Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) - Partnerships for Regional Innovation

The Partnerships for Regional Innovation (PRI) are strategic frameworks for innovation-driven territorial transformation and development, aiming at linking the European Green Deal to place-based opportunities and challenges. It is a complementary approach to existing national and regional policy frames which builds on positive experiences with smart specialisation strategies set in the context of EU cohesion policy. PRI aims to develop, test and disseminate tools and governance mechanisms to enhance the coordination and directionality of regional, national and EU innovation policies to implement Europe’s green and digital transitions and to tackle the innovation divide in the EU. PRI will be firmly anchored in the EU policy framework, supporting the implementation of the European Green Deal, Horizon Europe, Cohesion policy and NextGenerationEU.

PRI builds on dynamics, created by introduction of S3 strategies, but shifts from focusing just on R&D and innovation capacities to also encompass a wider societal context. Crucially, while S3 focuses on mobilising only cohesion policy funding, a key element of the PRI is the integration under a single strategic framework of cohesion funding with other funding sources, including RRPs, Horizon Europe and/or national or regional funding linked to territorial goals.
Furthermore PRI transitions from the EDP (Entrepreneurial discovery process) to the Open Discovery Process (ODP) involving a broader spectrum of stakeholders from different environments and different levels (macro-and micro-regional levels) to make a sustainable real impact on the ground on the specific needs of countries, regions and citizens.

PRI is not linked in any way with S3 enabling condition and will not prejudice the European Commission's assessment of the fulfilment criteria for smart specialisation during the 2021-27 programming period.

The PRI is a concept under development with many experts, different parts of the European Commission and pioneering European regions and Member States. To further develop the concept the JRC and CoR decided to bring initial ideas to action through a Pilot phase, with co-creation, experimentation and learning as the most important outcomes. Pilot activities will allow to test the approach and key concepts and tools of PRI in different regional conditions and starting points to strengthen the concept.

PRI should be considered a bridging action which is closely aligned with EU policies and supports implementation of EU priorities. It can effectively support the delivery of the Green Deal and Digital Transition objectives in every territory. PRI emphasises the importance of tackling social challenges as an inherent element of its policy agenda. It will attempt to bring networks of regions together to co-create mechanisms that address fragmentation, silos across departments and levels of policy and link territories to sustainable European value chains. This can lead to the construction of viable placed-based transition pathways for relevant industrial ecosystems, as identified in the EU industrial policy agenda. PRI also can support RRF implementation at territorial level, inspiring a logic of economic transformation that links RRP funding with other available instruments and delivers real change.

The selection of the regions for Pilot activities will be carried out by the Committee of Regions in close collaboration with the European Commission, based on the submitted information. Additional information can be found here: Call for expressions of interest for participation in the Pilot Action on Partnerships for Regional Innovation - PRI.

Yes, applications by cities, involved in a network with the regional level, will be accepted and will be evaluated.

Non-EU regions or cities are not eligible for the call. The applications must be led and committed by national/regional governments, therefore no private applications can be accepted.

Individual regions as well as groups of regions are both fully eligible for the Call.

A single background report would be required whether it is only one region to apply or a group of regions applying. The report of a group of regions could either include brief background information about each individual region (including the elements required such as brief history, state of play of strategy, list of key stakeholders, SWOTs as succinctly as possible) or (if the joint applicants have a history of working together) background information about their joint past activities and future plans/prospects. However, in the case of joint applications of groups of regions the bulk of the report should focus on a thorough proposal for aspects of strategy development and/or implementation that would especially benefit from interregional or international learning.

NUTS 3 level is considered eligible.

Selection of Pilot participants will be based on the fullness and relevance of the submitted information. The most important element is the background report, which should clearly demonstrate local challenges and readiness to tackle them, in the context of evidence-based policy. The structure for the background report outlined in the call is conceived for individual applicants. Groups of regions can focus on the main challenges they face and the proposed ways of tackling them jointly.

