23 October 2019, the final event of S34Growth took place in Tampere, the hometown of the Lead Partner, i.e. The Baltic Institute of Finland. Participants from all over Europe were provided an overview of the project activities and outputs, and also an outlook on the future of European innovation policy, smart specialisation and industry. Speakers of the event included representatives of the European Commission (DG Regional and Urban Policy, DG Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, and DG Research and Innovation), representatives of most of the S34Growth partner regions, and representatives of Tampere region and Finland in general.
As the moderator Alison Hunter, director of Economic and Public Policy Consultancy, summarised at the end of the day, the stakeholders and regions present in the event are clearly champions of the innovation collaboration agenda of the EU, and they see smart specialisation as a route to directing and delivering this. S34Growth project partners have been pioneers of this effort and the insights they bring are important for our post-2020 innovation agenda.
