One of the items provided by the S3 Community of Practice (S3 CoP) is a range of  Services to be provided to Thematic Smart Specialisation Partnerships during three years (2023, 24 and 25). Thematic Partnerships can select one Service per year, considering changing this Service in the forthcoming years or continuing.

Regarding Traceability & Big Data, partners agreed some months ago to choose the funding, finance and investment assistance during the first year. Finally, during October, the S3 CoP advised the starting of Services and last 10th of November, the kick-off meeting took place.

Jean François Romainville is the person in charge of providing the Service, coming from Idea Consulting, the company in charge of the S3 CoP.

The kick-off meeting started with a description of the Service, continuing with a discussion about the funding challenges and the need for Traceability & Big Data to align the Service and the Partnership’s challenges.

Taking advantage of the sooner Traceability & Big Data technical meeting in Barcelona, as a side event of the S3 CoP Forum, the leader and co-leader invited Mr Romainville to participate , agreeing on the development of a participatory section with regions and associates.

The Funding, finance and investment assistance is expected to be focused on two main areas:

• Exploring needs to locate finance and/or funding (public or private) to fund the regions and associated members participating in Traceability & Big Data.
• Supporting funding needs of the new Technical Working Groups about Interoperability and T&BD in circular economy.
  

The ultimate objective of the S3 CoP regarding this service is the improvement of the Thematic Partnership capacities in identifying (and activating) opportunities that match their funding needs and embracing specific and targeted opportunities. In the medium and long run, such improved capacities are a necessary condition for guaranteeing Partnerships’ project implementation and delivering ‘industry-relevant' impact.