Alpine Research and INnovation Capacity Governance
Although most of EUSALP regions developed S3/RIS based on EC requirements, R&I triple helix still focuses little on a transnational approach of strategic topics for the Alpine Region (AR) to better exploit economic opportunities. There is no strategic transnational collaborative framework on topics of specific Alpine importance, e.g. Digital Divide, Climate Change, Biodiversity conservation, etc., both between Public Authorities (PA), and between Academia and Business sector (BS) with limited transnational R&I on such topics. The fact that policy makers, Academia& BS are currently not always jointly valorising elements of Smart Specialisation Strategies (S3), leads them to run at different pace holding back benefits for entire AR. A-RING will address the overall need to pool efforts in tackling major challenges with joint R&I approach steering EU Open Innovation path. Likewise, EUSALP macro-regional strategy (MRS) stresses the need to approach development challenges& potentials in wider geographical context with the overall coordination. A-RING will foster alignment between different R&I policy initiatives and institutional frameworks to effectively address societal challenges and increase uptake of strengths and assets. Innovative bottom-up process is pursued to align R&I strategies, gathering expectations from BS and innovation potential from Academia, granting citizens’ needs linked to responsible R&I (RRI) and ensuring transnational multilevel governance by developing a layer for a right policy process. Partners (PP) will elaborate a Blueprint for shared R&I Agenda (SRIA) to promote joint S3 strategy framework and, together with Observers (OBs) and Target groups (TG) will test (1) synergic and complementary collaborative approach between PAs, (2) network model between Academia and BS. A-RING will establish a shared approach with mutual recognition across triple helix and targeted transnational activities, through Blueprint for SRIA, Policy Briefs and R&I Chart.