Pilot Workshop on Priority Setting and Collaboration in ICT

The S3 Platform, with the support of DG CONNECT, organised a pilot workshop on priority setting and collaboration within the thematic area of ICT. The event took place the 9th of April in Seville.

The objective was to identify good practices in priority setting and collaboration, to facilitate bench-learning as well as to enhance our understanding of the challenges in the process of developing the DAE component of a RIS3 and to propose solutions. Simultaneously, the workshop provided an opportunity to stimulate collaboration between regions and stakeholders on specific ICT projects.

The group of participants was a broad mix of representatives from EU-wide regional development authorities, agencies, universities, industries, cluster organisations, EIT ICT Labs, and European Commission representatives from JRC, DG REGIO and DG CONNECT.

The day began with a brief introduction to priority setting and collaboration within the RIS3 framework. The pilot workshop featured presentations of cases from Holland (North Holland/Amsterdam, Utrecht & Flevoland/Almere) which focused on open and big data, and from Lombardy with a specialisation in open government and interoperability. After the presentations, participants identified priorities and possible areas of collaboration, as well as challenges and good practises in developing the DAE component of a RIS3. Finally, a speed networking session fostered the possibilities for bilateral meetings between workshop participants.

The outcome of the workshop will serve as a basis for the S3 Platform's future work in thematic areas, with regard to which kind of topics to include and on methodological questions; at the same time, it built the basis for the joint work between the S3 Platform and DG CONNECT for providing guidance on how to include the DAE component in RIS3, for designing future workshops and as input for the forthcoming tool box on DAE and RIS3.

In brief, there were six general themes that were discussed in the open session: inter-regional collaboration (discussions on specific projects like open data collaboration and quadruple helix networks in mobile telephone industry, as well as inter-regional policy learning), governance of RIS3 (how different mechanisms can be designed and possibility to involve cluster platforms), how to balance DAE supply components with horizontal aspects and specialisations, involving the knowledge triangle in RIS3, identifying all elements of the ICT value chain, and understanding how regions and the EC can support the development of specific ICT applications.