Smart Specialisation as an Engagement Framework for Triple Helix Interactions

The Triple Helix (TH) framework is a well-established theoretical concept and a basis for portraying patterns of industry-science-government interactions. The TH framework provides a useful depiction and description of what might take place in what are commonly described as ‘regional innovation ecosystems’. There is a presumption that interactions will evolve around the convergence of missions concerning creation and utilisation of knowledge, regional networks, government regulation and venture finance, and decisions of multinational corporations and international organisations. However, like the regional innovation systems model itself, the TH model offers little in the way of practical guidance about how interactions can be nurtured and developed, what and where new public and private innovation investments should be made, the most appropriate way to go about building and strengthening engagement between institutions to achieve innovation outcomes, and most significantly, the governance and intermediary arrangements appropriate to guide planning, budgeting and resource allocation at a regional level. This paper addresses the extent to which the Smart Specialisation framework can address those investment, engagement and governance issues