The Norte Region, Portugal, provides an account regarding the monitoring system it has developed to better analyse Smart Specialisation priority domains and to fine -tune public policies accordingly.

The Smart Stories reflect the way in which S3 stakeholders have used the Smart specialisation concept to develop their own innovation-driven development policies at national and regional level. The Region of Valencia, Spain, outlines how the emergency caused by the COVID-19 was turned into an opportunity for Smart Specialisation for local manufacturing sectors, and notably the textile sector. Thanks to its interconnection as a cluster throughout the territory and the initiative of the regional authority, in just a few days, it has gone from a situation of survival to one of strategic activity. The necessity has generated a virtuous confluence of interests that have given birth to a transformed textile-sanitary cluster.

The Region of Västra Götaland, Sweden, gives an account on how the traditional textile industry into an innovative and sustainable specialisation activity, and how they are developing a sustainable transport and road safety systems, and highlights the benefits of its Smart Specialisation.

The S3 Platform has just published its Methodological Manual for Developing Thematic Interregional Partnerships for Smart Specialisation.

The European Cybersecurity Organisation (ESCO) have elaborated a COVID-19 Cybersecurity Response Package to inform all European stakeholders on the availability of free tools to fight cyberattacks in the context of the COVID crisis.

The TAF regional support will be delivered via digital means during the second half of May 2020. Registration is open until April 20.

This document reports the key outcomes of the study on the use of open data, open science & innovation (ODSI) for S3 (Smart Specialisation Strategy). The study was commissioned by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) to SIRIS Academic and implemented, in a collaborative fashion, from May to December 2019.

The S3 Platform seeks expressions of interest from National and Regional authorities to participate in the three Peer eXchange and Learning (PXL) workshops that will be organised in 2020 on governance and strategy management; entrepreneurial discovery process; monitoring and evaluation.

A strategic collaboration between the Joint Research Centre (JRC), EIT Climate-KIC, EIT RawMaterials and the Slovenian government around circular, regenerative and low-carbon economy supports the implementation of RIS3 and of the national vision to become a green, creative and smart country by 2030. Slovenia has decided to focus strategic economic development around circular, regenerative and low-carbon economy and to bet on sustainable technologies and services.

Building upon 35 cases, this report sheds light on the success-conducive factors and tools that have been used by policy-makers to manage the Smart Specialisation policy process, as well as the recurring types of outcomes that were achieved