It may sound a commonplace to say that scientific and technological breakthroughs can change our lives and the way we perceive ourselves and the world around us, but they can also help bring about sustainable growth, create new specialisations and jobs. Coupled with smart specialisation strategies that build on existing knowledge- and productive-based capacities of regions, they can form a powerful tool to exit Europe from the crisis and lay the ground for accruing competitive advantages in the globalized market.

Smart Specialisation or RIS3 (Research and Innovation strategies for Smart Specialisation) is a strategic approach to economic development through targeted support for research, innovation, productivity and growth. It involves a process of developing a vision, identifying areas of greatest strategic potential, developing multi-stakeholder governance mechanisms, setting strategic priorities and using smart policies to maximize the knowledge-based development potential of a region, regardless of whether it is strong or weak, high-tech or low-tech.

Smart Specialisation seeks to build on the inherent strengths and comparative advantages that every region possesses, by focusing on upgrading the innovation potential and productivity performance of key sectors and driving new innovation activities that can complement existing productivity assets. In this context, Smart Specialisation focuses not just on the ‘excited goblins’, the young innovative and technology-intensive start-up companies that are based in high-tech clusters but involves also the ‘sleeping giants’, that is large companies that have failed to innovate and thus have lost their competitiveness and global market share as well as the so-called ‘hungry dwarfs’, low-tech SMEs, generally poor in technology adoption and innovation - which need however, policy attention due to their sheer volume and importance as employers.   

The European Commission's Cohesion Policy aims to reduce differences between regions and ensure growth across Europe. In this context, public authorities, at national and regional level, are catalysts for action; they can facilitate “entrepreneurial discovery” and provide the groundwork. Structural Funds are among the main tools to implement the policy and it is within this framework that Smart Specialisation was introduced. The European Commission launched the Strategies for Smart Specialisation Platform (S3 Platform) in June 2011 to provide professional advice to EU countries and regions for the design of their Research and Innovation strategies for smart specialization, including guidance material and good practice examples, organization of information and training sessions for policy-makers and access to relevant data. After all, it is public-private partnerships that will make the difference and will create unique environments for new growth opportunities.

There is a risk that Smart Specialisation could lead to overlap and duplication with other EU, national and regional programmes and funds designed to support innovation, in particular with Horizon 2020, the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme ever with nearly €80 billion of funding available over 7 years (2014 to 2020).  To avoid this overlap, it is important to align strategies and activities targeting similar or complementary opportunity areas or fields of specialization and maximize the synergies within the countries and across borders with other regions and countries as well as at the European level with EU initiatives and public-private partnerships.

Key areas eligible for smart specialization include advance manufacturing, sustainable energy, bio-based value chains, and active and healthy ageing. Advanced manufacturing, as one of the six Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) - nanotechnology, micro- and nanoelectronics including semiconductors, advanced materials, biotechnology and photonics - prioritised by the European Commission, will play a central role in bringing forward the Third Industrial Revolution. Smart specialisation is a policy approach that will fit well with advanced manufacturing, due to its knowledge-intensive nature, its association with high research and development rates, short innovation cycles, high capital expenditure and high-skill employment.  

Under the auspices of the Greek Presidency, the “Industrial Technologies 2014 Conference - Smart Growth through Research and Innovation” is taking place at Megaron Athens Concert Hall, on 9-11 April. The conference, funded by the European Union Seventh Framework Programme, offers opportunities for developing valuable research and industry collaborations, and showcases cutting-edge research, latest innovations and rising companies from all around Europe.