Changing innovation policies for territorial transformation

In October 2021, the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission set up a Scientific Committee to advise the JRC on how to best support public authorities to implement, in the words of the EC, the “largest stimulus package ever financed in Europe” aimed at rebuilding a post COVID-19 Europe which would be “greener, more digital and more resilient”. The present paper written by the two co-chairs of the Scientific Committee provides a synthesis of the many reports written over the last two years. It highlights how many of the current European policy frameworks focusing on sustainability have an essential place-based impact which requires the active involvement of local policy makers and more broadly local stakeholders. Over the last two years, the numerous “science for policy” contributions of members of the SC have been two-fold. At the very practical level, they have been instrumental in helping the JRC develop its Partnerships for Regional Innovation (PRI) Playbook: the support document with concrete policy tools for the JRC-CoR PRI pilot. At a more conceptual level, members of the SC wrote numerous reports and papers on a wide range of topics. This synthesis paper argues that the space blindness of many of the European policies aimed at transforming the EU’s economy towards the twin digital and green transitions, hampers Europe’s ability to achieve these transitions and to ensure its future resilience and prosperity.