Silvano Bertini

European Structural and Investment Funds Journal, Volume 5 (2017), Issue 1, Page 32 - 43

Emilia-Romagna is a strong manufacturing region aiming to regenerate the roots of its competitiveness in the framework of the knowledge and innovation economy. Following the Smart Specialisation approach, the effort is twofold: consolidating existing fundamental clusters by introducing Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) in their knowledge basis and innovation processes; and fostering the emergence of new, highly innovative industrial systems, able to attract new qualified employment. The regional approach is highly systemic, not oriented to single niche industries, but geared towards complex and integrated clusters around common themes. Emilia-Romagna’s Smart Specialisation Strategy represents an ambitious effort to position a manufacturing system on the frontier of the new social needs.

Georgios Peroulakis

European Structural and Investment Funds Journal, Volume 5 (2017), Issue 1, Page 12 - 19

The 2014-2020 ESIF programmes marked an important turn on results-orientation and resource-concentration in areas where a competitive advantage is identified and critical mass can be built. The objective is clear: to create investment which can produce a higher impact in terms of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth and jobs. With regard to smart growth, Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisation (RIS3s) are paving the way for the economic transformation of EU regions based on knowledge and innovation. By being one of the many ex-ante conditionalities, the Smart specialisation strategies are embedded in the new operational programmes of assistance to the European regions. Bottom-up decisions were facilitated by introducing the entrepreneurial discovery process (EDP) in the design cycle. This made effective the collaboration between Triple/Quadruple Helix actors in the adoption of the RIS3s and the design of the OPs and calls in a majority of EU Regions. The conceptual, regulatory and programming phases took quite a long time but now, at around half way into the 2014-2020 period, we enter in to the implementation stage. Over 120 Smart specialisation strategies have been submitted to the European Commission during the negotiations of operational programmes establishing priorities and allocating funds at national or regional level. Allocations of circa €40 billion from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) will mobilise an estimated amount of circa €250 billion to support the RIS3s, including other ESI Funds, national and regional public funds, private investments, resources from Horizon2020, COSME and the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) – Investment Plan for Europe. What really matters now is to proceed with the implementation, so as to transform strategies into projects, not allowing sliding back into “business as usual”. The credibility of the Smart specialisation concept and of the EU Institutions that promoted it is at stake as is the future development of EU Regions

Mark Boden

European Structural and Investment Funds Journal, Volume 5 (2017), Issue 1, Page 77 - 83

The Joint Research Centre of the European Commission provides support to selected slow growth and less developed regions in the implementation of their Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisation (RIS3). In addition to the envisaged impacts in these regions, this work also aims to generate wider lessons for RIS3 implementation across the EU. This article describes the approach and key outcomes of this RIS3 support activity in the Greek Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace. Focused on the engagement of stakeholders across the region, this activity has sought to catalyse the entrepreneurial discovery process in the region, identifying and developing ideas and partnerships for research and innovation projects. It has examined the development of technical and administrative capacities necessary to advance RIS as well as the structures and processes for effective and appropriate RIS3 governance. This work has led to the development of a “tool box” to support RIS3 implementation. This toolbox is currently being developed and further refined and developed for application in less favoured regions across the EU.

Nikos Vogiatzis, Jorge-A. Sanchez-P., Vassilios Makios

European Structural and Investment Funds Journal, Volume 5 (2017), Issue 1, Page 69 - 76

Corallia is a Unit of the Research and Innovation Centre Athena, under the auspices of the General Secretariat for Research and Technology, established in Greece for the management and development of Innovation Clusters. Corallia’s activities focus on knowledge-intensive and exports-oriented technology segments, where Greece has the capacity to build sustainable innovation ecosystems, thus effectively supporting Smart Specialisation strategies in those regions. In the last decade, Corallia has implemented successfully several milestone national development programmes for cluster development, utilising European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). This paper describes the cluster development programme that Corallia managed in the 2000-2006 and 2007-2013 programming periods that were co-financed by ERDF via the National Operational Programmes of the 3rd and 4th Community Support Frameworks respectively.

