Deliverable D2.1
Knowledge ecologies for territorial value creation

Abbreviations
Introduction
Policy context
Objecves, role and funconing of an ERA HUB
Towards an ERA HUB working definion
REFERENCES

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

This  deliverable  proposes  a  definion  of  ERA  Hub  that  both  respects  the  original  policy  goals  and  is understood,  accepted,  and  implemented  by  the  different  stakeholders  across  European  knowledge ecosystems. 

The  policy  background  of  the  iniave  provides  polical  momentum  for  a  paradigm  change  to  be adopted  in  the  next  programming  period  (2028  onwards).  It  rests  upon  a  generalised  policy  trend toward  valorising  an  ecosystems-based  approach  to  governance,  funding  and  implementaon,  where the  focus  is  on  funconality,  complementarity  of  capacity  and  stakeholder-focused  governance  and funding.  It  includes  a  clarificaon  of  the  foundaonal  principles  that  underpin  a  successful implementaon of ERA Hubs, namely: 

  •  Direconality:  mobilizaon  of  the  public  and  private  stakeholders  around  shared objecves. 
  • Mul-level  governance  processes:  mul-level  in  its  intervenon,  composion  and membership.
  • Horizon  integraon:  formal  bridge  to  other  knowledge  ecosystems,  independently  of regional or naonal borders.
  • Holisc  approach:  an  ERA  HUB  brings  together  all  the  public  and  private  stakeholders. Aims  to  support  co-creaon  and  joint  ownership  of  the  goals  and  process.  Promotes cultural and praccal systemic change in both private and public instuons. 

The  deliverable  defines  the  objecves,  role  and  funconing  of  the  ERA  HUBs.  In  the  following  table we  summarise  ERA  HUBs  objecves  and  corresponding  requirements.  In  the  chapters  of  the document you can find more detailed information. 

The document finalises with a proposed working definion of ERA HUBs.

Below you can find its short, elevator pitch version: In a nutshell, ERA Hubs are mission-focused, mulstakeholder research and innovaon collaborave ecosystems based in specific territories, aiming at developing beer governance and increased compeveness for more efficiently addressing common societal challenges. 

1. ABBREVIATIONS

ERA – European Research Area

S3 – Smart Specialisaon Strategy

CoR – Commiee of the Regions

2. INTRODUCTION

This document aims at summarizing, in a non-technical language, the state of the art of the knowledge about ERA Hubs, what is the economic, social, environmental and governance background that created the need for a new tool to promote transformave innovaon, which are its objecves, and finally, propose a definion that both respects the original policy goals and is understood, accepted and implemented by the different stakeholders across European knowledge ecosystems.

At the same me, the document aims at idenfying and clarifying the foundaonal principles that underpin a successful implementaon of ERA Hubs. This is, in our perspecve, so central to an in-depth understanding of the ERA Hub concept and what disnguishes it from other already exisng iniaves, that we prefer to highlight it from the onset. So, in a nutshell, below are the main disncve and unique ingredients of an ERA Hub:

  • Direconality : direconality refers to the mobilizaon of the public and private stakeholders around shared objecves (i.e. green deal or the digital transion, if we look through a macro lens, or a parcular themac R&I area or sector, if going specific into a regional strategy).
  • Multi-level governance processes : an ERA Hub is inherently multi-level in its intervenon/composion/membership. This means that the integration and mobilization effort across the diversity of stakeholders in a given R&I area or economic sector, needs to be made across vercal governance and implementaon levels (i.e. regional, naonal and European).
  • Horizon integration : an ERA Hub is a formal bridge to other knowledge ecosystems (ideally, other ERA Hubs), independently of regional or national borders.
  • Holisc approach : an ERA HUB brings together all the public and private stakeholders. It challenges the narrave of private stakeholders negoang with public enes but aims to support co-creaon and joint ownership of the goals and process to achieve them. This is parcularly important to promote cultural and practical systemic change in both private and public instutions.

It is the combination of these characteriscs that make ERA Hubs unique and create added value when compared to other existing iniatiatives.

 

3. Policy context

Background and context for an ERA HUB policy


The European Commission communicaon “A New Era for Research and Innovation” (2020) proposes a set of measures aiming at strengthening the European Research Area (ERA). Among these, is the goal of “strengthening innovaon ecosystems for knowledge circulation and valorisation”, recognizing that “over the years, different types of supporve structures were created, ranging from Centres of Excellence to advisory services or specialised innovaon hubs. There could be great benefit from fostering a stronger interconnecon between them across the EU.” This would “facilitate collaboraon and exchange of best pracces, with the incenve to maximise the value of knowledge producon, circulaon and use”.

The goals set are not new but are becoming increasingly urgent for a myriad of reasons, not least, because we have learnt that we need to evolve in our conceptualizaon of innovaon ecosystem (understood as all the important factors that influence the development, diffusion and use of innovaons) to include what Granstrand and Holgersson (2020) would describe as a focus on the actor/stakeholder and their complementary or concurrent roles, which for the purpose of our goal (to contribute to the development of a workable definion of ERA HUB), includes complementary and/or concurrent perspecves from policy, research, industry, society in general, all brought together.


As the Commiee of the Regions (CoR) emphasized in 2020, the goal is to promote “co-design and co-responsibility for the process and results of research and innovaon”. The CoR, naturally, emphasizes the role of regional and local players but the real challenge is to overcome our incomplete representaon of innovaon ecosystems, by overcoming the focus on administrave/funding implementaon froners and redirecng it to the above-menoned innovaon actors and their complementary and concurrent roles. This, as the CoR itself proposes, requires “an approach based on a more inclusive, mul-level form of governance”, that “with the ‘ERA hubs’ (…) boosts measures for coordinaon with aspects of higher educaon, digital educaon and skills, and that it commits to a more inclusive European Research Area, facilitang access to scienfic excellence and the sharing of results”. In the same paper, the CoR connues in the right path, by referring that “Europe does not need a ‘hubs of hubs’; the ERA Hubs should not merely be a tool for reducing the innovaon gap, and nor should they serve once again to highlight only the world-class university sites that are already strongly supported by the Member States and the Framework Programme”.


In fact, what is being called for, both by the European Commission, the CoR and other ERA stakeholders, is a change of paradigm in governance and funding, that goes beyond polical borders in its implementaon and focus on the needed complementaries to achieve strategic autonomy and efficiently respond to policy goals, such as the ones translated into the European Commission’s mission-oriented approach. Only by creang a common market for the diffusion of knowledge and innovaon as a pre-condion to overcome the concentraon of innovaon, could the “ERA hubs become an excellent framework to boost the emergence of collecve research and innovation projects, combining several regional ecosystems and innovaon hubs in a boom-up approach. These consora could usefully harness the legal tool of cofund acons, which exist under Horizon Europe, and which can also be used under Pillar 2, which is perfectly suited to develop synergies between the Framework Programme, regional policy and the budgets of cies and regions” (CoR, 2020).


One of the instruments used since the beginning of the previous Framework Programme for Research and Innovaon (Horizon 2020), the Smart Specialisaon Strategy, brought some of the elements needed to promote the needed change, through concepts focusing on the innovaon ecosystem actors roles and capacies, such as entrepreneurial discovery, while calling for strategic decision-making in funding implementaon (COM, 2017). More recently, the work made collecvely by some key ERA stakeholders and the European Commission resulted in legal clarificaons leading to a potenal simplificaon of funding synergies implementaon and new instruments for cross-regional funding (the I3 instrument). The ERA HUB concept comes naturally in this sequence.


When pung it all together, as very adequately put by the Friends of Smart Specialisaon plaorm in the 2021 paper, the EU is moving towards a new economic growth and management model to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. It is also moving from a “single market” policy framework for compeveness to a whole system framework for transformaon. This gave rise to a fundamental rethink of the European mullateral governance model for transformave innovaon (FoSS, 2021). When combined with a set of wider geopolical and geoeconomic reasons, the movaons behind the creaon of a new policy framework became clear: 

  • Overcoming the innovaon performance gap between the EU and its major competors.
  • Contribung to and inducing systemic change and not just compeveness.
  • Increased mullevel policy alignment.
  • Need to promote policy direconality and contribute to reinforced technological sovereignty.
  • Beer support policy reform to beer promote the framework condions for innovation.
  • Beer support in the monitoring of policy implementation.

 

4. Objecves, role and funconing of an ERA HUB

 

Objecves of an ERA HUB

Through the Communicaon of September 2020 ”A new ERA for research and innovaon ” , the European Commission recognised that a new approach to developing the European Research Area (ERA) is needed, seng it firmly in the context of transformave R&I policy and the goal of fostering sustainable and inclusive growth. Four strategic objecves were defined with the twin goal of broadening and deepening the ERA. The four strategic objecves are deeply embedded in the ERA Hubs concept and the results policy makers intend to achieve through its implementaon.

Recalling the four strategic objecves:
a) Priorising investment and reforms.
b) Improving access to excellence.
c) Translang R&I results into the economy.
d) Deepening the ERA.


In the secons that follow, we will relate these objecves with both the key characteriscs of an ERA HUB, their core dimensions and their role and funcon. Nevertheless, it is useful to begin to scrunize and deconstruct the four strategic objecves, to start making clear what the implementaon/acvies of an ERA HUB should correspond to.

In reality, the so-called strategic objecves idenfied by the European Commission are not what one could call the end-game. As an example, priorizing investment and reforms is a means to create more impacul projects and mobilise exisng human and infrastructural capacity to contribute to shared mullevel and inter-naonal and inter-regional themac objecves. In this way, it is crucial to understand that the merit of the EC strategic objecves is to movate the development of measures that are proven to be needed to achieve higher ends. The EC strategic objecves need to be translated into aconable measures at regional and naonal level, which will be the scope of the next secon in this concept paper.

In our view, the strategic objecves to be considered are the ones listed in the secon above. This should be complemented by a wider set of objecves, acknowledged in the EC communicaon ” A new ERA for research and innovaon ” and supported by important literature in regional economics of innovaon and development, namely:

  • Translang results into the economy.
  • Strengthening innovaon ecosystems for knowledge circulaon and valorisaon.
  • Promote further progress in relaon to connecvity issues such as collaboraon and knowledge transfer between public research instuons and businesses in view of enabling a fully funconing, high quality and high performing innovaon ecosystem, creang a connuum from basic research over applied research to uptake by industry.
  • Encouraging the creaon of innovaon-intensive sectors and upgrading the technology profiles of countries and regions.
  • Boost circulaon, permeability, diversificaon and employability of especially early career talents as well as to leverage connuous inter- sectoral brain circulaon that improves and diversifies the individual’s career prospects and strengthens talent permeability across society.
  • Boost underulised regional potenal and strengthen regional innovaon systems, through further place-based policies.

In order to achieve this, revising the foundaonal principles explained in the introducon, an ERA HUB will need to increase direconality (EC, 2021) by priorising investments and implement required consequent reforms to promote mullevel integraon of interests, objecves and acvies, develop policies that improve access to excellence, independently of regional or naonal borders and support the translaon of results into the economy through an inclusive and as complete as possible use of endogenous capacity, through the adopon of an holisc approach to stakeholder engagement.

 

Role and funcon of an ERA HUB

In the Briefing Note for Stakeholder Consultaon (EC, 2021), the role and funcon of an ERA Hub include:
1) Engage researchers, business, entrepreneurs, people and communies into joint research and innovaon acvies

Specific objecve : To close the distance and removing gaps between fundamental research, applied research, industrial development and innovaon.


2) Empower societal and environmental transformaons by idenfying and finding soluons to shared societal challenges.

Specific objecve: To allow systemic, holisc and radical transformaons and innovaons, not merely small incremental improvements.

3) Enable development of competences and assets which aract further talent, societal and economic acvies, and investment.

Specific objecve : To create processes that allow the idenficaon of shared challenges in a constant renewal virtuous cycle that allows maintaining and increasing aracveness of the ecosystem over me.

4) Ensure adaptability and resilience and thereby sustainable long-term societal, economic and environmental development.

Specific objecve : To promote direconality, mullevel alignment of goals, through increased endogenous compeveness.

 

Functioning – the road to implementation

  1. In this sequence, it is important to understand what are the core steps that should guide the implementaon of an ERA Hub: Commitment at polical and instuonal decision-maker level. This should include commitment to governance changes but also commitment of adequate funding levels capable of steering movaons and concrete parcipaon.
  2. Landscape analysis and idenficaon of key hurdles to transformave innovaon:
    development of a clear, transparent and full scope characterizaon report.
  3. Inter-regional (naonal and internaonal) twinning: idenfying shared goals and
    complementaries.
  4. Strategic planning: strategy should clearly focus on ecosystem development and detail how the ecosystem development will contribute to regional development, higher educaon, research and innovaon capacity and other ERA-related strategies at regional, naonal and European level.

 

5. Towards an ERA HUB working definion

Project deliverables are the key outputs to be submitted within the scope of a project,  therefore it is of utmost importance to put in place a quality assurance procedure, to be used  as a reference for their preparation, review and final submission. 

Each deliverable is produced within a specific WP and has a main responsible (DL  deliverable leaders) indicated in the “List of deliverables” in the project DoA- part A. 

The DL in collaboration with the WPL identifies the partners contributing to the Deliverable,  (starting from the relevant Task leaders) and for each partner specific reference persons  included in the Project Contact List. 

The DL is responsible for the collection of inputs from the relevant partners contributing to  the deliverable (CPPs) and for the final release of the deliverable. 

All members of the consortium will contribute to the reviewing processes. In particular each  partner identifies a person in charge for the Deliverable review at least 1 month before the  delivery date. The reviewers names and relative e-mail will be communicated to DL and will  be included in the Contact list for the Deliverable. 

Once the first draft of the deliverable is ready the DL sends it to all Partners reviewers (PRs), that are engaged in the reviewing process, that will be based on the Check-list for  Deliverables in Annex 1. 

The PRs are expected provide their feedback, including comments on major aspects,  recommendations for improvements and suggestions for minor changes using the track  change mode.  

The DL will prepare a second draft of the Deliverable, taking into consideration the  comments received by the PRs. At this stage, if necessary, a consultation on-line call will be  arranged with the relevant CPPs. 

Then the DL will send the second draft of the Deliverable to all partners for a final validation  and eventually release the final version of the Deliverable to be uploaded on the EU portal  by the Coordinator. 

The deliverable will be drafted out using the common template agreed at project level and  available in the internal collaboration platform. 

This template has a cover page containing the following information: 

  • Project name and number
  • Project Logo
  • Deliverable Name and number
  • Responsible Partner
  • Contributing Partners
  • Dissemination level
  • Planned date of Delivery
  • Date of Issue
  • Document versionIn a nutshell, ERA Hubs are mission-focused, mulstakeholder research and innovaon collaborave ecosystems based in specific territories, aiming at developing beer governance and increased compeveness for more efficiently addressing common societal challenges.

 

In a more detailed manner, an ERA Hub is:
a multi-level collaborave iniave that builds on exisng capacity, bringing together the key actors (quintuple helix) in the research and innovaon (R&I) cycle (from fundamental research to market uptake), with the main objecve of strengthening place-based innovaon ecosystems for direconal knowledge creaon, circulaon and valorisaon, their arculaon and collaboraon across borders, as well as with increased mullevel policy effecveness and alignment between the regional, naonal and European levels.


ERA HUBs provide the framework and raonale for the sound implementaon of exisng policy iniaves, such as the Smart Specialisaon Strategies (S3), which aim at beer innovaon policy design and innovaon-driven growth (OECD, 2013). A key element of S3 is the inclusive process of stakeholders involvement on entrepreneurial discovery (an interacve process in which market forces and the private sector are discovering and producing informaon about new acvies, and the government assesses the outcomes and empowers those actors most capable of realizing this potenal 1 ). The ERA HUBs approach brings the mullevel and interregional dimension through its focus on the stakeholder, rather than the administrave level. 

 

6. REFERENCES

  1. CoR, 2021, Opinion of the European Commiee of the Regions — A new European Research Area (ERA) for research and innovaon (2021/C 106/0)
  2. EC, 2017 Strengthening Innovaon in Europe’s Regions: Strategies for resilient, inclusive and sustainable growth (COM 2017 376 final)
  3. EC, 2020 A new ERA for Research and Innovaon (COM 2020 628 final)
  4. EC, 2021 Briefing Note for Stakeholder Consultaon, Technopolis Report
  5. FoSS, 2021 ERA Hubs as an engine for transformave place-based innovaon investment priories – Policy note for the JRC-CoR joint workshop on Smart Specialisaon for the Recovery
  6. OECD, 2013 Innovaon-driven Growth in Regions: The Role of Smart Specialisaon (last
    access 30 June 2023)
MENU
2. INTRODUCTION
3. Policy context
4. Objecves, role and funconing of an ERA HUB
5. Towards an ERA HUB working definion
6. REFERENCES
1. ABBREVIATIONS
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