Boosting Regional Development with ICT-Innovation-Strategies

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Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is crucial to European competitiveness, innovation strength and industrial development, especially as innovation is made possible in most cases by important developments in advanced ICT and their application. However, new policies and strategies are required to fully maximize the possible opportunities and meet the challenges that the rapid development of ICT creates. Given the dynamic evolution of the ICT sector and the current financial crisis, public policy-makers are facing increasing problems in identifying appropriate targets and choosing the proper means for implementing development strategies. This is particularly true at a regional level, where responsiveness and efficiency are crucial. Policy-makers need support to develop policies that combine three fundamental factors: (i) the given regional strengths and assets, (ii) innovation policies focusing on the establishment and support of continuous innovation in SMEs, and (iii) interregional policies aimed at the most relevant technological areas. BORDWIIS+ will tackle this challenge with smart specialisation strategies. The consortium, consisting of 10 partners representing 8 regions with complementary ICT competencies and policies, aims to create the best environment for ICT innovation and business opportunities in strategic sectors for their respective regions and as a blueprint for European regions in general. Each region is represented by the partner responsible for designing the region's ICT innovation policy, which in the cases of NRW and Skane are also the managing organization of their ICT clusters. Foreseen actions include the analysis of regional policies and assets, preparation of an ICT inventory in each region, best-practices in collaborative models, study trips, a conference to disseminate final outputs and results, a Dialogue with the Commission to discuss smart ICT innovation strategies on the European level, studies on interregional cooperation potential and regional impact, the publication of the "ICT innovation Strategy for European Regions: Recommendations for Regional Specialisation" as well as one implementation plan per region to ensure the durability of project results. The project will contribute to the INTERREG IVC goal of improving the effectiveness of regional development policies and instruments, economic modernisation and the increased competitiveness of Europe through large-scale information and experience exchange, collecting, putting into practice, evaluating and developing a new methodology among the partner regions to design, implement and monitor smart ICT innovation policies.

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