Smart Specialisation Strategy at city level
IN FOCUS is called to bring together a number of cities that are committed to enhance their growth potential and global positioning according to their specialization strategies.Despite the recent proliferation at regional level of the so-called Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisation RIS3, a performance shortage has rapidly emerged on this issue at the level of urban economies. At a large extent, it is a question of multi-governance. That is a significant gap anyway, considering the main role big cities play in the global competition.That challenge is also linked to the limited experience in building up consistent industrial policies at urban level in most of the Member States. All of this shows the need for exchanging knowledge, under an integrated urban development perspective, on how sectorial policies can be improved and better connected to Smart Specialisation Strategies at city level.However, instead of merely transferring the RIS3 methodology down to the local level, the project aims at getting a specific city roadmap to smart specialisation, as a powerful and overarching approach to properly assemble a number of key concepts and trends, such as cluster-based segmentation, entrepreneurial talent management, city branding or new urban workplaces.IN FOCUS will trace a cutting-edge peer-learning transnational itinerary on this theme, which should crystallize locally into an Integrated Action Plan by each of the participating cities.