Co-creating Europe

Smart Specialisation Strategies: Implementing European Partnerships

25 May 2014

[General], Co-creating Europe, Innovation

This bench-learning conference will explore possibilities for European partnerships in detail, and provides an interactive participatory platform for regions and cities to explore relevant collaboration methodologies and relevant thematic areas directly relevant to RIS3 partnering.

The conference will take place on Wednesday, 18^th June 2014, 8:30-17:30, at the Committee of the Regions, Rue Belliard/Belliardstraat 99-101 in Brussels

Beschrijving: http://cor.europa.eu/en/news/PublishingImages/0101e499-4794-4667-9bbb-e939e5706011.jpg

The Committee of the Regions, the S3 Platform, the Helsinki-Uusimaa, Province of Utrecht and Valencia regions are organising this one-day bench-learning conference to explore concrete possibilities for European partnerships and to offer an interactive participatory platform for regions and cities to explore relevant collaboration methodologies and important thematic issues.

Between 2014 and 2020, the research and innovation strategies based on smart specialisation (RIS3) will define the priorities for each region under the European Structural and Investment Funds, as well as the Horizon 2020 programme and other initiatives. But what does this mean for the creation of concrete partnerships and successful collaborative partnering arrangements?

The focus is on both regional and city collaboration. Specific examples for pioneering from many regions will serve as a starting point for practical and creative conversations about activities already in progress, innovative methodologies in use, and concrete next steps for developing partnerships.

Programme and online registration:

A link to the registration provided by the Helsinki-Uusimaa Region: https://www.webropolsurveys.com/S/54BA1C550C057BA6.par

Registration is also possible at:

http://cor.europa.eu/en/events/Pages/smart-specialisation-strategies.aspx

The conference offers extensive opportunities for participants to establish the next generation of partnerships and projects to translate smart specialisation strategies into practice.

In addition to this, two rounds of parallel sessions on topics such as RIS3, industrial renaissance, open innovation 2.0 and e-health will allow participants to follow their own interests and benefit from inspiring examples of work-in-progress. We kindly ask you to indicate your preferred topics by priority upon registration so we can ensure the best arrangements for you to develop future partnerships. Your registration for the event and parallel session topics will be confirmed by email.

Part of the conference work will also take place on-line before, during and after the conference.

For more information, please contact

Christine Chang, christine.chang@uudenmaanliitto.fi, +358 443533014

The draft programme is available on-line, and can also be downloaded here:

programme-18-june-2014

As background information, a booklet about Smart Specialisation and Europe’s Growth Agenda is available at:

http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/docgener/studies/pdf/smart_spec_growth_agenda.pdf

Filed under: [General], Co-creating Europe, Innovation

EURIS Project

26 February 2014

[General], Co-creating Europe, Innovation, Societal Innovation

EURIS is an inter-regional cooperation programme. European Collaborative and Open Regional Innovation Strategies.

EURIS project is happy to announce the launch of the “Open Innovation Toolbox”, a practical booklet proposing a handful of guides and tools targeting the main players on the Open Innovation game, companies and SMEs, and their main allies on such efforts, like networks and clusters organisations and knowledge and research centers.

The guides and tools disseminated through the toolbox are the main results of the 6 inter-regional sub-projects co-financed by EURIS, representing the concerted effort of more than 70 experts on the R&I field from the participant organisations.

The toolbox aims to support companies and their allies on better grasping the Open Innovation concept and to guide their first steps towards a more open and collaborative R&I. To that end, the guides and tools are keyed following their main target groups: copmanies; networks, clusters and intermediaries; research and knwledge institutes; and regional authorities and development and innovation agencies.

Following the needs of companies and potential practitioners of Open Innovation, the toolbox proposes 10 guides and tools, providing guidance and responses to the key O.I. topics.

via EURIS Project.

Filed under: [General], Co-creating Europe, Innovation, Societal Innovation

CoR Conference on “Innovation Union”

22 January 2014

[General], Co-creating Europe, Societal Innovation

On 27 November 2013, the Committee of the Regions organized a conference on “Innovation Union: The contribution of the Regions and cities“. It was the final in a series of seven conferences about the Europe 2020 flagship initiatives. The aim of the conference was to bring together key representatives of EU institutions, Member States and regions to take stock of the implementation of the flagship initiative at regional level. Accompanied by an exhibition of good practice from Europe’s regions and cities, the event focused on four aspects:

Smart specialization strategies;
Innovation, enterprise and jobs;
Networking across borders;
Open Innovation 2.0.

Based on a broad concept of innovation and over 30 activities, the Innovation Union flagship initiative commits the EU to increase investment in research to 3% of GDP by 2020. Studies indicate that such investment could create 3.7 million jobs by 2025. Today, only one in ten regions in the EU spends more than 3% of their GDP on research and these 27 regions together account already for over 40% of the total investment in innovation. Most of these leading regions have considerable expertise, capacities and budgets and follow a “smart specialization” approach to integrated regional development and the management of economic change and recovery. Moreover, between 2014 and 2020 “smart specialization strategies” will be a priority for all regions under the European Structural and Investment Funds, accompanied by the new “Horizon 2020” programme and other initiatives.

As part of the Innovation Union conference, a networking lunch was organized to allow participants to meet with experts and discuss issues with each other, together with facilitators from ERRIN, ENoLL, ELIG and the European Commission. The networking lunch provided input for the afternoon’s four thematic sessions

Diverse key messages and conclusions were formulated during the various plenary and parallel sessions, as well as the networking lunch. The final proceedings can be downloaded here:summary-proceedings-innovation-union

The conclusions of the conference will feed into the Committee of the Regions’ mid-term assessment of the Europe 2020 strategy, which will be presented on the occasion of the 6th European Summit of Regions and Cities on 7 and 8 March 2014 in Athens.

More information, including background material and the conference presentations, is available at: http://cor.europa.eu/en/events/Pages/eu2020-innovation-union.aspx

The conference video can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_HShylsoQc&feature=youtu.be

Filed under: [General], Co-creating Europe, Societal Innovation

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