New Ideas for Smart Regional Growth

BOCCONI IS PART OF A NETWORK FUNDED BY THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION TO STUDY HOW TO IMPROVE POLICIES OF SMART SPECIALISATION

Smart Specialisation (a concept developed by the EU “Knowledge for Growth” expert group) is an innovation policy that aims to boost regional innovation – thus contributing to growth and prosperity – by enabling regions to identify and build upon their competitive advantages. Smart Specialisation is based on partnerships between businesses, public entities, and knowledge institutions.
 
The European Commission, through its Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks program, has financed POLISS (Policies for Smart Specialisation), a four-year research project starting on 1 December 2019, promoted by a network of 8 academic and 14 non-academic partners including Utrecht University (project leader) and Bocconi.
 
«The project addresses the concerns raised by the early implementation of Smart Specialisation policies across Europe», says Stefano Breschi, Full Professor at Bocconi’s Department of Management and Technology and responsible for the project at Bocconi. «Their conceptualization, design and implementation have shown a number of gaps, which will be tackled in the project with the aim of formulating more effective policy interventions».
 
POLISS brings together a diverse set of actors from all the fields contributing to Smart Specialisation, namely local governments, development agencies, international organizations, research institutes and private companies. Building on their expertise and everyday engagement with Smart Specialisation policies, POLISS aims to outline new methodological tools for designing and assessing Smart Specialisation actions in the EU and beyond and to build a PhD program to create a new generation of experts in regional development and innovation policy. «We also want to provide a forum for coordinating the vast community of researchers and practitioners working on local development and innovation, which is often sparse and fragmented», concludes Prof. Breschi.
 
The Bocconi share of the grant is €520,000.

by Fabio Todesco