Regional

Innovation
Policies
Luigi Reggi’s website

Co-designing regional innovation

policies - a new project for multi-
level, bottom-up coordination
Luigi Reggi

An ambitious project has been launched by the Italian Department for

Development and Cohesion Policies, involving Italian national and regional
policy makers. The aim: co-designing Innovation policies under EU
Structural Funds for a multi-level coordination, in Gov 2.0 style.

Something is definitely happening.

1. The context: EU Regional Policy and Innovation

In many EU Countries, especially in the lagging areas of the East and the
South of Europe, European Cohesion Policy is the main source of funding
for Research and Innovation policies, and new Europe 2020 flagship
initiative "Innovation Union" aims at strengthening and further developing
the role of EU Structural Funds 2007-13 to support innovation. While the
European Social Fund (ESF) is dedicated to the development of human
capital, the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), as stated in the
European Regulation No 1080/2006, contributes towards the financing of
productive investment and infrastructures as well as the development of
endogenous potential through measures which support regional and local
development.

Each EU region inserts its policy objectives in its regional Operational

Programmes or in a shared National or Interregional Programme. For each
regional objective, the selection criteria of projects are set out by a
dedicated Managing Authority.

In the case of Italy, with their ERFD regional Operational Programmes

(OPs)

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Innovation
Policies
Luigi Reggi’s website

- all regions have programmed funding for research projects carried out
by enterprises (in collaboration with research centres or other
enterprises) and for innovation in enterprises; 13 OPs include actions
for the creation of new businesses in the emerging sectors

- 19 regions intend to empower research infrastructures, equipment and

instrumentation to support R&I supply, and to create clusters and
structures for technological transfer (innovation poles, technological
districts, competence centres)

The total amount of resources dedicated to Research, Innovation and

Information Society by all Italian Operative Programmes 2007-2013
exceeds 20.7 billion Euros. 70% of these resources are concentrated in
only 5 Regions of the South: Campania, Puglia, Sicilia, Calabria and
Basilicata. This is the highest amount of money ever managed by those
regional authorities for this particularly difficult kind of policy.

2. A specific action for inter-regional coordination in Italy

In 2008, the Department for Development and Cohesion Policies

(DPS) of the Italian Ministry of Economic Development - responsible for
Structural Funds in Italy - launched a technical assistance project dedicated
to the Italian Regions of the Convergence objective (the five regions
mentioned above) and aimed at sharing good practices of policy
implementation in the field of Research and Innovation. In particular,
academic support was offered to tackle critical issues, such as empowering
strategic design capability and project selections, in itinere and ex post
evaluation, the efficient use of conditionality and result-driven funding.
Eight working groups were created, involving more than 100
representatives of regional administrations plus the central ministries and
agencies responsible for national innovation policies.
I dedicated a post to some of the high-level conclusions the final report of
the first phase of the project (2008-09), in which you can also find not only
regional data on structural funds in Italy, but also methodological advice
and examples of good practices.

A new phase of the project has just been launched: Sostegno alle
politiche di ricerca e innovazione delle Regioni (‘Support to regional

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Innovation
Policies
Luigi Reggi’s website

Research and Innovation policies’). The new wave is promising more in-
depth analysis of current trends of regional policy for Research and
Innovation. Moreover, central and local policy-makers are actively involved
in order to co-design policies, to share implementation practices and
to draft policy documents and templates ready to be used in day-to-
day activities. It’s up to a few thematic working groups to produce drafts of
grants, strategies, evaluation studies, implementation processes, etc. in
true ‘Gov 2.0’ style, e.g. through the use of tools for on line collaboration.

To date, four working groups, coordinated by high level experts and

practitioners, have been focusing on at least six policy issues:

1. Technological foresight and regional policy

2. Selection and criteria for research projects
3. Conditionality and funding of projects
4. Pre-commercial Public procurement
5. In itinere evaluation indicators
6. Ex post evaluation indicators

You can download the powerpoint presentations of the project on the

website of the National Agency for Innovation (Agenzia per la diffusione
delle tecnologie per l’Innovazione), in Italian.

3. Innovation policy needs multi-level coordination

But the scope of these activities could not be limited to national

boundaries. The ‘secret agenda’ of Andrea Bonaccorsi, professor of
Economics at the University of Pisa and coordinator of the project, is to
connect Italian regional authorities to the European regional network, and
import innovative ideas from the most advanced EU regions.

The rationale is clear. From a regional point of view, it is useless and

dangerous to let national or EU plans identify long-term regional policy
goals and research priorities by simply ‘copying’ the most fashionable EU or
national ideas into local strategies and plans. For example, it is evident that
focusing on biotechnology, ICT or nanotechnology may not be the best
strategy for all European regions; but this seems to be the case if you take
a look at regional policy documents. Instead, Prof Bonaccorsi suggests to

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Innovation
Policies
Luigi Reggi’s website

apply the ‘smart specialization’ approach to regional priority setting. The

effort should be concentrated on specific sectors and niches of application
by combining General Purpose Technologies such as ICT with locally
generated competencies.
In other words, regions must find their true vocation, and the experience of
other advanced European territories might prove fundamental. The
increasing interest toward territory-based innovation policies is
demonstrated by the growing regional percentage of public
expenditure for Research and Innovation in most OECD countries,
especially in those countries where regional governments have greater
autonomy (see figure below).

C3D/EA#

@A6=.#BA931#
Regional expenditure for
>30719?# Research and Innovation
as a percentage of total
;6<=9/1#
R&I expenditure by
selected countries

839710:# Source: A. Bonaccorsi, Sostegno alle

politiche di ricerca e innovazione
2345/67# delle Regioni, 2010
http://www.aginnovazione.gov.it/
-./01# export/sites/default/it/doc/news/
news_23_06_2010/23_giungo_2010_
!"# $!"# %!"# &!"# '!"# (!"# )!"# *!"# +!"# ,!"# $!!"# Bonaccorsi.pdf

The concept of smart specialization was first introduced by Dominique

Foray, Paul A. David and Bronwyn Hall - experts of the Knowledge for
Growth group (K4G) working for the President of the European Commission
- and then embedded in Europe 2020 strategy. Regional specialization
implies a multi-level governance to coordinate different, place-based
policies at national and regional level. An on-going research project by the
OECD and the European Commission identifies some of the main barriers to
a seamless policy-making process at national level:

- low political and technical capabilities of local institutions,

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Innovation
Policies
Luigi Reggi’s website

- duplication of competencies and plans and

- the presence of policy gaps (policy areas not covered).

4. Towards a bottom-up approach to policy coordination

Now, how to realize multi-level coordination?

While multi-level governance can be improved trough political agreements
or the creation of dedicated agencies, the value of this kind of projects is to
provide good examples of a bottom-up approach. People involved in policy
implementation from different regions - along with national technical
bodies - are given the chance to meet their peers and share knowledge, as
happens in a true community of practice. I can’t wait to see the results.