RIS 3 Strategy for the Czech Republic

What is a RIS3 strategy? RIS3 = Research and Innovation Strategy for Smart Specialization The concept of smart specialization is a new element of pro-growth economic policies for regional development, targeted at supporting R&D&I, with a strong emphasis on: – collaboration between local business, academic and research communities (similar to EIT) – concentration of limited human and financial resources to the comparative strengths of the region, to new economic opportunities and emerging trends (not identified via "top-down“ approach, but the "bottom-up" approach - on the basis of entrepreneurial discovery).

What is a RIS3 strategy? RIS3: −Must be tailored to the given region/country (mere imitation of successful regions has to be ommitted) −Should be using new tools and should benefit from new opportunities, new activities and new ideas −It should lead to increased competitiveness and upgrading, ie improving the position of each region (and entire country) in global production chains

RIS3 = ex ante conditionality of EC Existence of a RIS3 strategy at the national level with regional dimensions according to the concept of smart specialization is required by the European Commission as an ex-ante conditionality for possible drawing of financial resources from the ERDF Structural Fund in the next programming period ( ), when the topic of research, development and innovation should be one of the main priorities of the EU cohesion policy. However, a pre-condition for success is that the financial support from the Structural Funds directed to selected areas raises inflow of private funds as well. 4

RIS3 = ex ante conditionality of EC The EC set the term of December 31, 2013 for the RIS3 creation According to the EC, current strategic document for Innovation Policy of the Czech Republic - the National Innovation Strategy (NIS) – does not fulfill the conditions set by the EC, because it does not include regional aspects and is not built on the S3 principles. Due to the tight deadlines, it is neccesary to work on the the new strategic RIS3 document simultaneously with the ongoing preparations of Operational Programmes for the period

RIS3 preparations in the Czech Republic Guarantor of the RIS3 agenda in the Czech Republic is (on the basis of national consensus of relevant authorities and EC approval) Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MEYS) – Managing authority of OP Research and Development for Innovation (OP co-funded by ERDF) In order to coordinate the preparations of RIS3 strategy for the Czech Republic, MEYS established a S3 Coordination Board, bringing together representatives of relevant institutions active in shaping Czech economic policy in the areas of competitiveness, regional development, R&D, innovations and information technology: AK, AVO, CRC, HK, MEYS, MRD, MIT, MI, RVVI, SPO, TA CR, and others 6

RIS3 preparations in the Czech Republic. The RIS3 strategy will be built on the already drafted OPs for the period (which should already fully reflect the principles of smart specialization) The strategic document will consist of a national RIS3 strategy and regional RIS3 annexes RIS3 is not just a document, but mainly a process, it is therefore important to get the S3 activities started, especially at the regional level Territorial units to address the S3 issue at the regional level shall be „kraje“ (conclusions from the S3 Coordination Board are being interpreted to kraje via the Association of Regions of the Czech Republic)

RIS3 preparations in the Czech Republic S3 activities in each region will be coordinated by S3 managers S3 managers will be selected and co-financed by MEYS and should secure mainly the following tasks: – Organization of roundtables bringing together key stakeholders from research, business and academia spheres (+ government sector and NGOs) →forming Regional S3 platforms) – Cooperation on the preparation of RIS3 regional annexes and the RIS3 national strategy (S3 managers will be employed by MEYS via partial work contracts. Each region should nominate minimum of 2 candidates for the post, final selection will be conducted by the MEYS)

External S3 facilitator The RIS3 preparation implementation activities need to be efectively coordinated and monitored. As MEYS lacks neccesary expert capacity, an external RIS3 facilitator will be selected via a public tender, to secure the following functions: –mapping (an initial assessment of preparatory/ implementation structure for S3 in the individual regions + selection of adequate individual procedure) –education + capacity building (training and subsequent guiding of S3 managers and other regional actors in both RIS3 preparation and implementation phase) –coordination + monitoring (securing kick-off and progress of S3 activities in all regions and at a laster stage supervision of emplementation of the RIS3 strategies) –reporting (informing the Coordination Board on the progress in the regions) –Cooperation on the elaboration of the regional annexes and S3 strategy at the national level

Timeschedule of the RIS3 preparations before – draft of the tender-documents for the RIS3 facilitator public procurement before – opening of public procurement for RIS3 facilitator before – selection of regional S3 managers before – signing of contract with the selected RIS3 facilitator before – finalization of the RIS3 strategic document at the national level (with regional annexes), along with a plan for its implementation before approval of the RIS3 strategy by the Czech government and submission of the RIS3 to the EC

Aim: interconnection of S3 activities and EIT the S3 activities of the individual regions as well as on the national level should serve as a possible base for increase of involvement of Czech players in the EIT networks. Regional S3 platforms gathering regional stakeholders from R&D and academia sphere as well as business sector are likely to create ideas for concrete new activities, new partnerships and possible ways of participation in existing or planned KICs. The RIS3 strategy (especially the regional annexes) should include intervention plans tailored for each individual region; possible identified participations in EIT must not be omitted

Potential in the Czech Republic The Czech republic has a solid number of high quality R&D and academic institutions There are new facilities with great potential currently emerging: European Centres of Excellence and Regional R&D centres (supported via the current OP RDI, focusing mainly on applied research), many of them having partnerships with key Czech universities and various collaborations with industry - creating suitable hot-spot type of environment and having critical capacity for possible creation of co-location centres. The greatest challenge still remains to get the participants from the business sector involved to a greater extent to get the triple-helix triangle more balanced

Thank you for your attention! Should you have any questions, please contact us: Veronika Czesaná Gabriela Daniels