CENTRE Region - France Towards a RIS3 strategy Brussels, September, 27th, 2012 Jonathan Nussbaumer (State Administration) Alban Marché (Regional Government) Nathalie Boulanger (Regional Innovation Agency) Also known as “ Region of the Loire valley Castles ”

Outline  Regional profile  Centre region innovation policy : overview  From RIS to RIS3  Key challenges  RIS3 Process  Governance  Identification of priorities  Implementation  Measuring the progress  Conclusion and next steps

Regional profile  2.53 million of inhabitants, with a low density  A population growing slightly, and ageing  GDP : €65.2 billion, with a growth rate of +0.4%  Economy driven by agriculture and industry ▫ 1 st French and European region for cereal ▫ 2 nd for cosmetics/pharmaceutical and rubber’s production; ▫ 3 rd for graphic arts, computer & electronics, and mechanical industry; ▫ plus automotive industry, weapons & defense equipment;  RIS ranking: 85th European region (8th out of 26 French regions)  4th French rank in R&D private expenditure;  students

Our region works on RIS  Since mid-2009 (and after a 2-year process), our Regional Innovation Strategy is implemented along axes …..  promoting innovation by encouraging entrepreneurship;  developing partnerships in innovation;  reinforcing the human capital and the qualification of the workforce. ▫ … and two main cross-sectoral ambitions:  Power-efficiency  Innovation through service ▫ Implementation plan : 11 measures Develop innovation in companies Innovate by partnership Consolidate the human capital Energy efficiency Innovation through services

Our Region works on RIS  Since the beginning of the process, regional governance structure includes public stakeholders, universities, companies and civic society in order to “promote growth and jobs through our assets, especially in power efficiency and innovation by service systems”.

Introduction Regional Innovation Strategy organization Regional Steering Committee for Innovation Co-leadership by President of Regional government and by the head of local state autority Constituted by the main innovation actors of the territory : University, Economic and Industrial Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Clusters (Pole de compétivité, Research Institution) State of the art of innovation In relation to other innovation strategies (PO FEDER, CPER, SRDES) acted in consultation with socio-economic actors & institutions (annual regional conference of Innovation) Operational Committee for Innovation DRRT DIRECCTE Regional Council Oseo CCIR ARITT cretary)

From RIS to RIS3  The goal is to evolve our SRI to SRI- SI (RIS3). So we need process RIS3 from work already done: ▫ 1 capitalize on the three axes which structure the regional ecosystem of innovation (innovation in business, collaborative innovation, strengthening of human capital) ▫ 2. Identify what could be potential areas of specialisation in two cross-cutting themes which had been approached (energy efficiency and innovation by related services) ▫ 3. Detect beyond these two thematic areas that were also an economic and social impact ▫ 4. Continue to structure the innovation ecosystem

Key challenges issues  Diversified economy without strong leadership... so no specialisation in high tech fields  Cooperation between public research centers and companies is still insufficent and weak  Many subcontractors in regional industry essentially in med-tech or low-tech  Maybe too many clusters...

RIS3 Process  Main steps of the RIS3 design and implementation ▫ Understand the needs of economics players and respond to the EC requirements ▫ Analyse the regional assets in the international context ▫ Identify priorities by entrepreneurship discovery process and with consultation the players involved in innovation ▫ Elaborate and implement the RIS3 strategy ▫ Monitor and assess this strategy

Priorities : our roadmap

Priorities  RIS3 priorities are going to be based on workshop results (20 entrepreneurs selected in each workshop). Regional Innovation Conference audience is fully involved.  The Steering Committee will validate ultimate choices because it is public policy.  Choice criteria : “4C”, focus on impacts on the region, and ecosystem acceptance.  A third workshop is organized to investigate other potential specialisation area(s). Measured in the international context

Governance  State administration and regional government are really working together supported by the regional innovation Agency who is their common “child”.  A real consensus on innovation as a key issue of economic development in Centre Region has been built for 5 years.  The national and regional governments are aware that they will have to make choices and sometimes hard choices.  Even if specialisation areas are going to be suggested by the business community, the final choice is theirs.  Decisions will be based on potential results for the region to provide growth and job... But this process may still need some flexibility. This will depend on innovation ecosystem professionalisation (which was the main aim of our first RIS).

Entrepreneurial dynamics  The business community is totally involved in RIS3 process, from the start and with constant dialogue.  It is at the heart of the workshop debates, for it is knowledgeable.  But organizations like clusters are very apprehensive.  Most of the research and academic institutions face a dilemma: how can one be a part of the strategy being answerable to results ?  Flexibility mechanisms lie in the ecosystem support and the on- going assessment in order to reallocate funds.

Implementation and Budget  Concrete action plans and roadmaps had been designed for our first RIS with a limited number of actions (11) – We will follow the same process ▫ for each selected potential specialisation area and ▫ for efficiency of non-financial support services to carry on the structuration of the innovation ecosystem  Strong coordination between ERDF, CPER (State & regional Government Plan Agreement) to allow budgets for Policy Mix fully integrated and reinforced by the close governance.  Our RIS3 is supposed to stimulate private R&D+I investments, first (note that private RDI is an asset to the region Centre).

Measuring the progress  RIA is in charge of following the indicators of the action plans.  Our dashboard will include outcome indicators : number of companies involved ; business impact ; jobs created,...  Evaluation each year to adapt the RIS3 – validation by Regional Innovation Strategy Committee and Regional Innovation Conference.

Conclusion and next steps  We are going to finalise the process (mid-November) to identify the potential specialisation areas among our cross-sectoral activities.  RIS3 challenges : ▫ academic research lobbying ▫ adhesion of the regional organizations which are not involved in the new RIS3 priorities  We need a real support to identify and settle cooperation beyond our frontiers.  Total awareness due to long term process to explain how S3 is essential.