Smart Specialisation – The key to growth in the Atlantic Area

A Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3) is a policy device that allows regions to choose a number of key innovation fields to concentrate their resources and development goals in a way that maximises the economic impact of the efforts for that region.

Since 2011 the Smart Specialisation Platform (S3P) have assisted EU countries and regions in designing, developing, and coordinating their S3 in ways that compliments the efforts of their neighbours while maximising the resources available to each.

The positive effects of the S3P are most prominently felt in the EU areas with the least resources – typically the Periphery. These effects are so fundamental to regional development that subscription to the Smart Specialisation concept and development of a Research and Innovation Strategy for Smart Specialisation (RIS3) are prerequisites for receiving European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) support (the €200 Billion fund aiming to correct territorial imbalance in the EU).

The Atlantic KET Med project was founded based on the desire to apply these S3 principles in a real world setting. Each of the partners come from a region with a RIS3 policy objective of developing competence in one of the Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) and Atlantic KET Med has a core objective of testing the ability to link these Smart Specialisations into a single cohesive ecosystem capable of providing pilot production resources to Atlantic Area companies using the KETs to improve health care and positive patient outcomes.

More info on regional S3 goals can be found here: https://s3platform.jrc.ec.europa.eu/map

To understand how Smart Specialisation will continue to develop and evolve beyond the borders of the EU, AKM invited Dr Ruslan Rakhmatullin to present his insights into this critical global and regional strategy instrument. Ruslan is a policy maker and advisor from within the European Commission with a speciality in Smart Specialisation.

Ruslan explores the origins and future of the S3 in a global context in this presentation: