📺 Missed the webinar? Watch the full recording here:
🔗 Below the post, you will find the speakers’ presentations.
On April 3rd, ERA_FABRIC hosted a high-level webinar bringing together regional innovation actors, policymakers, and researchers to explore the transformative potential of ERA Hubs. The event focused on the outcomes of the ERA_FABRIC European stakeholder survey and highlighted how ERA Hubs can help bridge regional disparities, enhance connectivity, and align innovation policies across Europe.
🔍 Key Takeaways
✅ ERA Hubs are not institutions, but strategic governance tools that align policies, facilitate interregional collaboration, and ensure greater impact at EU, national, and regional levels.
✅ Connectivity is key — without structured links between regions, excellence may reinforce disparities. ERA Hubs can help mitigate this through inclusive, network-based models.
✅ Survey results confirm strong support for ERA Hubs as a tool to strengthen R&I ecosystems, promote knowledge transfer, fill territorial gaps, and foster cross-border cooperation.
✅ Cohesion and excellence must go hand-in-hand. ERA Hubs have the potential to connect strengths across the EU, enabling more balanced innovation-driven growth.
✅ A “Fifth Freedom” – the free circulation of knowledge – was cited as a missing yet essential element for completing the Single Market in R&I.
✅ There is an urgent need to embed ERA Hubs into future EU policy frameworks, including FP10, Smart Specialisation, and the post-2027 MFF.
📖 Featured presentations included:
- Maria Grazia Zucchcini, Coordinator of ERA_FABRIC, ART-ER – Structuring an ERA Hub Model: Indications from an ERA_FABRIC European Survey.
- John Edwards, Advisory Board Member of ERA_FABRIC & Secretary General of EURASHE – Connectivity of Regional Innovation Ecosystems.
- Pirita Lindholm, Advisory Board Member of ERA_FABRIC & Director of ERRIN – European Regions Research & Innovation Network (ERRIN).