Smart specialisation strategy. The territorial dimension of research and innovation regional policies

The paper aims at investigating how EU Regions should incorporate the place-based approach (Barca, 2009) to plan their Research and Innovation Smart Specialisation Strategy (RIS3) within the current Programming Period 2014-2020. Smart Specialisation Strategies become a key factor to stimulate private investment, and “should be integrated into regional development strategies in order to ensure an effective partnership between civil society, businesses and public authorities at regional, national and European levels” (EC, 2010). The link envisaged between S3 and place-based approach is based on their characterization of a development policy, and on the value of the different geographical, social, economic features that territories can express (Foray, 2000). The transformation of these two theoretical approaches into policy is recognizable in two drivers for programming the Agenda 2020. The first is the Theory of Change, which implies the use of “indicators” related to the value that different territories can express to control and measure the expected change. The second is more related to stimulate at regional level an integrated approach to reach a critical mass of the investment effects/impacts. The MAPS-LED Research Project (Horizon2020) perspective is described as a way to investigate how is possible to regenerate local economic areas through S3 considering place-based approach