Regional Council of Kainuu and Helsinki-Uusimaa Regional Council brought together BRIDGES project partners from nine European regions to promote the bio-economy. The partners made an introduction to each other's action plans and shared good practices. Bio-economy plays a strong role in the strategies for smart specialisation. Dr. Marina Ranga from the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission was one of the visitors.
Dr. Marina Ranga gave her comments upon the action plans and focused upon smart specialisation when working with regional innovations. She emphasized that implementing a RIS3 strategy will reveal any weaknesses of the regional innovation activities. Ranga is working for the Lagging Regions project promoting the implementation of smart specialisation RIS3 in the EU regions with the lowest GDPs.
The BRIDGES project works for the practical implementation of the RIS3. Smart specialisation stands for areas recognizing and choosing their own strengths. Strengths are developed in cooperation with research, development institutions and organizations - and when it comes to BRIDGES, in cooperation at the European level.
Bridges project was launched in April 2016 and the implementation of the project is halfway at this point. The regional action plans have been drafted and at the meeting in Helsinki, those went through a peer review, resulting with valuable tips for amendments and successful implementation.
The action plans shall be finalized and endorsed by the end of the year and their implementation shall start in the beginning of year 2019. The project will end during spring 2021.
The presentation of the progress towards action plans is to be found here
