Functional review of Blue Growth RIS3 steering processes and operational structures taking into account economic perspectives in six representative marine regions around the Baltic Sea

Abstract

RIS3 strategies (Regional Innovation Strategy for Smart Specialisations) from six coastal regions around the Baltic Sea as well as smart specialisation processes in these regions have been reviewed and analysed in order to depict the regions’ potential to foster the blue growth development by means of the smart specialisation tool. Analysis of regional context and innovation potential reveal differences between approaches and processes starting from the level on which RIS3 is defined, through a range of smart specialisation supporting the blue growth, ending in a level of stakeholders engagement. However, several common challenges have been identified, like the lack of large blue enterprises having their own research departments and being able to push innovation within their industries or the lack of skilled workers and specialists. A general observation is that the specific RIS3 processes are understaffed and with limited resources, giving the indication that the RIS3 are still partly more of paper products than really living processes. Another important observation is a gap in legitimacy among blue actors in analysed coastal regions. On the other hand, there are on-going processes related to the regional innovation strategies in general, to open innovation arenas and to cluster initiatives that are going on without being earmarked as RIS3 processes. To address identified challenges and in order to foster blue growth development by means of the smart specialization strategies a set of key questions to be answer as well as recommendations are proposed. These questions should be answered not only by individual regional administration, it is recommended to deal with them in a continued process of enterprenual discovery with close interaction with all stakeholders concerned and affected by the RIS3 process.