This conference offers a comprehensive picture of the smart specialisation policy experience, including an evaluation of its early results, and highlights recent developments both conceptually and empirically. Particular attention will be given to implementation challenges and ways to address them, as well as to methodologies for impact assessment. In addition, the conference will explore how smart specialisation engages with global value chains and production networks, and how firms, regions and cities can benefit from relationships across the borders. Confirmed plenary sessions and speakers Plenary 1: Why places matter Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, Professor of Economic Geography, LSE, UK Charles W. Wessner, Professor, Global Innovation Policy Georgetown University, USA Plenary 2: Moving to smart specialisation 2.0 Simona Iammarino, Professor of Economic Geography, LSE, UK Peter Berkowitz, DG for Regional and Urban Policy, European Commission, Belgium Plenary 3: Places, networks and value chains Inger Midtkandal, Science and Technology Counsellor, Innovation Norway New Delhi, India Henry Wai-chung Yeung, Distinguished Professor/ Professor of Economic Geography, NUS, Singapore Slavo Radosevic, Professor of Industry and Innovation Studies, UCL, UK Plenary 4: Is smart specialisation a game changer? Jurgita Petrauskiene, Minister of Education and Science, Republic of Lithuania At the moment, there are two open calls, one for for special session proposal, one for the abstracts. The deadline for both is set for 17 May. More information on the calls can be found here.  The conference offers to a limited number of participants from academia, institutions and territorial authorities, a unique opportunity to discuss and define the scope and main avenues for future research and policy analysis, and to address the challenges confronting policy makers and practitioners. As well as academic submissions, papers by practitioners or co-authored by academics and practitioners are welcome. In addition, complete session proposals on a specific area/ issue including the list of 3-4 speakers and their papers are also welcome. More info on the open calls for proposals can be found here.  The conference is co-organised by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre and the Regional Studies Association European Foundation (RSA Europe)