The Smart Specialisation (S3) Forum 2023 is the second in a series of events that the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy is organising for S3 stakeholders from across EU regions. The event is organised with the support of the Generalitat de Catalunya and the S3 Community of Practice Secretariat, where ERRIN is a partner.

This bottom-up region-centric event will gather S3 practitioners, experts, policymakers, and other key stakeholders to discuss S3 policy and implementation issues and exchange information and good practices. Together with speakers from the European Commission, managing authorities and governmental bodies implementing S3, the S3 Forum will present:

• a policy update on the latest S3 policy developments related to the I3 Instrument and the Regional Innovation Valleys Initiative, and the interplay with clusters;
• the latest developments across the S3 CoP, such as working groups, expert groups, support to the Thematic Smart Specialisation Partnerships;
• networking opportunities to engage with and connect with like-minded S3 stakeholders, learn from one another and explore common opportunities;
• dedicated breakout sessions, zooming in on the S3 fulfilment criteria with presentations on the latest related activities within the S3 CoP and regional presentations highlighting their experiences;
• lessons learned and experiences with I3 and EIE with presentations by successful region-led consortia.

The S3 Forum is planned as a physical event in Barcelona, Spain. Plenary sessions will be organised with a live recording and will be broadcast for an online audience: https://s3-forum.regio-events.eu/en/webstreaming 

Break-out sessions will be organised only physically.

Learn more, find the agenda and register by the extended deadline of 13 November here.

While the S3 Forum will be a one-day event on 28 November 2023, there will be a set of side events on the next day: the Steering committee meeting for the S3 Thematic Platforms and the meetings of the working groups on innovation diffusion, interregional collaboration, and industrial transitions. The hosts of the S3 Forum, Generalitat de Catalunya, will also hold a side event in the same venue: “Catalunya's S3 in action: Shared Agendas explained by their main players”. During this event, the regional government and key stakeholders will share in detail the process of creation and implementation of RIS3CAT Shared Agendas, which have been acknowledged as good practices across the EU.