
Learning Among Regions on Smart Specialisation
LARS
The project attempts to help the public sector in leading smart specialisation processes in their regions and to connect innovation networks across regions. It helps find solutions tackling the fragmentation of regional systems of innovation looking for entrepreneurial discoveries within such topics as blue growth, bio and circular economy, advanced production methods and technologies for energy efficiency.
Summary
Background
The global value chains and increased sophistication of production constitute a large challenge for regional development efforts. There is a need to learn and up-grade the level of policy intervention. The point of departure for this in the LARS project is that regional innovation systems are different but may learn from each other through transnational learning and exploiting the complementarities. It has also been suggested that collaboration between smart specialized regions could form the base for macro regional strategies.
Activities
The project materializes in six steps:
- Mapping of strategies in order to select the final intervention areas;
- Triple-helix gap analysis with the purpose of finding deficiencies and also good cases of innovation network functioning;
- Matching partners in transfer network based on the “good” and “bad” practices;
- Learning on the transfers, essentially an innovation context analysis;
- Piloting new activities in the regions with the purpose of improving the innovation networks;
- Communicating the findings with a view on the wider implications of the project.
Partners involved
The consortium behind LARS consists of partners from Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, Norway, Sweden and Finland, constituting mostly of authorities with a substantial experience as implementers of EU-regional policies but also of research institutions with research and advisory experience in the field.
Highlights by mid-term:
The LARS project partners selected the value chains out of the already existing or emerging ones that play a vital role in the process of the smart specialisation strategies (RIS3) implementation in their regions, analysed those value chains as well as their relevant stakeholders.
The project partners accomplished a gap-analysis in all participating regions to investigate the bottlenecks in the regional processes of the RIS3 implementation. More than 100 interviews with representatives of the selected companies, public authorities, universities and NGOs were taken; a survey on connectivity and functionality of existing innovation networks was conducted and focus group meetings were organised to verify and discuss the collected findings through structured dialogues. Based on the gathered information, the project produced a report “Revealing the innovation potential in the Baltic Sea region: a comparative analysis”. The report presents a selection criteria for good practices in regional innovation policies, which can be used as one input by LARS partners when selecting good practices in the processes of the RIS3 implementation. Based on the selected good practices, and matching them, LARS partners plan pilots that will be implemented at the later stage of the project implementation
Follow-up activities
LARS is followed up by the project GRETA.
Budgets
PARTNERS
Town: Vaasa
Region: MANNER-SUOMI
Country: Finland
Representative: Jerker Johnson
Phone: 35 863 206 564
E-mail: jerker.johnson{at}obotnia.fi
Web: www.obotnia.fi
Approximate total partner budget in EUR:
231.422,06
Town: Vaasa
Region: MANNER-SUOMI
Country: Finland
Representative: Seija Virkkala
Phone: 358 294 498 335
E-mail: seija.virkkala{at}uwasa.fi
Web: http://www.uva.fi
Approximate total partner budget in EUR:
251.385,45
Town: Umeå
Region: NORRA SVERIGE
Country: Sweden
Representative: Jonas Lundström
Phone: 4 675 493 338
E-mail: Jonas.lundstrom{at}regionvasterbotten.se
Web: www.regionvasterbotten.se
Approximate total partner budget in EUR:
196.000,00
Town: Lahti
Region: MANNER-SUOMI
Country: Finland
Representative: Marko Mälly
Phone: 358 443 719 438
E-mail: marko.mally{at}paijat-hame.fi
Web: www.paijat-hame.fi
Approximate total partner budget in EUR:
168.075,00
Town: Hamburg
Region: HAMBURG
Country: Germany
Representative: Walter Leal
Phone: 4 940 428 756 313
E-mail: walter.leal{at}haw-hamburg.de
Web: www.haw-hamburg.de
Approximate total partner budget in EUR:
224.000,00
Town: Vilnius
Region: LIETUVA
Country: Lithuania
Representative: Zivile Gedminaite-Raudone
Phone: 37 052 617 978
E-mail: zivile.gedminaite{at}gmail.com
Web: www.laei.lt
Approximate total partner budget in EUR:
110.600,00
Town: Riga
Region: LATVIJA
Country: Latvia
Representative: Alise Vecozola
Phone: 37 166 016 786
E-mail: Alise.Vecozola{at}varam.gov.lv
Web: http://www.varam.gov.lv
Approximate total partner budget in EUR:
119.550,00
Town: Lillehammer
Region: NORGE
Country: Norway
Representative: Erik Lagethon
Phone: 4 761 289 329
E-mail: erik.lagethon{at}oppland.org
Web: http://www.oppland.no
Approximate total partner budget in EUR:
188.180,00
Town: Vilnius
Region: LIETUVA
Country: Lithuania
Representative: Giedre Stumbryte
Phone: 37 052 356 116
E-mail: g.stumbryte{at}lic.lt
Web: http://www.lic.lt
Approximate total partner budget in EUR:
163.404,45
Social Media
CONTACTS
Project manager
Regional Council of Ostrobothia
Jerker Johnson
+35 863 206 564
Legal representative
Regional Council of Ostrobothnia
Kaj Suomela
+35863206527
Communication manager
Regional Council of Ostrobothia
Jerker Johnson
35 863 206 564