S3P T&BD
The European Commission together with the S3 Community of Practice (S3 CoP) Secretariat organized the Thematic Smart Specialization Partnerships (TSSP) Steering Committee on 10 and 11 June.
Wolfgang Munch (Deputy Head of Unit, DG REGIO) welcomed the participants and introduced the context for the event, emphasising that interregional collaboration is key for growth and competitiveness in Europe. In this context, the S3 Thematic Platforms play a central role, in creating, promoting, and stimulating interregional collaboration by bringing together regions along shared priorities. He highlighted the important work the TSSPs are carrying out in building European value chains and ecosystems, which are becoming increasingly important.
The session continued with the presentation of the new section through the S3 CoP for sharing best practices. Els Van de Velde (S3 CoP Secretariat) highlighted the importance of creating best practices and testimonials in order to provide significant examples and insights about specific aspects to other Partnerships. Regarding the Agrifood Platform, TSSPs of Traceability & Big Data and Smart Sensors 4 Agrifood have been selected as good practices for this initial launching. The information will be available soon on the S3 CoP site.
After presenting the updated monitoring report of the activities of TSSPs, the S3 CoP team presented four services offered to TSSPs during the previous months: Governance; Mapping; Funding, finance and investment assistance; and Demonstration. Three breakout sessions to further present the work done by the S3 CoP experts and the TSSPs facilitated the exchange of experiences and fruitful discussions. Specifically, during the Funding Service breakout, Mar Catedra (Technical Coordinator of Traceability & Big Data) presented the deliveries to the Partnership highlighting that the motivation to choose the funding, finance and investment service was largely driven by the lack of direct EU funding for TSSPs.
The plenary of the first day concluded with the insights of the breakout sessions and a closing summary.
The second day of the TSSPs Steering Committee started with the introduction of Catherine Wendt (Head of Unit, DG REGIO). She emphasised the clear value of the partnerships as a catalyst for regional innovation and tapping into new market opportunities to enhance competitiveness. Interregional Innovation Investments were highlighted as a particularly important instrument for partnerships to explore as a potential opportunity to support their activities.
Three news Partnerships were introduced: Plant-based Food Innovation and Food for Positive Health Impact (Agrifood Platform) and BlueXChangeServices (Sustainable Blue Economy Platform). To continue, the S3 CoP Services of Training and capacity building; (Re)scoping; and Smart partnering were also presented with its associated breakout session. During the recap of these sessions in the plenary, Els van de Velde commented that the next phase of service delivery will start in September 2024, with slightly tuned services based on the feedback obtained
It was also reminded to ‘Save the Date’ for the next Steering Committee meeting set to take place in Rimini, Emilia Romagna, Italy in December 2024.
Once the joint Steering Committee finished, TSSPs participated in the dedicated Platforms meetings. Regarding Agrifood, Natalia Brzenina (DG AGRI) presented the latest updates on the Horizon Europe Cluster 6 programme and the EU Mission Soil. David Molina Villanueva (DG RTD) presented two interesting opportunities: 1) Building the future with nature: Boosting Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing in the EU Communication; and 2) Regional Innovation Valleys and the thematic use case on “Bioeconomy and Food Systems”.
The two new agrifood Partnerships presented their objectives and activities and, during the Q&A session, they were encouraged to engage with existing partnerships to understand the potential for synergies.
More details about the S3 Conference in Rimini: