On January 28th, a regional stakeholders meeting was held online in Puglia, entitled “Synergies among funds and instruments for greater effectiveness of policies supporting research, development and innovation”. It has been organized by ARTI, as partner of the Interreg Europe IMPROVE.
The aim of the meeting was to share the experiences presented by the other European regions during the thematic seminars and peer review sessions carried out within the project, in order to involve the regional stakeholders in a debate on which experiences, appropriately adapted, can be interesting for the regional territory, with a special focus on synergies in RIS3 for the programming period 2021 - 2027.
The meeting started with the presentation of international examples, in order to lead a discussion among the participants on the synergies related to projects and those ones related to policies, based on common strategies, governance and skills.
Since to the Covid-19 pandemic and the next programming period, structured considerations on competences, governance, strategy for synergies are needed, with a special role also in monitoring.
A wide debate followed, providing interesting and complementary inputs from representatives of the regional administration involved in the design and implementation of public policies. Participants agreed on the importance of a strategic and broad discussion on synergies, addressing all the relevant funds (H2020, ESF, national funds, inter-regional cooperation funds, etc.).
The discussion was focused mainly on the following topics:
• previous local experiences (pros and cons)
• need for a strategic approach for financial incentives
• need to overcome technical barriers and boost the local actors skills to achieve synergies
• role of governance and monitoring
The last part of the debate finally focused on Apulian experiences that can be shared as good practices and the next steps are related to a meeting organized by Puglia Region on 23 February on synergies among the new R&I programme and the European Structural and Investment Funds.