​​​​​​​Additional information can be found here: Call for expressions of interest for participation in the Pilot Action on Partnerships for Regional Innovation - PRI

It would be useful to have some information about what are the major markets for the producers of the territory, both domestic and export markets, as this will determine to what extent demand-side instruments (including regulatory experimentation, demand subsidies for technology adoption in line with the transition) can be usefully experimented with or explored.

There has to be a distinction between long-term objectives and what can be explored in the PRI Pilot Call where participants will help co-create the approach. The areas of exploration are very wide and flexible, and it is up to the regions to propose the focus of PRI implementation and testing in each case, in agreement the overall ambition of PRI. The pilot is an opportunity to contribute and influence the development of the PRI approach based on evidence-based policy learning and learning from stakeholder inputs through the open discovery process.

It is not possible to quantify the time that participants will need to devote to the Pilot Action on a horizontal basis, as this very much depends on the interests expressed by the respective applicants and the level of commitment they are willing to assume.

Stakeholders would normally include those that are already involved in the Entrepreneurial Discovery Process. However, since PRI aims for system-level innovation, it should mobilise a broader spectrum of stakeholders from different environments (e.g. skills, regulators, social policy, investments in energy, digitalisation, transport, health, waste, as required by the challenges of the territory) and different levels (combinations of local, regional, national or European, as appropriate in each case) who will have to work together in order to  address pressing economic and societal challenges linked to the green and digital transition. This is because some of these challenges require time-critical solutions (e.g. to conserve specific levels of employment while transitioning away from fossil fuels) and which cannot be addressed only by knowledge producing organisations and may additionally require carefully tailored mixes of policies that justify joining forces between regions and national authorities. PRI will require more horizontal coordination and development of networking capacities in policy design and implementation. Participants in the PRI Pilot will develop relevant knowledge and capacities and co-create practical tools that can open pathways towards solving local challenges.

This is referring to the whole-of-government approach where all relevant stakeholders would have to be part of the open discovery process within a PRI. Whether the national level is relevant, or not, depends on the challenges (or opportunities) identified by the territory.

PRI builds on dynamics, created by introduction of S3 strategies, but shifts from focusing just on R&D and innovation capacities to also encompass a wider economic and societal context that is important for system-level innovation. Crucially, while S3 focuses on mobilising only cohesion policy funding, a key element of the PRI is the integration under a single strategic framework of cohesion funding with other funding sources, including RRPs, Horizon Europe and/or national or regional funding that is or could be linked to territorial goals. Key producers at national level could be relevant as well in this multi-level setting and may reveal opportunities to enter global value chains or attract investment in the territory.

This would include drawing the region/s common areas of interest such as common challenges and opportunities amongst others.

There is no preferred rank but the political representative signing the letter must have responsibility and prerogative (e.g. ability to take decisions over instruments, strategies etc.) to address the challenges you identify through your participation to PRI. Addressing many of the challenges of the green and digital transition often requires working across portfolios and other administrative boundaries, which is why support from a highly ranking official would normally allow for more ambitious experimentation under PRI.

During the Pilot, JRC will work closely with participating regions to support the design and implementation of relevant activities agreed with the participant regions and mutually benefit from the result of the chosen actions with activities that support experimentation and learning, to further co-create the PRI Playbook, develop implementation guidelines and strengthen the PRI concept.

The participation in the Pilot should come with a clear commitment of national or regional government to meaningfully engage in piloting some features of PRI. In addition to that, depending on the scope of chosen activities, actions such as workshops, expert engagement and cross-regional learning should have full support from the applicants.

Depending on the type of actions, JRC will work together with the regions in the Pilot for mutual learning and refinement of PRI Playbook or further actions. The external expert support might be available by JRC for the Pilot activities. Additional information is available here: Call for expressions of interest for participation in the Pilot Action on Partnerships for Regional Innovation - PRI.

As PRI concept is still in an early phase of its development, the Pilot will allow to observe and learn how the elements of the Playbook work in practice and what are the possible outcomes. The Pilot will prototype, test, learn, develop competences and co-create what eventually will be compiled into future guiding documents.