Brussels, 13/11/2014 (Agence Europe) - Around 20 different regions eager to maintain entrepreneurship and industry have chosen “smart specialisation” as a guiding principle for concentrating resources in the technological sectors where they have a competitive edge. Under the banner of a “vanguard initiative”, they adopted a statement in this connection on 13 November.
In the follow-up to spearheading an “industrial renaissance”, around 20 European regions are seeking to adopt a fresh approach to research, innovation and industrial policies. This will involve targeting “smart” specialisations and conferring the regions with an active inter-connective role in the value chain, particularly through clusters. The avant-garde initiative also wants to be based on inter-regional networks in an effort to test out and demonstrate new business opportunities for advanced manufacturing.
The regions involved made their goal official by way of a statement adopted in Milan on 13 November, during a high-level meeting on new growth through “smart specialisation”. The political leaders who signed the statement are committed to developing this kind of specialisation and setting up inter-regional networks in this regard. They also intend to facilitate combined funding for supporting these networks, as well as explore different opportunities for leveraging public-private investment.
The regions involved are in around ten different countries: the Asturias, Baden-Württemberg, Basque Country, Dalarna, Flanders, Lombardy, Malopolska, Navarre, Nord-Pas de Calais, Norte, North Rhine - Westphalia, Scotland, Silesia, Skane, South-Netherlands, Rhône-Alpes, Tampere, Upper Austria, Wallonia, Southern Holland and, soon, Emilia Romagna, Lodzkie, Ostrobothnia, the Pays de la Loire and Saxony. (MD)