Presentation by Peter Berkowitz, Head of Unit, DG REGIO G1, European Commission at the OECD webinar on "The Internationalisation of Smart Specialisation Strategies", held on 28 June 2021. More info: https://www.oecd.org/cfe/leed/s3-internationalisation.htm

1. 28 June 2021
Internationalisation and Smart Specialisation
Peter Berkowitz, Directorate General for Regional and Urban Policy,
European Commission

2. Fulfilment criteria for the enabling condition
Smart specialisation strategy(ies) shall be supported by:
1. Up-to-date analysis of challenges for innovation diffusion and digitalisation
2. Existence of competent regional / national institution or body, responsible for the
management of the smart specialisation strategy
3. Monitoring and evaluation tools to measure performance towards the objectives of the
strategy
4. Functioning of stakeholder cooperation (“entrepreneurial discovery process”)
5. Actions necessary to improve national or regional research and innovation systems, where
relevant
6. Where relevant, actions to manage industrial transition
7. Measures for enhancing cooperation with partners outside a given Member State in priority
areas supported by the smart specialisation strategy
Policy objective Specific objective Name of enabling condition
1. A more competitive and smarter
Europe by promoting innovative and
smart economic transformation and
regional ICT connectivity
ERDF:
Specific objectives 1.1 and
1.4 under this policy
objective
Good governance of national or regional
smart specialisation strategy
Enabling condition for smart specialisation

3. Will your MS's/region's new strategy consider supporting newly designed
actions suitable to initiate and/or improve interregional collaboration?
3
1
7
1
5
17
9
6
3
3
15
36
4
3
1
2
2
12
1
1
3
2
7
1
1
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Central and Western Europe (AT, DE, BE, NL, LU, FR)
Eastern and Central Eastern Europe (EE, LT, LV, HU, PL, SI, CZ, SK)
Nordics & Ireland (DK, SE, FI, IE)
Southeastern Europe (RO, BG, GR, HR, CY)
Southern Europe (ES, PT, IT, MT)
Total
very strongly 2 3 4 not at all

4. Traditional internationalisation support activities
Information
− Standard information services (available in almost all countries)
− Internet platform (available only in some countries)
Promotion
− Typically support for participation in foreign trade fairs
Financial support
− E.g. export credit, export/risk insurance or guarantees
− FDI credit, internationalisation support grants
− Tax relief
Inward investment support (FDI information or financial support)
Counselling (individual counselling on export development or the establishment of
subsidiaries abroad,
competence development, partner introduction/identification, legal advice)
Support to participation in international research projects

5. Potential for FDI
spillovers
• Capacity premia of foreign
firms
• FDI sector
• Entry mode
• Motive
• Home country
• Degree of foreign
ownership
• Governance mode in GVCs
Economic context and structure
• Level of development
• Industrial structure
• Technological sophistication
• Market competition
• Participation and position in GVCs
SME absorptive
capacities
• Sector
• Size
• Technological gap
• R&D capacity
• Human capital
• Financial capacity and
access to finance
• Networks
Economic geography factors
• Regional development
• Industrial clustering
• Agglomeration economies
FDI diffusion channels
Value chain linkages
Competition/ imitation
Labour mobility
Strategic partnerships
FDI-SME/GVC/GPN linkages and spillovers at the local/regional level

6. Interregional linkages and complementary specialisation capabilities
Source: Balland/Boschma study `beyond patents´ for REGIO (2020)
Maps on relatedness
for 7 key technologies,
showing for each
region top 5 regional
matches. For example
for batteries for the
Dresden (DED2) region
Chemnitz, Stuttgart,
Arnsberg, Mittel-
franken and
Malopolskie are the 5
best regional matches.
https://paballand.github.io
/4-relatedness-top-
matches-nuts2-
Batteries.htm

7. Interregional Innovation Instrument
HOW
Implemented
under direct
management.
WHAT
Commercialisation and
scaling up of
innovation projects for
the development of
European value chains
HOW MUCH
ERDF (Art. 10 bis)
EUR 570 Million
(current prices)
EC
supported by
an executive
agency
FOR WHOM
Interregional Q-Helix
ecosystems:
researchers, businesses,
civil society and public
administrations involved in
smart specialisation
strategies established at
national or regional levels

8. Interregional Innovation Investments
Strand 1 - Financial and Advisory Support for Investments in Interregional
Innovation projects
Strand 2 - Financial and Advisory Support for the development of value
chains in less developed regions
• Increasing the capacity of regional innovation eco-systems in less developed regions to participate in
global value chains as well as the capacity to co-invest in partnerships with other regions.
• Creating linkages between less developed regions with those in lead regions.
• Focus on foreign direct investment, (FDI) driven value chains & other emerging sectors.
• Supporting partnerships to connect demand and supply side to accelerate interregional innovation
investments in shared Smart Specialisation priority areas.
• Starting from concrete business cases, support to the development of portfolios of projects by
selected partnerships.
• It might include connecting, developing or making complementary use of testing and demonstration
facilities to accelerate market uptake and scale up innovative solutions

9. Conclusions
• Much stronger focus on internationalisation of smart specialisation
• Different approaches: traditional – GVC/GPN/FDI – complementary
specialisation
• Ongoing discussion at EU level about linkages between innovation
ecosystems as basis for innovation, regional and industrial policies
• New tools available to support this process – I3 and programmes
are complementary
• Need to significantly improve analytical basis

10. References
Radosevic, S. and Ciampi Stancova, K., Internationalising smart specialisation:
assessment and issues in the case of EU New Member States
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC97785
Regional Innovation Scoreboard 2021 (Commission)
https://ec.europa.eu/growth/industry/policy/innovation/regional_en
The geography of R&I and productivity, 2020 (Commission)
Paper by RTD and REGIO
https://ec.europa.eu/info/publications/geography-ri-and-productivity-regional-disparities-and-dynamics_en
FDI, GVC and regional economic development in Europe
(Study by Comotti/Crescenzi/Iammarino for DG REGIO, 2020)
https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/information/publications/studies/2020/foreign-direct-investment-global-value-chains-and-regional-
economic-development-in-europe
Smart specialisation: `Beyond patents´
(Analysis by Prof. Balland and Prof. Boschma for DG REGIO, 2020)
https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/docgener/brochure/smartspec_beyond_patents_en.pdf
The importance of scientific domains for technological diversification in
European regions
(Analysis by Prof. Balland and Prof. Boschma for DG REGIO, 2021)
https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/information/publications/reports/2021/the-importance-of-scientific-domains-for-technological-
diversification-in-european-regions