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The Smart Regions conference took place in Brussels on 1-2 June 2016. This event marked the transition from the completion of RIS3 towards full implementation in regional and interregional programmes and investment projects. It gathered 636 representatives from regional authorities, research, business and European institutions.
This High-Level Event highlighted the key role of regions in developing new growth dynamics for Europe, based on bottom-up entrepreneurship and innovation. Smart specialisation strategies can leverage numerous new growth opportunities for all regions, when aligning their business driven smart specialisation investments in new European value chains. The High-Level Event accelerated the set-up of effective partnerships for co-investing across regions that commit to their smart specialisation priorities.
For this reason, the event was accompanied by the exhibition of 30 regions showcasing their smart specialisation strategies and their respective areas. Organisations like ERRIN, EARTO, EURADA, EEN, IPR Helpdesk, EIB and Interreg Europe displayed their offer how to help and stimulate interregional cooperation between businesses and researchers from different parts of EU.
Commission VP Katainen addressed the conference and Commissioners Bienkowska, Navracsics and Oettinger made their contributions. Top European and world class academics like Dominique Foray, Kevin Morgan, Claire Nauwelaers, Slavo Radosevic, Charles Sabel, Jaime del Castillo made presentations.
The website of the event can be found here, where you can see the programme and presentations as well as its webcasting.