The role of Innovation Intermediaries in the context of Smart Specialization Strategies (S3)

The development of cutting-edge technologies, the new industrial revolution and the consumer’s new tastes and preferences, compelled firms to implement new business models, to face the context mutations and to remain competitive on the International market. As the development of innovation and technologies require a set of asset that could not be present within a firm, the ability of outsourcing specific knowledge and technological skills is crucial. Hence, building networks that facilitate the exchange of knowledge and the trigger of technology transfer, is the only choice for competitiveness. Policy makers are largely investing on the development of the technology transfer process, both on the national and International levels. In a changing world, Cohesion Policy is the EU’s main investment policy aimed at respond to economic and societal challenges, reducing differences between regions and ensuring growth across Europe. For developing and implementing strategies for economic transformation, to make innovation is considered the key element, a priority for all regions, for driving investment and creating synergies, getting stakeholders more closely involved. This vision, based on the promotion of economic and social progress, driven by the innovation, adopts a of multilevel and multi-stakeholder governance model. The Smart Specialization Strategy (S3) promotes the activation of innovation strategies for a flexible, dynamic, multi-level and place-based local development. S3 policies (regional and national) represent the strategic framework supporting the implementation of innovation and development policies. Among S3 mean features, the identification of the unique characteristics and assets of each region, highlighting the local competitive advantages, play a major role (place based strategy), in connection with the definition of a limited number of priorities on which to intervene (concentration principle), the shared participation of resources and local stakeholders, towards an excellence-driven model of innovation management in the medium-long term and continuous feedback from ex-ante and ex-post evaluation processes of the whole strategy. S3 intends to be a solution to the fragmentation of initiatives for the local development, proposing development initiatives, proposing the adoption of a systemic approach for research and innovation policies.