Smart Specialisation Strategies - STI Roadmaps for SDGs

Smart Specialisation approach is based on localising and prioritising SDGs. Each territory needs to identify the key economic, societal and environmental challenges and build a strategy and action plan showing how knowledge and innovation inputs will be used to address these challenges. The main novelties of this approach compared to innovation policies implemented before are: (i) its place-based focus (all the challenges affecting a specific territories are taken into account); (ii) coming out of the traditional policy silos and integrating measures on economic and industrial policy, science, technology and innovation policy, agricultural and energy policies etc., which allows identifying interlinkages and synergies; (iii) mobilising active participation of stakeholders not only during design phase but also implementation and monitoring; (iv) building institutional capacity of policy-makers and stakeholders; (v) highly operational character, with clear governance structures and financing frameworks (vi) creating national and international alliances (thematic partnerships) to address the key challenges together.<br />
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As a new policy concept, the implementation of this approach was challenging for many national and subnational governments. European Commission, starting from 2011, has been providing information, guidance, peer reviews, trainings and seminars to facilitate the learning process and sharing of good practices through Smart Specialisation Platform that continues its role as a learning network, also beyond Europe.<br />
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A lot of attention is put on monitoring and evaluation of progress in the implementation of Smart Specialisation Strategies, making sure that general and priority-specific indicators are defined, measured and discussed with stakeholders.<br />
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Smart Specialisation Strategies is a policy initiative that is being implemented on most of the European continent and spreading to other ones. They have been acknowledged by international organizations such as European Union, OECD and the World Bank. The first full impact assessment is expected in 2020, after the first implementation period. The success of smart specialisation owes a lot to its adaptability to different territorial contexts – it is used at local and urban level, subnational (regions in the European Union and national level and in international partnerships). Without losing its main focus it can be easily applied in different political and administrative realities all over the world.