Smart Specialisation Strategies when their Implementation is Tested

This paper, starting from the examination of the national support framework for research and innovation in the 2014-2020 period of the cohesion policy, analyzes the nature and relevance of the various support actions triggered by the operational programmes that implement the guidelines in this area, in terms of compliance with the paradigm of the Smart Specialization Strategy (S3), proposing a reading of the initial implementation evidence also with a view to possible revisions of the ways of intervention. The analysis uses a database of administrative data, which integrates the financial planning and qualitative information obtained from a desk survey, with reference to the selection procedures activated for the financing of projects related to the implementation of the Thematic Objective 1 of the Partnership Agreement. From the analysis carried out, it emerges that the implementation of the Smart Specialization Strategies is receiving a significant boost at regional level from the Regional Programmes and the relevant National Programmes, in terms of investments aimed at strengthening industrial research and innovation able to achieve in the medium term a technological upgrading of local production systems. In this framework, the correspondence of the processes activated to the method objectives promoted by the S3 model appears still partial but already provides signals that, with a view to restoring the approach in the new programming period 2021- 2027 of the Eu cohesion policy, suggest the adoption of a more integrated vision of the implementation phase and a possible evolution of the forms and ways of support towards a coordinated intervention also at a supra-regional level.