Interreg Europe good practices presented at S3COP webinar on innovation diffusion
On Thursday 23 May 2024, Arnault Morisson, thematic expert for a Smarter Europe from the Policy Learning Platform participated to the S3CoP webinar on innovation diffusion. Innovation diffusion is one of the seven fulfilment criteria for the enabling condition “Good governance of national or regional smart specialisation strategy,” which is in turn part of Article 174 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). More precisely, the criterion asks European regions to run an “up-to-date analysis of challenges for innovation diffusion and digitalisation” and it is one of the main focus of the S3 in the 2021-2027 programming period.
Innovation diffusion can be defined as the process through which different organisations gather ideas from outside and use them to introduce an innovation (e.g. a new process of production, a new product itself or a new way of providing a service). Innovation diffusion comprises also the process of adoption of existing technologies (e.g. purchasing machinery developed elsewhere or signing a license agreement for an existing patent).
During the webinar, Arnault Morisson presented good practices from Interreg Europe projects aiming to respond to the four main challenges hindering innovation diffusion in European regions.
- Strengths and weaknesses in the adoption of new technologies, innovations, business practices and digital tools across the business population (and especially among SMEs) from leading firms to those lagging behind.
- The role of universities and RTOs to meet the needs of companies in their ecosystem
- Knowledge spillovers and innovation diffusion channels between large firms, especially multinationals, and indigenous smaller enterprises.
- The role of innovation agencies and other public bodies in facilitating knowledge flows, and how they are coordinated (with a focus on multi-level governance issues).