Representatives of regional innovation systems from the South Bohemia Region and Upper Austria will meet in Linz
Tuesday, 17. May 2022
Regional Intelligent Specialisation Strategies (RIS3) play an important role in national and regional innovation systems. They identify priorities that allow to build competitive advantages in the most effective way in line with the economic conditions and the R&D focus of the territory. A cross-border initiative called S3 Couple Net invites actors from both sides of the border to work together on the themes identified in the regional smart specialisation strategies.
The joint workshop is being organised in Linz on 22 June by Austrian partner Business Upper Austria OÖ and invites participants representing strategic public institutions and agencies that either define or are directly and indirectly involved in activities aimed at developing innovative entrepreneurship in both regions.
The main motive of the meeting will be in particular the conclusions of a recently prepared study that compared both strategic documents, the regional innovation strategy of the South Bohemian Region and the Upper Austrian equivalent of #upperVISION2030.
"The prepared comparative analysis shows that there is a prerequisite for effective cooperation and the fulfilment of the objectives of the S3 strategies in some areas together. There is room for cooperation both at the strategic level, i.e. in creating, updating and monitoring the progress of regional strategies, and in the area of implementation of its content", says Miroslav Kotoun, RIS3 manager of the South Bohemian Region and adds: "we clearly see potential in the area of addressing societal challenges and global megatrends or in promoting entrepreneurial innovation in a cross-border dimension."
This is evidenced by the recent establishment of several cooperation networks in the field of virtual reality and artificial intelligence or, for example, the upcoming cross-border start-up competition IDEA & START-UP Contest 2022, the final of which will also take place in Linz on 19 September 2022.
The aim of the S3 Couple Net project is not only to compare RIS3 strategies, but also to create a functional network of key actors and other partners in order to be able to respond quickly to any further challenges of cooperation. The lead partner of the project, which runs from September 2021 and ends in 16 months in December 2022, is the South Bohemian Science and Technology Park.
Source: press release
