Dr. Guenter Clar, © EU - LIAISON OFFICE FOR RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY STEINBEIS - EUROPA - ZENTRUM STUTTGART SEZ - STEINBEIS-EUROPA-ZENTRUM Trans-regional Co-operation in Strengthening the Strategic Dimension - and thus the Success - of Regional RTDI Strategies Dr. Günter Clar Dublin, 19 April, 2007

Dr. Guenter Clar, © EU - LIAISON OFFICE FOR RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY STEINBEIS - EUROPA - ZENTRUM STUTTGART SEZ - STEINBEIS-EUROPA-ZENTRUM European Challenges GDP per capita Input/output relation, efficiency Competitiveness and Quality of Life in the EU (discrepancies!) Innovativeness in EU Investment in Research, Technology Development and Innovation (RTDI) - human and financial resources Mobility & adaptability, co-operation & structured communication Transition to knowledge-based society (beyond RTDI fields)

Dr. Guenter Clar, © EU - LIAISON OFFICE FOR RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY STEINBEIS - EUROPA - ZENTRUM STUTTGART SEZ - STEINBEIS-EUROPA-ZENTRUM 3 Strands of EU Policy Development Formally, RTDI has become a key issue o in EU policy in general o In EU budget in general (far beyond the RTDI Framework programmes) Importance of Strategic Policy Intelligence (SPI) for administration, for enterprises, for NGOs o a better decision base to improve quality of policy design, the credibility of the process, and the implementation, o far reaching impacts on economic and business intelligence Need for better policy integration and impact – importance of regional actors

Dr. Guenter Clar, © EU - LIAISON OFFICE FOR RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY STEINBEIS - EUROPA - ZENTRUM STUTTGART SEZ - STEINBEIS-EUROPA-ZENTRUM Regions Strengthening EU Strategies Regional RTDI governance in EU context - vertical effect, interaction with other governance levels: o adapting EU and national RTDI policy approach to specific territorial conditions, and o communicating / feeding in needs of the regions to national and EU level Regional RTDI governance vis-à-vis national and EU level –horizontal, trans-regional effect – self organising capacity: potentially higher implementation impact and efficiency o can react more rapidly o can proactively bring all relevant stakeholders together o can tailor (macro) measures better to regional / institutional needs (smart local intermediaries, knowledge-brokers)

Dr. Guenter Clar, © EU - LIAISON OFFICE FOR RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY STEINBEIS - EUROPA - ZENTRUM STUTTGART SEZ - STEINBEIS-EUROPA-ZENTRUM Measures for Staying Competitive Supporting changes in Innovation Systems (IS): o Stimulate knowledge generation, diffusion, absorption o Develop new understanding of IS (actors, outreach, …) o More multifaceted innovation policy (trans-policy-fields, -sectoral, - governance levels, -national, …) Adapting Framework Conditions (soft and hard): o Competencies and values, entrepreneurship culture, technical standards, legal and work regulations, institutional & social capital, …. Using more Strategic Policy Intelligence (SPI) more intelligently: o Strategic analyses of (trans-)national / regional / sectoral innovation systems and processes o Benchmarking, policy monitoring & evaluation o Technology Foresight & Assessment, inclusive policy design

Dr. Guenter Clar, © EU - LIAISON OFFICE FOR RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY STEINBEIS - EUROPA - ZENTRUM STUTTGART SEZ - STEINBEIS-EUROPA-ZENTRUM Strategic Policy Intelligence (SPI) The set of activities to search, process, diffuse & protect information in order to make it available to the right persons at the right time, so that they can take the right decisions. Related to Research & Innovation (RTDI) policies this includes such policy support instruments as foresight & technology assessment, monitoring, benchmarking, regional innovation auditing, strategic evaluation, …. (S&T) Foresight Vision & Priorities Innov&Tech Assessment Ex-ante Evaluation Agenda Setting (STI) Roadmapping Detailing / Focusing Agendas Implementation/ Monitoring Results / Changes Strategic Evaluation, (Innov) Audits, Benchmarking Recommendations

