Smart Specialisation as a policy process: rationale, procedures and implications Pr. Dominique Foray Public hearing on Smart Specialisation - lessons learnt, prospects for the future European Parliament Committee on Regional Development 22 April, 2013
D.Foray, P.A.David, B.Hall and B.Van Ark : Smart Specialisation: the Concept Knowledge for Growth expert group for the EC
Few principles Concentration of resources «small is not so beautiful in the information age»
Few principles Concentration of resources by developing distinctive and original areas of specialisation «they need to particularize themselves»
Few principles Problem of identification
Few principles Potential priorities : new (R-D & I) activities that Involve a group of firms and (R-D) partners Explore and open new domains of opportunities
Few principles Most often these are activities where innovative projects complement existing productive assets in order to generate structural changes Modernisation : nano tech in pulp & paper (or geolocalisation in agriculture or ICTs in tourism) Diversification of plastic SMEs from automotive to biomedical Transition : from traditional textile to technical materials
Few principles Entrepreneurial discovery A set of tools for policy makers to take things in hand again while giving a central role to market and bottom up process of discovery A key role for entrepreneurial knowledge But entrepreneurial knowledge is most often fragmented, divided and dispersed, perhaps located outside
Few principles S3 as an inclusive growth strategy
Sleeping giant agrofood Excited goblings high tech cluster Hungry dwarfs low tech SMEs
Sectoral level mapping Sleeping giant agrofood Excited goblings high tech cluster Hungry dwarfs low tech SMEs Activity level priorities
Sectoral level Sleeping giant agrofood Excited goblings high tech cluster Hungry dwarfs low tech SMEs A narrow view of smart specialisation!
Does not mean that you need to support a project in every sector but to give every sector a chance to be present in S3 through a good project «While dynamism is crucial, we want dynamism with economic justice with what I call economic inclusion. It means drawing companies and people into the economic sector of a modern economy, where new ideas for new processes and products are conceived and experimented» (E.Phelps, 2012) How to stimulate and promote entrepreneurial discoveries in all sectors (incl. the less dynamic)? Inclusiveness will imply different paces and tempo of the policy
Sectoral level mapping prioritization Activity level Modernisation of the old agro-food: nano and ICT in agroo-food Transition of the cluster: from ICT to med-tech Diversification of SMEs: from automotive to biomedical sector
Goals s relevance for different types of regions Smart specialisation goals Facilitating emergence and early growth of new activities potentially rich in innovation and spillovers Diversifying the regional system through the generation of new options Generating critical mass, critical networks or clusters within a diversified system S3 provides strategies and goals for any region For followers and leaders
Early feedback of my works with Regions A sophisticated policy that requires strong (public) capabilities and good economic institutions The S3 challenge provides a great motivation and strong case for engagement in regional administrations
My blog! (designed as a forum to discuss S3 issues with policy makers) http://blog.epfl.ch/dominiqueforay Thank you!