Guide to Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisation

Therefore, they should not be thought of as separate and autonomous stages in the process, but as
interacting components of a comprehensive design scheme whose implementation pattern
depends on the specificity of the regional context.
For those regions that are already advanced along the way of defining and adopting an
Innovation Strategy, the purpose of a RIS3 is not to restart a new process from scratch. Rather, it
is to build on achievements and bring them further to reinforce those components that are not yet
sufficiently developed: the outward-looking perspective, the focus on a few priorities, the
evaluation component associated with policy learning capabilities, etc.
This section presents each of the steps as defined above, including boxes with practical examples
for each step. Further details and useful references about each step can be found in Annex I of
this guide.
Step 1 - Analysis of the regional context and potential for innovation
As highlighted in Part II, RIS3 needs to be based on a sound analysis of the regional economy,
society, and innovation structure, aiming at assessing both existing assets and prospects for
future development. The common principle that is central to such analyses is the adoption of a
wide view of innovation that spans across economic activities and involves many sectors of the
civic society.
The analysis should cover three main dimensions:
• regional assets, such as technological infrastructures,
• linkages with the rest of the world and the position of the region within the European and
global economy, and
• dynamics of the entrepreneurial environment.
Regional assets: a strategy rooted in the regional specificities
First, it is necessary to focus on the regional specific context, assessing the existing assets,
evaluating major regional strengths and weaknesses, identifying any bottlenecks of the
innovation system and key challenges both for the economy and the society.
Economic differentiation is one of the central principles behind smart specialisation. The key to
successful differentiation is to exploit related variety, which suggests that a regional economy
can build its competitive advantage by diversifying its unique, localised know-how into new
combinations and innovations which are close or adjacent to it. The key point is that these new
combinations must be feasible or accessible given the existing assets, so as to exploit the
experience accumulated by regional actors. Therefore, it is important to capture during the
analysis phase any existing differentiation patterns, in particular by looking at those activities
that are emerging at the interception of existing and well-established ones.
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