Name and affiliations of the session organisers

• Carmen Sillero (Joint Research Centre – European Commission)
• Cristian Matti (Joint Research Centre – European Commission)
• Dimitri Pontikakis (Joint Research Centre – European Commission)

Description

Innovation strategies for sustainability transitions could benefit from the development of challenge-oriented regional innovation systems (Trippl, 2022). Indeed, as far as challenges overcome borders, systems do as such. In contrast to conventional regional innovation systems and policies, system-oriented and place-based innovation is long-term oriented and requires multi-scalar governance and open and inclusive actors’ involvement.

The Green and Digital transition, the disruption of the covid crisis and the geostrategic energy and supply crises unleashed by the conflict in Ukraine have triggered in Europe the call for transformative policies that create multiple values. The European Green Deal, the EU Missions, the European Industrial Strategy, REPOWER-EU and now, the Green Deal Industrial Plan are mobilizing European countries, regions and cities to strengthen their innovation ecosystems and the connections across them, to contribute to the twin transition and to attain the open strategic autonomy. In the US, the Inflation Reduction Act launched by the Biden Administration is approaching similar ambitions.

In this historical context, there is an increasing need to support innovation-driven territorial transformation by linking sustainability global challenges t with place-based innovation Challenge-oriented innovation systems have the potential to support a multi-stakeholder environment to overcome territorial barriers to achieve transformative change. For doing so, interregional perspectives are critical to enable-systemic mechanisms, such as future-oriented co-creation processes, multi-portfolios and multi-level partnerships, linked to a range of different, interconnected territorial challenges. To this end, in 2022, the Joint Research Centre proposed “Partnerships for Regional Innovation (PRI) approach, as a strategic framework that encourages and empowers multiple territories to agree, co-create and develop co-ownership to design and implement mission-oriented strategies that identify local challenges towards collectively defined and broadly understood goals.

We would like to explore with the scientific community new insights and early lessons learned from experimenting with interregional perspectives of challenge-oriented innovation systems for sustainability transitions. How challenge-oriented innovation systems can be defined, built and orchestrated from an interregional perspective? What could be their role in the climate and industrial transition: How do they interact with the multilevel governance? The session aims to provide reflections from both ongoing research and the early implementation of PRI. These reflections aim at analysing how to advance in steering change in sustainability transitions leaving no territories behind and overcoming the difficulties in the cooperation between less developed and more advanced territories.

We invite contributions on the following (or related) topics. 

• Sustainability transition and its translation into place-based challenge/missions 
• Strategic policy intelligence through future-oriented co-creation processes 
• Interregional governance challenges. Defining Inter territorial strategic partnerships 
• The role of the territory in the value chain transformation

References

Alvial Palavicino, C., Matti, C., & Brodnik, C. (2023). Co-creation for Transformative Innovation Policy: an implementation case for projects structured as portfolio of knowledge services, Evidence & Policy (published online ahead of print 2023). Retrieved May 2, 2023, from htps://doi.org/10.1332/174426421X16711051078462 

Ãzbolat, N., Haegeman, K. and Sereti, K., European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs): Collaboration in a RIS3 Context, EUR 29771 EN, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2019, ISBN 978-92-76-08331-3, doi:10.2760/752122, JRC116904. 

Ghosh, B., Kivimaa, P., Ramirez, M., Schot, J. and Torrens, J. (2021), ‘Transformative outcomes: assessing and reorienting experimentation with transformative innovation policy’, Science and Public Policy, Vol. 48, No 5, pp. 739–756 (https:// doi.org/10.1093/SCIPOL/SCAB045) 

Haddad, C. R., Nakić, V., Bergek, A., & Hellsmark, H. (2022). Transformative innovation policy: A systematic review. ​ Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 43, 14-40.​ 

Köhler, J., Geels, F., Kern, F., Markard, J., Onsongo, E., Wieczorek, A., Alkemade, F., Avelino, F., Bergek, A., Boons, F., Fünfschilling, L., Hess, D., Holtz, G., Hyysalo, S., Jenkins, K., Kivimaa, P., Martiskainen, M., McMeekin, A., Mühlemeier, M. S., Nykvist, B., Pel, B., Raven, R., Rohracher, H., Sandén, B., Schot, J., Sovacool, B., Turnheim, B., Welch, D., Wells, P. (2019), ‘An agenda for sustainability transitions research: state of the art and future directions’, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, Vol. 31, pp. 1–32 

Pontikakis, D., González Vázquez, I., Bianchi, G., Ranga, M., Marques Santos, A., Reimeris, R., Mifsud, S., Morgan, K., Madrid, C., Stierna, J. (2022a), Partnerships for Regional Innovation – Playbook, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg 

The Square: Putting place-based innovation policy for sustainability at the centre of policy making, Schwaag Serger, S., Soete, L. and Stierna, K. editor(s), Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2023, ISBN 978-92-76-59369-0, JRC131244. 

Woolford, J., Amanatidou, E., Gerussi, E. and Boden, J.M., Interregional Cooperation and Smart Specialisation: a Lagging Regions Perspective, EUR 30691 EN, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2021, ISBN 978-92-76-37539-5, doi:10.2760/25586, JRC124118