The Smart Specialisation Strategies (S3) Conference 2024 took place last 11-12 December in Rimini, Italy. The flagship event for S3 stakeholders from across regions in EU Member States is organised by DG REGIO and S3 CoP Secretariat, in partnership with Emilia-Romagna Region and with the support of the Municipality of Rimini and Palacongressi di Rimini.

S3 practitioners, experts, policymakers, and other key stakeholders came together to engage in this bottom-up event to network, discuss S3 policy and implementation issues and exchange information and good practices. In addition, the S3 Conference brought together regions recognised as Regional Innovation Valleys under the New European Innovation Agenda flagship action.

The first day was centred around three pillars:  

• Successful S3 design and implementation: fostering place-based innovation, enabling sustainable and resilient economic development: challenges, capacities, and policy mix. It will explore how S3 can foster place-based innovation while ensuring resilience and strategic autonomy in the territories and EU as a whole.
• S3 and interregional collaboration: We will learn from many experiences related to interregional collaboration, exploring challenges, opportunities, and mechanisms to align different instruments with regional strategies and capacity building tools.
• Smart Specialisation and its role for connecting Regional Innovation Valleys in key thematic areas identified in the New European Innovation Agenda, namely: green, digital, food, health, energy, raw materials, and manufacturing. Examples from regions and the newly launched RIV projects supported by I3 and EIE.

The second day brought together the Steering Committee meeting of the Smart Specialisation Partnerships, S3 CoP Working Groups on innovation diffusion, interregional cooperation and industrial modernisation meetings and, finally, a side event organised by the Emilia-Romagna about the S3 in Action and the role of the regions for the future of European Policies as engines of industrial change and socio-economic cohesion.

Before starting the dedicated sessions for the Thematic Platforms and the Working Groups, the S3 CoP welcomed 3 new partnerships on Circular Building, Smart Health and Shipbuilding Alternative Fuels. It was also presented a new update in the S3 CoP website about testimonials and insights gathered from the S3 CoP Services.

The interesting tool of the I3 Support Facility was also presented. It consists of 6 components to work for, a dedicated portal and the I3 Observatory. It is also being developed as a matchmaking platform. A Policy Lab will organise three discussion groups per year. Additionally, 12 annual webinars and 2 national or regional stakeholder workshops. The first dedicated I3 Forum has also been announced for September or October 2025 in Brussels.

The specific session for the Thematic Platform on Agrifood dedicated a round table on the role of S3 as a key driver for a sustainable and competitive agrifood economy & the outward-looking dimension of RIS3. Linking agrifood partnerships, responding to farmers' needs and demands, and building alliances were some of the key issues discussed.

An innovative speed-date session with the European Commission's Directorates-General provided an opportunity for direct contact to ask specific questions and forge new links and exchanges with other partners.

The S3 Conference offered a pivotal sharing and networking moment for the community of policy-makers involved in Smart Specialisation and the Thematic Partnerships of the thematic platforms on Agrifood, Blue Economy, Industrial Modernisation and Energy. This year was considered particularly crucial by the European Commission, as the future of Cohesion policy is taking shape for the post 2027 programming period. The S3 Conference held a strategic role, offering the possibility to reflect on the current programming period, as well as envision its future direction.

Wolfgang Munch, DG Regio Director, announced the next S3 Conference will be held in Brussels, on June 2025.