Higher Education for Smart Specialisation: The case of Navarre, Spain

This report gathers the main findings extracted from the Navarre case study carried out in the framework of the Higher Education and Smart Specialisation (HESS) project managed by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. Navarre has been one of the two regions covered as case studies during the first phase of the project. The overall aim of HESS is to understand and provide support to national and regional authorities on how to integrate higher education into the policy mixes of their Smart Specialisation Strategies (S3). This technical report provides some interesting insights into how an advanced region with high involvement of universities in the early phase of S3 definition is facing the challenges of their role in the implementation phase. On the one hand, it shows that different universities in the same region are likely to vary in nature and function and as such may contribute differently to the S3. In Navarre, one of the two universities is more research oriented with a strong focus on the attraction of international talent, while the other is more regionally rooted with close ties to local companies and stakeholders. On the other hand, the report identifies tensions in engaging individual researchers in regional development activities, as well as potential mechanisms and tools to overcome them. The methodology used during the project has included qualitative research methods, participatory workshops and desk-research activities.