S2E Conference NCP_WIDE.NET Workshop Bonn 14 March 2017 Nicholas Harrap Stairway to Excellence - S3P Growth and Innovation, DG JRC, EC

National Events National Events in all EU13 Member States Approx.. 1000 participants from different communities (MAs, NCPs, research institutions, local/governmental authorities in charge of RIS3 and/or H2020 and business) Approx.. 100 international experts (on R&I related activities) Joint statements addressing the main issues and possible actions to tackle these issues http://s3platform.jrc.ec.europa.eu/national-events A policy brief based on the joint statements http://s3platform.jrc.ec.europa.eu/-/s2e-policy-insight-lessons-learnt-from-national-events

S2E Conference – 8 March Approx.. 300 participants (including directors , members and representatives from European Parliament, different DGs of European Commissions, Member States, different EU initiatives and private companies) Achievements of the project, including lessons learnt from the S2E National Events A better understanding of the national (and regional) innovation ecosystem with a special emphasis on the identification of obstacles, barriers and potentials to innovation. Raising awareness of the actions needed to enable synergies Sharing experiences Drawing lessons for the future and identifying follow-up actions to enhance the potential synergies

SYNERGIES BETWEEN FUNDS – important issues Tension between S3 in regional innovation systems and excellence based research Need for national support for application preparation for H2020 RIS3 themes and H2020 themes – may not be matching Different approaches, local ESIF and large scale H2020 Differences in rules and overall complexity Importance of internationalisation

IMPLEMENTATION Bottlenecks Different understanding and implementation of state aid rules Possible constraints in the maximum funding of projects – state aid limits Different financial rules and cost models Mismatch in timing of call for proposals (H2020 and national calls) Seal of excellence: redundant evaluation of proposals at the national/regional level

IMPLEMENTATION Bottlenecks Not enough continuous training of Managing Authorities on both H2020 and ESIF (multi-fund expertise) Keeping strategic focus and result-oriented instead of chasing funds SMEs spend 80% of time in managing administration of ESIF projects

IMPLEMENTATION Way forward Projects evaluated at EU level (H2020) must not undergo repeated evaluation at regional national level State aid rules must not apply to H2020 projects with EU impact regardless of the source of funding Simplification for state aid and the EU programme rules more European and national schemes to support good-quality H2020 projects where they are above threshold but not funded – similar to SoE

Anything else?