Smart Specialisation Strategy is a place-based EU policy that seeks to enhance regional competitiveness through leveraging and bolstering innovation in the selected priority areas (industries or technologies) in each region. The new iteration of S3 requires developing cross-border collaborations...

Around one-third of the European Union’s budget is dedicated to cohesion policy, which promotes and supports the overall harmonious development of its Member States and regions. The success of this investment relies on effective partnerships among governments, stakeholders, and citizens....

Successfully managing and administering European Structural Investment Funds (ESIF) rests on the effective governance of the investment process, on the administrative capacity of Managing Authorities, and on the engagement of a diverse range of stakeholders, including beneficiaries. The OECD has...

Ireland is highly centralised and fast growing, creating co-ordination challenges in terms of delivering key investments and in key policy areas like transport, housing and education. Actors across levels of government recognise a need for a more coordinated approach to the delivery of the...

Russia’s large-scale aggression against Ukraine has sown catastrophe in the country; destroying lives, homes, and infrastructure. The war has also created profound and asymmetric economic and social impacts across the world, including many that are likely to be long lasting. Managing the...

One of the major challenges facing the Czech Republic is to preserve the role of the Capital city Region of Prague and its surroundings as growth engines for the national economy, while ensuring adequate development in other regions. This report examines the performance and potential of the...

This report brings into light an emerging framework, with a new territorial unit for local initiative in the Czech Republic: the micro-region. It investigates the issues at stake in the development of these voluntary entities, that can be characterised as main partners for regions, although they...