Engaging the private sector for smart specialisation

Workshops entitled “Engaging the private sector for smart specialisation: the role of stakeholder and public-private partnership for innovation” took place in Brussels on 29^th October. The event, organised by RIM Plus, was devoted to the issue of public-private cooperation for innovation against the background stakeholder participation in the development of the strategies, as well as the design of concrete support measures for the upcoming 2014-2020 support period. The workshops opened with the plenary session “Policy background and conceptual issues”, during which the speakers presented the latest developments in the RIM-Plus Project, state-of-play of the implementation of RIS3 strategies, and public-private cooperations for innovations. What followed, were the two parallel session, each focused on the reports from policy practices in different regions. The event concluded with the discussion “Public-private partnerships –  a means to which end?”.

The topics tackled during the workshops appeared to be a great starting point for a hot discussion and raised numerous questions. The parallel panels created a good opportunity to exchange and share ideas for efficient implementation for projects, which hopefully will result in improving the policies in the regions.