Dimitrios Kyriakou

European Structural and Investment Funds Journal, Volume 5 (2017), Issue 1, Page 4 - 11

We emphasise the need of keeping in mind the definition/focus of the smart specialisation strategy (S3) approach regarding place-based regional economic transformation, as well as the importance of avoiding both the Charybdis of top-down dirigisme, and the Scylla of hands-off handicapped government. Short-termism should be avoided for transformation processes; nevertheless, there are certain visible first steps and first fruits in a long regional economic transformation process can be highlighted (such as compliance with ex-ante conditionalities, strategy production, administrative innovation, revisiting compartmentalisation, etc.). An additional promising development regards the attractiveness of S3 as a more generally transposable policy framework, applicable in other policy areas, as well as the global interest, far beyond the EU, that is being shown in the S3 process/concept. At the same time, one must beware of longer-term, deeper caveats regarding top-down temptations, simplistic one-size-fits-all recipes, and issues of participation/representation-giving voice to the voiceless.

Karolina Lipinska, Monika Radziszewska

European Structural and Investment Funds Journal, Volume 5 (2017), Issue 1, Page 44 - 52

This article describes how local government in Pomorskie built on the existing regional key clusters strategy using a bottom-up approach to developing the smart specialisation strategy.The article outlines in detail the process through which smart specialisations were selected, which enabled the participation of numerous entities in the proposal submission and selection process, and the impact that can already be seen in terms of applications submitted under international and regional calls for proposals, as well as highlights some of the success factors identified by the region.

Jan-Philipp Kramer, András Kaszap

European Structural and Investment Funds Journal, Volume 5 (2017), Issue 2, Page 120 - 133

Direct financial support to large enterprises in the 2007-2013 EU programming period is estimated at € 6 billion on the EU-28 level. Debates on the effectiveness of this sum often fuel controversies, containing varied points of view in favour of, or against using public money to subsidise large enterprises. The justification of subsidies often involves the argument of influencing the large firms’ location choice or realising additional indirect and wider benefits for SMEs and the regions in which they operate. The extent to which the EU support can influence the large firms’ behaviour is, however, difficult to measure, largely due to the complexity of the companies’ organisational structures and decision making mechanisms. This paper presents the methodology, the main findings and conclusions of Work Package 4 (Support to large enterprises) of the ex post evaluation of Cohesion Policy programmes 2007–2013. The evaluation used a theory-based approach, Contribution Analysis in particular, to open the ‘black box’ of large firm support and unravel the causal relationship between the distributed funds and the observed outcomes. The paper sheds light on the effectiveness of the interventions and identifies the conditions under which large firm support can result in added value at EU level.

Rhys Davies, Jennifer Alstrom, Kathryn Helliwell, Tom Smithson

European Structural and Investment Funds Journal, Volume 5 (2017), Issue 2, Page 155 - 160

This article explores the use of a large scale telephone survey to evaluate the ESF Programmes in Wales. It firstly describes the structure of the ESF Programmes in Wales. It then describes the survey (known as the ‘ESF Leavers Survey’) and the Counterfactual Impact Evaluation (CIE) undertaken using data from it. Finally, the article discusses the CIE findings and links these to wider research and evaluation evidence on the effectiveness of interventions aimed at assisting people to find employment. The article suggests that, in the short-term, Employability Support and Engagement Signposting can be very effective types of support. It also suggests that support for those recently made redundant can result in high deadweight in terms of entry to employment but can help such people find better paid work than they would otherwise have done. The article suggests that the impact of Basic Skills Training may take a while to materialise but that it is worth persevering with this kind of support given other evidence on its longer-term effectiveness. The article concludes by discussing some of the weaknesses in the analysis and the steps being taken to improve this work in the future.

Christine Hamza

European Structural and Investment Funds Journal, Volume 5 (2017), Issue 2, Page 147 - 154

This ex-post evaluation analyses the nature of the interventions that have been financed and what has been achieved with ERDF support in the 2007-2013 period related to urban development and social infrastructure. It is the first study to undertake this effort. The analysis is based on monitoring data, document screening, interviews with managing authorities and a survey of project implementation bodies. The results of the evaluation reveal that integrated urban development strategies are defined and take effect outside the Operational Programmes at local level, while social infrastructure interventions follow a more sectoral path mostly at national or regional level. Integrated urban development challenges, objectives and outcomes tend to be vague. Achievements are seen in making a locality or city more attractive for residents, businesses and visitors. In some Member States, investment in social infrastructures contributes to a more or less fundamental reform of the respective system. This is particularly relevant for health and education infrastructure. Generally, there is a tendency for EU-13 Member States to invest more in infrastructure and for EU-15 to focus more on integrated strategies.