NMP-REG will be attending the next European Week of Regions and Cities (#EURegionsWeek) scheduled the next October which is the biggest annual Brussels-based event dedicated to regional policy.

The event has grown to become a unique communication and networking platform, bringing together regions and cities from all over Europe, including their political representatives, officials as well as experts and academics. Over the last 17 years, it has done much to promote policy learning and exchange of good practices.

This year, the European Week of Regions and Cities will spread over three consecutive weeks in October, each dedicated to one timely topic:

• 5-9 October: Empowering Citizens,

• 12-16 October: Cohesion and cooperation,

• 19-22 October: Green Europe, in cooperation with the Green Week.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the related health and safety measures, the majority of the 500 sessions will be in fully digital format.

NMP- REG will take part in a workshop on the future of clusters in the innovation ecosystem during the week dedicated to Cohesion and Cooperation. The workshop capitalises learnings of the 3 Interreg Europe projects involving more than 20 European regions: CLUSTERIX 2.0, ClusterFY and NMP-REG.

More specifically, the workshop in which NMP-REG will be involved will be held on October 15 from 11.30 AM to 01.00 PM. The event will be conducted through the Zoom platform.

Innovation ecosystems help to address complex challenges at regional, national and EU level, but their role is changing. Clusters are a key part of this ecosystem, but they have a shared responsibility both to foster competitiveness, technology and knowledge transfer and increasingly to act as innovation intermediaries to reach and engage quadruple helix actors. An innovation ecosystem may have different roles, based on different regional S3 priorities. Regional development requires coherence between the S3 and its clusters, to pursue smart development that connects sectors, technologies and geographies. 

Registration for the 18th European Week of Regions and Cities will open on 27 August 2020.

More information is available at this link.