Dr. Guenter Clar, © EU - LIAISON OFFICE FOR RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY STEINBEIS - EUROPA - ZENTRUM STUTTGART SEZ - STEINBEIS-EUROPA-ZENTRUM Why SPI? Basis for better decisions and investments (better informed, more clearly based, more broadly based and consensual, more likely on average to be optimum and lower risk) oearly recognition of economic and social opportunities oearly warning against negative impacts oprocedures for mitigating conflicting situations oreducing costly errors – or costly missed opportunities o background knowledge for planners & designers, decision aid for technology developers, users, regulators o contributions to resilient system (improved functionality, consensual co-ordination, policy coherence), socially and environmentally compatible design attracting more investments also from other sources, incl. FDI

Dr. Guenter Clar, © EU - LIAISON OFFICE FOR RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY STEINBEIS - EUROPA - ZENTRUM STUTTGART SEZ - STEINBEIS-EUROPA-ZENTRUM RTDI, SPI, Regional Decision Makers Tight budgets, pressure to support obvious and short-term demands Taking informed RTDI related decisions needs comprehensive knowledge base and structured stakeholder input In general, long-term and macro strategies are difficult to translate into day-to-day decision making procedures Various regions and smaller countries have addressed these issues effectively and used SPI based approaches successfully. Why not the others? Is the use of SPI tools too expensive, too complicated, too academic, too different from established & proven procedures? Are there no understandable & adaptable models and guidelines?

Dr. Guenter Clar, © EU - LIAISON OFFICE FOR RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY STEINBEIS - EUROPA - ZENTRUM STUTTGART SEZ - STEINBEIS-EUROPA-ZENTRUM RegStrat - A European Consortium

Dr. Guenter Clar, © EU - LIAISON OFFICE FOR RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY STEINBEIS - EUROPA - ZENTRUM STUTTGART SEZ - STEINBEIS-EUROPA-ZENTRUM Contributing to Policy Fields of High EU Relevance Regional actors contribution to Lisbon and Barcelona Goals Regional dimension of FP7 Strategic dimension of CIP Strategic dimension and RTDI investments of Structural Funds

Dr. Guenter Clar, © EU - LIAISON OFFICE FOR RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY STEINBEIS - EUROPA - ZENTRUM STUTTGART SEZ - STEINBEIS-EUROPA-ZENTRUM The RegStrat Project aims to improve (regional) policy design and implementation by supporting regional decision-makers and facilitating the application of Strategic Policy Intelligence o Foster understanding of SPI Tools o Supply appropriately processed information o Design pilot applications to test usability of tools Ongoing policy learning in practice Building both on EU and regional knowledge-base Integrating use of regional, national, EU (ERDF, ESG, FP7, CIP), and FDI support Contributing to policy fields of high EU and regional relevance RegStrat Objectives

Dr. Guenter Clar, © EU - LIAISON OFFICE FOR RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY STEINBEIS - EUROPA - ZENTRUM STUTTGART SEZ - STEINBEIS-EUROPA-ZENTRUM Regional RTDI Investment Strategies RegStrat focuses on the intersection of policy research, SPI application and regional development Bringing together regional stakeholder networks, SPI practitioners, policy researchers Rationale: with improved decision base, and more innovative & less risky choices, regional actors more confident RTDI-related in investment decisions. More likely to o allocate own public funds for RTDI-related or –relevant activities (S&T, HE, other policy fields) o leverage such investments from & in private sector o attract resources from national and EU (Cohesion, Agriculture, Infrastructure etc), AND from foreign direct investment budgets.

Dr. Guenter Clar, © EU - LIAISON OFFICE FOR RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY STEINBEIS - EUROPA - ZENTRUM STUTTGART SEZ - STEINBEIS-EUROPA-ZENTRUM RegStrat pilots: SPI tailored to regional situation (S&T) Foresight Vision & Priorities Innov&Tech Assessment Ex-ante Evaluation Agenda Setting (STI) Roadmapping Detailing / Focusing Agendas Implementation/ Monitoring Results / Changes Strategic Evaluation, (Innov) Audits, Benchmarking Recommendations