• H2020
• Policy & Research
• Knowledge & Innovation

The Committee of the Regions (CoR) and four directorate-generals of the European Commission are organising a joint conference focusing on ‘European Innovation Ecosystems: Good governance and effective support for smart specialisation’.

The conference, to be held on 26 January, aims at exchanging knowledge and experience concerning the effectiveness and efficiency of supporting innovative entrepreneurship at territorial levels in the context of the implementation of Smart Specialisation strategies.

This will include exploring and discussing intraregional governance issues of successful European Innovation Ecosystems as well as the quality and effectiveness of business support service providers.

The event in Brussels, Belgium, will begin with an opening session with high-level speakers and a keynote expert presentation. A panel discussion will follow between representatives of different parts of innovation ecosystems in the EU.

In the afternoon, participants will be invited to join one of the three parallel sessions with different objectives and working methods, namely: business creation and growth, interconnecting domains and innovation actors, co-creation of knowledge.

During the latter session, the European Association of Research and Technology Organisations will hold a joint presentation with the Joint Research Centre (JRC). High-level representatives from research and technology organisations and regions will share their best practices with the support of innovative entrepreneurship at local level and explore further possibilities to reinforce activities in this field.

Rapporteurs from the three sessions will then present the outcomes of their work and general conclusions will be drawn by the main rapporteur. This will be followed by a closing session.

The JRC and DGs Grow, Research, and Regio are organising the event alongside the CoR.

Registration is open until 23 January.