Arnault Morisson (p), Francesco Cappellano, Julia Bachtrögler-Unger

Martin Galvin

European regions are adopting the third generation of innovation policy to tackle major societal challenges. However, this shift has brought new risks for regions, including directionality, strategic, and synergy policy misalignments. In the 2021-2027 EU programming period, regions are under increasing pressure to align their research and innovation strategies with the EU's digital and green twin transitions. Directionality misalignment occurs when EU funding is concentrated on a societal challenge that the region is not prepared to tackle. Strategic policy misalignment refers to the non-strategic concentration of EU funding resources into a societal challenge. Synergy policy misalignment refers to the lack of coordination between EU funding programs, such as ESIF and H2020. To explore these challenges, we examine six cases in NUTS-2 regions from each of the five most populated EU Member States: Poland, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. These regions have the highest concentration of funding in H2020 and ERDF for climate change. Our mixed-method model examines the policy challenges regarding alignment and misalignment in directionality, policy, and/or synergy.

Julia Bachtrögler-Unger (p), Fabian Gabelberger, Anabela Marques Santos, Mathieu Doussineau

Arnault Morisson

The aim of this paper is to examine the thematic allocation of ERDF to R&I activities in the 2014-2020 programming period and explore potential synergies with Horizon 2020 funding. In particular, ERDF projects related to R&I will be assigned to societal grand challenges (SGC) based on project names and descriptions. If both ERDF funding and Horizon 2020 funding attracted to a NUTS-3 region is related to the same SGC, a potential synergy is identified. In the next step, the paper explores the distribution of synergies among EU regions and determining factors.