2.3. RIS3 governance

Starting a RIS3 it is necessary to define the decision making and management structures. Demand-side perspectives, from innovation-user or interest groups of consumers, should be represented along with supply- facing perspectives. DG REGIO - RIS for Smart Specialisation in Greece 1. Governance: Participation of innovation actors REGIONAL KNOWLEDGE ECOLOGY

Leadership is "organizing a group of people to achieve a common goal". In RIS3, leadership has to achieve a truly place-based entrepreneurial process of discovery, experimentation and discovery of niches for specialization / differentiation. Leadership of RIS3 can be political, led by elected governments, managerial, led by entrepreneurs and private sector representatives, and intellectual, led by people in the academia and research. DG REGIO - RIS for Smart Specialisation in Greece 2. Leadership: Regional and consensus driven Since smart specialization, differentiation, and productive modernization are main objectives, leadership and priority setting should be driven by entrepreneurs and private sector participants. This is particularly needed in Greece where private sector investment in research and innovation is top challenge to address. “No matter who is involved, the RIS3 process needs to be interactive, regionally-driven and consensus based”

Most Greek regions have previous experience in designing bottom-up innovation policy, gained from RIS, RIS plus, and Regional Programs of Innovative actions elaborated during , funded from RG Regio, and from Regional Innovation Poles Since 2006, R&I policy was centralised by GSRT under a ‘shadow’ program of research and technological innovation based on aggregation of funds from the 13 regional OPs. Continuity with RIS and post RIS was lost. 3. Innovation governance in Greece REGIONAL INNOVATION POLES - STRUCTURE Implementation Consortia

To date, the institutional framework has changed: Regions and elected regional councils have new responsibilities for economic development, industry, energy, tourism, and productive restructuring, given by the law 3852/2010 (Kallikratis reform) and have to endorse the regional Operational Programs of For the programming period , the design of cohesion policies started in April However, the first Ministerial Directive and the produced accordingly regional reports do not provide guidance for collaborative and bottom-up elaboration of innovation priorities as foreseen in RIS3. Reports prepared by the Regions are not S3 strategies, but response to Ministry of Development request for SWOT and first priority setting for 11 objectives of EU 2020 strategy. Governance of RIS3 can follow the same pattern to all Greek regions, because: Bottom-up elaboration of RIS3 is missing in all regions. The institutional framework for innovation governance is common to all regions. Regions, besides the differences in development levels and innovation capability, suffer from the same weaknesses in the governance of innovation. 4. Current institutional framework

Regional authorities, having now the legal responsibility for OP , should establish a new framework for bottom-up strategic planning with the direct involvement of regional stakeholders. Recommended decision making structure: Three tiers (a)the regional council composed by the Governor and elected council as top decision making body; (b)a Steering Committee composed of regional stakeholders from the business and academic communities and the public administration, and (c)(c) thematic working groups focusing on main sectors of smart specialisation under the IMA Rules of participation, roles and responsibilities should be clearly defined. Bottom-up planning along the entire planning process, from regional needs analysis, SWOT, priorities setting, design of actions, monitoring Legitimate the focus on and selection of large-scale projects 5. RIS3 governance: Three tiers

Companies selection Higher turnover Higher turnover growth Higher exports Most active in EU research Successful start-ups DG REGIO - RIS for Smart Specialisation in Greece 6. Members for RIS3: Selection criteria R&D labs selection Industry focused Contracts with companies Most contracts from EU research Managing open infrastructures and test-beds Users and NGOs Open clubs / open coffee Producer networks Non-profit associations Product platforms holders Open source initiatives Public administration Regional development agencies Geographical units representation Having managerial competence

How to coordinate national and regional decisions making. Which division of roles and responsibilities? How to make a quick mapping of the regional knowledge ecosystem? How to set-up the overall structure of RIS3 governance? How to select members for different RIS3 tiers? How to achieve private sector leadership? How to achieve continuity with previous bottom-up innovation initiatives? How to adapt the development reports of the 1st Directive to RIS3 rational and specifications? 7. Wrap-up: Questions to address DG REGIO - RIS for Smart Specialisation in Greece