The principal features are:

- to promote investment in product and service development, technology transfer, social innovation, public service applications, demand stimulation, networking, clusters and open innovation through smart specialisation;

- to develop links and synergies between enterprises, research and development centres and the higher education sector;

Objectives include: Networking and Strengthening of links and Synergies in the Innovation System; building a critical mass of different stakeholders, disciplines in priority areas of use identified in the RIS3. Motivation and engagement of experienced experts (from academia and industry), future entrepreneurs, students and general youth. As innovations and innovativeness are also an important factor to enhance the competitiveness of the public and third sectors, the country intends to support the innovations in these fields.

Slovenia needs to improve links between excellence, competences and potentials for development of new services and integrated solutions. Innovation activities must involve rural/peri-urban areas, currently lagging behind main urban centres. ERUDITE will support PO improvement through multidisciplinary exchange at European level by holding Open Innovation process supported by SROI; where the resulting multi-stakeholder design of digital services will improve targeting of investments towards projects that foster digital service development which maximise economic and social returns

In line with the 2014-2020 cohesion policy, NOP METRO is a new Operational Programme, financed by structural funds, approved on 14/7/2015 by the EC (Decision C(2015)4998)developed for the 14 Italian metropolitan cities established by law in 01/2015: Venice, Turin, Milan, Genoa, Bologna, Florence, Bari, Naples, Reggio Calabria, Rome, Cagliari, Catania, Messina and Palermo. In accordance with the European Urban Agenda, NOP METRO aims at turning metropolitan cities into more accessible, functional and sustainable places and make them more inclusive and inter-connected. The programme’s main objectives consist in spreading digital services, increasing sustainable mobility in urban areas, reducing energy consumption in public facilities and encouraging interventions for social inclusion. As Intermediate bodies, the metropolitan cities will be the directly in charge for the management of the funds. The City of Venice will therefore manage the budget of EUR 40,2 millions allocated to the Venice metropolitan area, composed of 44 small and medium municipalities. The ERUDITE project will support the City of Venice to boost the results of the NOP METRO priority “Metropolitan Digital Agenda” providing the methodology for: 1) activating open innovation processes to strengthen cooperation with local Innovation ecosystem players; 2) evaluating the impact of the investments to be financed by the NOP METRO in order to really meet social and territorial needs through digital service provision.

In the PI Access to High speed broadband and the development of new e-services to create growth and support structural changes has been identified as a highly prioritised area in the region. Increased access to, usage and quality in ICT is one of the thematic objectives with investment priorities that will improve ICT-applications for e-governance, e-learning, e-integration, e-culture and e-health.

The goal 2.c.1 for this is that new digital services are established and existing developed so that accessibility to private and public services improves The PO needs to be improved through the development of projects which optimize the use of available investment, social and economic impacts. With the increasing need to improve services, whilst stabilizing expenditure and raising e-literacy and innovation (social and economic) in a sparsely populated area digital solutions offer both an inclusive and efficient solution.

Currently however there is a low level of development and adoption of new e-services in the municipalities and the full potential of the existing ICT-infrastructure to create an efficient public organisation and services is not being used. Innovative processes are required to engage all stakeholders in developing solutions that meet their needs and which raise their digital skills/knowledge.

The project will address the Local Economic and Community Plan for County Donegal (LECP) which provides a 6 year framework to guide the strategic direction of future activity and relevant funding streams within Donegal. More concretely the measure concerned is the Donegal Digital Action Plan developed within the LECP process, which mandated that a separate Donegal Digital Action Team be setup to develop and implement the action plan.

The main goals of this instrument are:

1. Digitally-skilled communities co-creating services with the business and public sectors

2. An expanded digital cluster, home to indigenous and FDI companies.

3. A working, visible and relevant Donegal digital research and innovation environment.

The revision of previous relevant “digital” work carried out in County Donegal, a survey conducted among relevant stakeholders have served to identify the main areas to be improved:

• The low levels of research activity and adoption of emerging innovation approaches needed to be addressed in the medium term

• The need to facilitate the presence of highly visible innovation hubs in other towns that - in addition to working space - would provide facilities and resources for ICT training, remote campus, smart working, community capacity building, citizen living lab/open innovation initiatives.

Participation in ERUDITE will help to find new approaches that support the creation and enhancement of these objectives

The programme (source: ERDF, ESF, IKF; a total of 9,004.2 M EUR over 7 years) aims to stimulate the economies of the less developed regions in Hungary. The specific measure of the Program Measure 2.2. aims to develop links and synergies between enterprises, research and development centres and the higher education sector with focus on stimulating business investment and innovation, boosting economic growth, via strengthening links and synergies among businesses, research institutions, government and the local community. It explicitly promotes the establishment of strategic partnership networks, where ICT infrastructure could play a more enhanced role in involving the rural areas. The governance, performance and scope of these networks requires improvement

The instrument aims to trigger actions that will reinforce and expand regional innovation capacity based on the potential of involving, educating and empowering local business, citizens and public administration to become partners in the creation of digital services appropriate to their needs. In recent years heavy investment has taken place in ICT infrastructure in Hungary. The current challenges are how to convert it for the benefit of the rural areas, how to convert the hard infrastructure into social and economic advantages. Bringing more opportunities to disadvantaged regions, to achieve convergence, is a national priority.

The objective of the Policy Instrument (PI) is to ensure that the region’s citizens and businesses benefit fully from access to innovative, open, inter-connected and compatible e-services and which will be designed to be accessible using the range of evolving devices and which together will constitute a package of replicable and reusable services for the region.

The PI in particular envisages the development and deployment of open networked digital service platforms that are open and compatible. The aim is to mutualise and capitalize on the number of services on offer: primarily e-administration, e-education/training and apprenticeship share and facilitate their development and their use by the maximum number of private and public stakeholders.

The general public will also have access to a wider range of services better in tune with their daily needs.

The PI needs to be improved by developing projects that involve citizens and/or representative bodies, key public, private and third sector stakeholder organization in the development and delivery of new and improved e-services who will co-design them, taking into account and investment priorities and territorial needs established by Social Return of Investment. The region will learn how to really involve local stakeholders in the design of a of e-service platforms in order to foster innovation and maximize the social return of investment of the projects supported by the PI.