BENCHMARKING OF BLUE GROWTH INNOVATION POLICIES IN ADRIATIC-IONIAN REGION AND EU SEA BASINS

BENCHMARKING OF BLUE GROWTH INNOVATION POLICIES  IN ADRIATIC-IONIAN REGION AND EU SEA BASINS

Date: 11. 11. 2021 at 14:00

Validation Workshop on 11th of November 2021, 14.00-16.30 CET Online.

  1. Context and objectives of the event

According to European Commission, marine and maritime research and innovation are essential for achieving the EU's ambition to become climate neutral by 2050, for protecting and restoring marine ecosystems, and for making the blue economy a source of ideas and actions to promote sustainable innovation. Seas are shared by different countries, so transnational cooperation is important. All this requires a coherent policy framework and a coordinated innovation policy in Europe's sea basins to adequately address common challenges, find common solutions and maximise shared benefits.

The BLUEAIR project, co-funded by the Interreg Adrion programme, aims to strengthen the institutional capacities of the Adriatic-Ionian territories in defining a common S3 policy for the blue economy and to ensure the alignment of local initiatives with the EUSAIR strategy through a coordinated approach.

One of the approaches we use to achieve the project objectives is the benchmarking of innovation policies in EU sea basins. Benchmarking is an important component of policy making that provides high quality policy insights. It not only provides information on who is performing better, but also on what practises or what policy mechanisms are supporting this better performance.

We benchmarked six EU sea basins (Adriatic-Ionian, Atlantic, Baltic Sea, Black Sea, North Sea and West Mediterranean) according to their innovation governance structure, policy instruments, policy processes and institutional capacities for innovation policy implementation. For this purpose, we adapted the Innovation Policy Index introduced by Professor Slavo Radosevic. There are several reasons why we chose this approach: Its structure reflects the current state of the art in innovation systems and policy theory, it adequately accounts for the more limited or emerging transnational policy coordination and implementation, and it is designed to provide both a framework for the structured assessment of innovation policy and actionable suggestions for innovation policy improvements.

The aim of the workshop is to present the benchmarking tool and to exchange views on the results of our benchmarking of innovation policies in the EU sea basins. We would also like to present this tool to support policy makers in EU sea basins and macro-regions in the formulation, implementation and evaluation of innovation policies.

  1. Expected outcomes

  • Introduction of the benchmarking tool for innovation policy
  • Validation of the results of the transnational innovation policy benchmarking for blue growth
  • Contribution to a coordinated transnational innovation policy in the Adriatic-Ionian region and in the EU
  • Contribution to the macro-regional S3 policy on the blue economy in the Adriatic-Ionian region
  1. Agenda

14.00-14.05  Welcome address

Elena Banci, Vanessa Sanson, Area Science Park, Blueair Lead Partner

14.05-14.30  Innovation policy in catching up (macro)regions: principles and challenges of design and implementation

Slavo Radosevic, University College London

14.30-14.40  Blueair Innovation policy benchmarking

Peter Medica, Technology Park Ljubljana, Activity Lead

14.40-15.00  Introduction of the benchmarking tool

Marijana Petrović, Nataša Bojković, Vladislav Maraš, University of Belgrade

15.00-15.30  Blue Growth Innovation policies benchmarking results

Eva Kos, Anuška Štoka, Technology Park Ljubljana

15.30-16.00  Reflection from EU macroregions/sea basins on the benchmarking results

Irene Tzouramani, EUSAIR TSG 1 Coordinator

Torfi Jóhannesson, Katrin Poulsen, EUSBSR PA Bioeconomy Coordinators

Thanos Smanis, WestMed Assistance Mechanism                          

CPMR Balkan and Black Sea Commission (TBC)

Atlantic Assistance Mechanism – PwC representative (TBD)

North Sea representative (TBC)

16.00-16.20        Open discussion with audience

16.20-16.30        Conclusions of the workshop

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We are kindly welcome you to read a short report from the event: BLUEAIR Benchmarking Tool presented at the Mediterranean Coast and Macro-regions Week.


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