Regions need to break the “project syndrome” and do long-term planning

Detailed strategic planning is missing at a regional level in the EU, with local authorities failing to design coherent long-term innovation roadmaps.

“The early pre-identification of funding opportunities is the last thing regions are thinking about. Without doing this, you will see regions limited to ad-hoc success,” said Alasdair Reid, head of Technopolis office for Brussels and Tallinn, speaking at a session on EU Regional Funding at the Innovation Convention hosted by ERRIN in Brussels earlier this month.

Currently, many of Europe’s regions shuffle their attention around on a project-by-project basis, Reid observed. This so-called “project syndrome” does not make the best possible use of funding.

In an attempt to improve the performance of its regions, the EU has re-engineered the requirements for regional funding for 2014 – 2020. For the first time regions will be required to present “smart specialisation strategies” – or roadmaps that detail how they intend to make the best use of available resources to achieve some form of competitive advantage.

The step-change in thinking this requires will encourage more foresight planning from regions, “something we don’t currently see in abundance,” said Reid.  

While the European Commission encourages regions to find explicit links between structural funding and research funding, Reid said he has seen little evidence that these opportunities have been grasped by the majority of regions.

“We’ve been talking about making synergies between funds for ten years now. Our expectations have not been realised. The linkages are not well understood and regional strategies that integrate the full set of funding options are still very few and far between,” said Reid.

Regional views

“On the whole, the new smart specialisation strategies are to be welcomed,” said Leda Bologni, coordinator of technology platforms and projects in the Emilia Romagna region in Italy. “It forces regions to identify their winners,” she said.

Richard Christie, head of design and commercialisation services at Invest Northern Ireland, also appreciates the EU’s switch in emphasis. “From now on, there’s no point boasting about how much you spend, it’s about getting value for money,” he said.

Petri Räsänen, Director for innovation and foresight, Tampere region of Finland, acknowledged that fresh thinking on regional strategy is vital. “We’re in the process of moving away from classical business and university cluster models to technology platform development: we’re trying to get away from the project syndrome,” he said.

Not every region is starting from the same position, of course. Alan Bain, compliance manager with Scottish Investment Bank, admitted that the regions he deals with, “Were only starting now to think about a strategy to go after leveraging more than one EU funding source.”

Federica Marzuoli, Director for integrated regional programming, said her region of Lombardy, Italy, is also only at the point of thinking about how best to coordinate all of this.

Even in one of Europe’s most innovative countries, Sweden, there are regions that need to switch gear and take a different approach. Stefan Bengtsson, professor and vice-chancellor of Malmö University, said his region, Skane, is starting to brainstorm less about, “which projects and what funding” and instead is starting with, “what issues and challenges need to be addressed.”

“It’s about building a process,” he said. “We are making a knowledge base that will have future positive effects for our region.”

Familiarity and comfort play a small role too in regions’ habits. “In Poland, they don’t use [EU R&D] funds, they take the easy route and go for the structural funds,” said Adrian Healey, research associate at Cardiff University.

Conversely, as an academic, Healey is used to looking for EU science money and has never thought of trying to access regional funds.

Developing a smart specialisation strategy, is only half the job. Regional authorities must account for spending and feel satisfied they directed funding into areas with the most growth potential.

“We have to ensure our technical monitoring measurements are complimentary at national, regional and local level,” said Bologni. “This makes synchronising EU funds more difficult than it appears on the face of things.”

A recent report commissioned by the Science|Business Innovation Board and entitled “5 Steps to Smarter Specialisation”, makes suggestions on how less-developed regions can instill an entrepreneurship mentality and build a more innovative local economy.  An important first step is to bridge the business-university gap, and encourage SMEs to look to their local university for advice, the report says.

For more on the “5 Steps to Smarter Specialisation” report, see here.