Governance Settings Kevin Morgan Cardiff University Smart Regions Conference Square, Brussels 1-2 June 2016

Why governance matters Governance refers to the ways we organise and regulate our collective affairs - ideally to secure legitimacy and efficiency Good governance is vital to all aspects of RIS3 - helps build consensus around a RIS3 vision fashions a transparent process of project selection crafts a robust monitoring/evaluation framework which helps us learn fast about what works where and why

Political leadership RIS3 Guide was the first regional policy guide to treat poor governance seriously because it correlates with low innovation, poor services and political cronyism Sound political leadership is crucial to the success of the RIS3 process Political leadership is arguably the most important factor of all because it enables/mobilises other factors

Political (and collaborative) leadership Robust political leadership is the difference between a transactional v transformational RIS3 ethos transactional ethos = tick box culture, chasing the money, gaming the system etc transformational ethos = a political commitment to use the RIS3 process to effect real change Collaborative/distributed leadership also important to share the burden of leadership at different stages

Governance and entrepreneurial discovery The Entrepreneurial Discovery Process needs to be both inclusive and selective Inclusive - to enable all actors to have the chance to be considered for support Selective – to ensure that strategic choices are made in a timely fashion to secure critical mass Managing these twin goals is difficult because there will always be more losers than winners

Governance and the policy mix RIS3 places enormous demands on the public sector for smarter public administration for user-focused business services Public authorities need to be more receptive to and more collaborative with RIS3 partners Processing feedback from partners in a timely and efficient way gives the policy mix more bite Administrative capacity is essential to translate feedback into a “live” policy mix

The public animateur The public sector could play a more catalytic role in helping regions meet the RIS3 challenge by breaking policy silos to leverage its multiple roles as producer, regulator, purchaser by deploying its convening power to foster peer-to-peer learning networks in and beyond the region by synchronising hard power (purchasing/regulating) with soft power (brokering/convening) in short by promoting public sector innovation

Barriers to public sector innovation Barriers to public sector innovation/smart state: Feedback is critical - but it is stymied by fear, power and hierarchy Failure is not tolerated - but the public sector is invited to be more experimental & less risk averse Learning is difficult – because time and space are not afforded to monitoring, evaluation and reflection