Trans-regional Co-operation in Strengthening the Strategic Dimension - and thus the Success -

1. Trans-regional Co-operation in Strengthening the Strategic Dimension - and thus the Success - of Regional RTDI Strategies Dr. Günter Clar Dublin, 19 April, 2007 clar@steinbeis-europa.de

2. European Challenges • GDP per capita • Input/output relation, efficiency • Competitiveness and Quality of Life in the EU (discrepancies!) • Innovativeness in EU • Investment in Research, Technology Development and Innovation(RTDI) - human and financial resources • Mobility & adaptability, co-operation & structured communication • Transition to knowledge-based society (beyond RTDI fields)

3. 3 Strands of EU Policy Development • Formally, RTDI has become a key issue • in EU policy in general • In EU 2007-2013 budget in general (far beyond the RTDI Framework programmes) • Importance of Strategic Policy Intelligence (SPI) for administration, for enterprises, for NGOs • a better decision base to improve quality of policy design, the credibility of the process, and the implementation, • far reaching impacts on economic and business intelligence • Need for better policy integration and impact – importance of regional actors

4. Regions Strengthening EU Strategies • Regional RTDI governance in EU context - ‘vertical’ effect, interaction with other governance levels: • adapting EU and national RTDI policy approach to specific territorial conditions, and • communicating / feeding in needs of the regions to national and EU level • Regional RTDI governance vis-à-vis national and EU level – ‘horizontal’, trans-regionaleffect – self organising capacity: potentially higher implementation impact and efficiency • can react more rapidly • can proactively bring all relevant stakeholders together • can tailor (macro) measures better to regional / institutional needs (smart local intermediaries, knowledge-brokers)

5. Measures for Staying Competitive • Supporting changes in Innovation Systems (IS): • Stimulate knowledge generation, diffusion, absorption • Develop new understanding of IS (actors, outreach, …) • More multifaceted ‘innovation’ policy (trans-policy-fields, -sectoral, -governance levels, -national, …) • Adapting Framework Conditions (soft and hard): • Competencies and values, entrepreneurship culture, technical standards, legal and work regulations, institutional & social capital, …. • Using more Strategic Policy Intelligence (SPI) more intelligently: • Strategic analyses of (trans-)national / regional / sectoral innovation systems and processes • Benchmarking, policy monitoring & evaluation • Technology Foresight & Assessment, inclusive policy design

6. Strategic Policy Intelligence (SPI) The set of activities to search, process, diffuse & protect information in order to make it available to the right persons at the right time,so that they can take the right decisions. • Related to Research & Innovation (RTDI) policies this includes such policy support instruments as foresight & technology assessment, monitoring, benchmarking, regional innovation auditing, strategic evaluation, ….

7. Why SPI? Basis for better decisions and investments(better informed, more clearly based, more broadly based and consensual, more likely on average to be optimum and lower risk) • early recognition of economic and social opportunities • early warning against negative impacts • procedures for mitigating conflicting situations • reducing costly errors – or costly missed opportunities • background knowledge for planners & designers, decision aid for technology developers, users, regulators • contributions to resilient system (improved functionality, consensual co-ordination, policy coherence), socially and environmentally compatible design • attracting more investments also from other sources, incl. FDI

8. RTDI, SPI, Regional Decision Makers • Tight budgets, pressure to support ‘obvious’ and short-term demands • Taking informed RTDI related decisions needs comprehensive knowledge base and structured stakeholder input • In general, long-term and macro strategies are difficult to translate into day-to-day decision making procedures Various regions and smaller countries have addressed these issues effectively and used SPI based approaches successfully. Why not the others? • Is the use of SPI tools too expensive, too complicated, too academic, too different from established & proven procedures? • Are there no understandable & adaptable ‘models’ and guidelines?

9. RegStrat - A European Consortium

10. Contributing to Policy Fields of High EU Relevance • Regional actors’ contribution to Lisbon and Barcelona Goals • Regional dimension of FP7 • Strategic dimension of CIP • Strategic dimension and RTDI investments of Structural Funds

11. RegStrat Objectives • The RegStrat Project aims to improve (regional) policy design and implementation by supporting regional decision-makers and facilitating the application of Strategic Policy Intelligence • Foster understanding of SPI Tools • Supply appropriately processed information • Design pilot applications to test usability of tools • Ongoing policy learning in practice • Building both on EU and regional knowledge-base • Integrating use of regional, national, EU (ERDF, ESG, FP7, CIP), and FDI support • Contributing to policy fields of high EU and regional relevance

12. Regional RTDI Investment Strategies • RegStrat focuses on the intersection of policy research, SPI application and regional development • Bringing together regional stakeholder networks, SPI practitioners, policy researchers • Rationale: with improved decision base, and more innovative & less risky choices, regional actors more confident RTDI-related in investment decisions. More likely to • allocate own public funds for RTDI-related or –relevant activities (S&T, HE, other policy fields) • leverage such investments from & in private sector • attract resources from national and EU (Cohesion, Agriculture, Infrastructure etc), AND from foreign direct investment budgets.

13. RegStrat pilots: SPI tailored to regional situation