What can experience with clusters teach us about fostering regional smart specialisation?

The new orientation of regional innovation policies in Europe requires the development of research and innovation smart specialisation strategies (RIS3) so as to support Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) investments where there are clear synergies with existing productive capacities and capabilities. RIS3 are advocated in a context where most European regions have established ‘cluster’ policies that seek to facilitate relationships of cooperation between firms and other institutions working in related areas and that share much common ground with the underlying principles of RIS3. Developing and refining RIS3 in theory and practice therefore raises important questions regarding how they relate to clusters and indeed what can be learned from the more established practice of cluster policies for the design and implementation of policies supporting RIS3. The aim of this paper is to explore the links between these two policy agendas. Key synergies among them are explored in the context of each of the steps in Foray et al.’s (2012) Guide to Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisation and by drawing on two decades of experience with cluster policy in the Basque Country. The paper signals several concrete areas where regional policy-makers might look to their existing cluster policies and clusters when seeking to articulate new regional processes towards smart specialisation strategies.