Smart Specialisation Strategy

The Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3) is one of the instruments set out in the Europe 2020 Strategy and it replaces the ex-ante conditionality for access to the ERDF funding 2014-2020, having also impact on the entire programming of the European Structural and Investment Funds.

The implementation of a “Smart Specialization” strategy enhances the sectors/segments/areas in which the regional productive and cognitive tissue presents comparative advantages. In fact companies from Calabria region have already acquired a competitive positioning in the concerning markets, while regional research centers have reached important scientific and business outputs on a global scale.

In view to develop the Smart Specialization Strategy (S3), the Calabria Region has adopted the methodology provided for in the S3 Guide with reference to its territory and has identified some areas of priority interest (Innovation Areas), including, on the one side, economic and social interest areas and, on the other side, areas with significant growth potential. The growth potential is also seen in light of a new, cross-sector approach, which looks more closely at the links between different industrial value chains.

The areas of innovation in which the strategic objectives of S3 can be achieved through reorganization, systematization, re-elaboration, development and strengthening of regional identity factors are:

The portal Research Italy presents a working section dedicated to the Smart Specialization Strategy, which illustrates the study methodology adopted and includes the relating documentation to download.

The specific contents of the “Regional Strategy for Innovation and the Smart Specialization 2014-2020” of Calabria Region can be downloaded from here.