1.
PLAYING THE LONG GAME:
Experimenting Smart
Specialisation in the Basque
Country
Basque Country & Wales Territorial
Competitiveness Forum
DBS, Bilbao, 27th Feb 2020
James Wilson
@jamierwilson

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TERRITORIAL STRATEGY & RIS3
• The growing popularity of ‘territorial strategy’ over the last
decade incorporates various elements:
• Recognition of the importance of place-based, context-specific innovation
policies and associated institutions (Barca et al,, 2012; Gertler, 2018)
• Desire to support the structural transformation of regional economies
over time (Boschma and Frenken, 2011, Frenken et al, 2007; Foray, 2018)
• Emergence of ‘new industrial policy’ (or industrial strategy) (Rodrik, 2004;
Bailey et al., 2015, 2018)
• Concern with the need for innovation to be driven by societal challenges
or ‘missions’ (Breznitz et al, 2018; Kuhlman and Rip, 2018; Mazzucato, 2018)
In this context RIS3 has been described as:
“the most ambitious regional innovation
programme ever to be launched in the
European Union” (Morgan, 2017)

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WIND THE CLOCK BACK TO 2016 …
We presented a
report focused
on the early
implementation
of the Basque
RIS3, from its
launch in 2014
… based on
analysis of
documentation
and interviews
with 36 key
players in the
Basque RIS3

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BASQUE COUNTRY RIS3
• Basque S3 formally set out in
the Science, Technology and
Innovation Plan 2020,
published at the end of 2014
A key novelty has been the explicit introduction of entrepreneurial discovery
dynamics to a mature innovation system with well-embedded institutions
• Not a radical change: built
on stable & consistent
approach to industrial
development policy over 30
years (continuity-in-change)
1980s
• Industrial
restructuring
• STI Investments
1990s
• Efficiency-driven
competitiveness
• Cluster policy
2000s
• Focus on
innovation
• Diversification
based on R&D
2010s
• Explicit RIS3
• New governance
• ‘entrepreneurial
discovery’

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RIS3 PRIORITIES
Biociencias
Salud
ScientificandTechnological
Business Capabilities
Opportunity Niches
Food
Urban Habitat
Cultural and Creative
Industries
Ecosystems
Bioscience
Health
Advanced
Manufacturing
Energy

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RIS3 GOVERNANCE
Key Change: More
distributed leadership,
within & beyond
government
Key Change: A ‘living’
RIS3 must scale-up &
widen innovation
cooperation

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KEY FINDINGS FROM 2016 STUDY
• Critical voices: New ‘Advisory Group’ playing a direct advisory role to the
President/Ministers and influencing day-to-day decisions
• Breaking down silos: Serious attempts to work across government
departments, partially successful
• Multi-level governance: Mechanisms in place to address multi-level
governance issues, but remain under-developed
• Policy mix evolution: Changes in other policies (cluster policy,
technology & innovation policies) to support the strategy
• EDP Organisation and Structure: Heterogeneous approach across 7
Steering Groups, but emergence of more ‘distributed’ leadership
evident
• Civil society / societal challenges: Remain largely outside of dynamics

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WIND THE CLOCK FORWARD TO 2019 …
We published a second report which
analyses the evolution of RIS3
implementation in the Basque
Country
… again based on analysis of
documentation and interviews with
28 key players in the Basque RIS3
(from business, government &
research)
… focused specifically on the changes
that had taken place since 2016 in (i)
the actors involved, (ii) the activities
underlying the strategy & (iii) the
evaluation mechanisms

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PHASES OF STRATEGY
Phase 1: Design
(2014)
•Analysis and
Identification of
Priorities
•Science, Technology
& Innovation Plan
2020
Phase 2: Early
Implementation
(2015)
•New governance
mechanisms
•‘Ground Rules’
•Steering Groups
established
Phase 3:
Implementation
& Evolution
(2016-2019)
• Evolution of Steering
Groups
• Refining Priorities
• Transversal concerns
• Evaluation framework
1st Orkestra Report
2nd Orkestra Report

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KEY FINDINGS FROM 2019 STUDY
• EDP Organisation and structure: Significant changes, reflecting
experimentation & adaptation of strategy; consolidation of distributed
leadership
• Actors: Greater involvement of firms; recognition of importance of
integrating SMEs; more proactive involvement of universities; continued
absence of civil society actors
• Strategy: Shift to a ‘living strategy’ with different speeds and depths of
steering group dynamics; little change in focus of activities within each
group; but evolution in overall configuration of priorities; movement to
projects at higher TRLs; greater involvement in EU projects
• Evaluation practice: Development of indicator framework for strategy as
a whole; experimentation with evaluation processes in most Steering
Groups

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2 LEVELS OF INSTITUTIONS SUPPORTING EDP
Level 2: Micro-processes of particularising and valorising priorities
• Emergent, heterogenous processes of entrepreneurial discovery
• Significant granularity in terms of strategic activities
• Involve more and different actors (bottom-up)
• Emergence of distributed leadership
• Supported by emerging activity-specific evaluation processes
• Critical role in fostering experimentation and keeping the strategy alive
Level 1: Overall governance architecture & ‘rules of the game’
• Overarching framework for entrepreneurial discovery to take place
• Very broadly-identified strategic priorities
• Led and shaped by government (top-down)
• Establishment of coordination framework primarily within government
• Development of general evaluation framework
• Critical role in providing coherence at regional level

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CONCLUSIONS / DISCUSSION POINTS
• Linear plans giving way to living strategies: Reflected in changing
configuration of priorities, but keeping strategies alive requires significant
institutional innovations at the macro & micro levels
• Joined-up and adaptive policy: Silo working cultures & policy inertia not easy
to break down, but territorial strategies combined with new institutional
mechanisms can take steps in that direction
• Monitoring and evaluation: Context of pursuing RIS3 can catalyse advances,
as the need for strategic policy intelligence becomes more visible
• Transversality: Tendency towards addressing transversal issues
(internationalisation, skills, new business models, entrepreneurship),
reflective of inherent difficulties in vertical prioritisation?
• Missing elements: Pending challenges in better integrating SMEs and social
challenges into territorial strategy processes
• Scaling up at EU level: Issues around the voice of regions within EU
dynamics & policy instruments that facilitate inter-regional coordination to
facilitate cross-border value chains

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AND THE LONG GAME CONTINUES …
• New PCTI Euskadi 2030 currently being developed
o Explicit links to SDGs
o Evolution of priorities
o Linking transitions & transversal initiatives

14.
Download at:
www.orkestra.deusto.es/en/research/publications
Thank you
Eskerrik asko
Gracias