislava
• 15 Apr 2015: LATVIA National Event in Riga
• 26 Mar 2015:  CROATIA National Event in Zagreb

Joint Statements

As an outcome of these events, Joint statements were issued by S2E and national authorities, and covered the main issues under the different topics brought at these events:

• Joint Statement of the National Event of Croatia 
• Joint Statement of the National Event of Bulgaria 
• Joint Statement of the National Event of Czech Republic
• Joint Statement of the National Event of Estonia
• Joint Statement of the National Event of Hungary
• Joint Statement of the National Event of Latvia
• Joint Statement of the National Event of Lithuania
• Joint Statement of the National Event of Poland
• Joint Statement of the National Event of Romania
• Joint Statement of the National Event of Slovenia
• Joint Statement of the National Event of Slovakia

Other events

• The S2E Launch conference in Prague (2-3 Oct 2014) offered a first opportunity to identify the key elements for building successful synergies and gave a useful insight into how synergies could be achieved in practice.  See its outcome publication: the S3 Policy Brief Series No. 12/2014 "Synergies between EU R&I Funding Programmes. Policy Suggestions from the Launching Event of the Stairway to Excellence Project". 
• More S3P and other events of interest can be consulted from the S3P Agenda.