Guide to Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisation

Developing a RIS3 involves a degree of risk-taking, since there is always some uncertainty in
the choice of priorities, on the events that can change the region’s growth trajectory, and on
the best way to implement actions in support for regional smart specialisation. Hence
experimentation is justified, and even recommended, to test new approaches or gain more
information and certainty on the prospects of the priorities selected for the RIS3.
This can take the form of pilot projects to be launched during the RIS3 design process. These
pilot projects should be selected according to two main criteria: their relevance with respect to
the RIS3 priorities; and their expected impacts in short or medium term (projects with longer
term impacts are valuable but would not feed the demonstration purpose of pilot projects).
Pilot projects serve the following functions:
• Feeding the strategy with new information on regional innovation potential (they
participate to the 'entrepreneurial discovery process');
• Providing a signal to underline the fact that the strategy is going to be concretely
implemented rather than remaining a concept; contributing to the communication of the
RIS3 as a whole;
• Testing new or unconventional policy support approaches on a small scale before
possible extension, limiting risk.
Even more than for conventional projects and actions, pilot projects need to be monitored and
evaluated, in order to found the decision on continuation and discontinuation of the projects
on reliable evidence. Exit strategies and intermediary milestones involving go/no go decisions
need to be built into the pilot projects.
If such learning mechanisms are properly introduced in pilot projects, they can provide a
model for performance-based funding mechanisms, which are notoriously difficult to impose
on existing programmes or actions maintained over time without such a provision.
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