Week of Innovative Regions in Europe

The Spanish Government will seize the opportunity offered by the occasion of its Presidency to focus the attention of political leaders and social stakeholders on the competitiveness of European regions. In particular, we will examine the efficient use of the resources devoted to R&D, especially the Structural Funds (SF) and their potential synergy with the Framework Programme of RTD (FP) and Innovation and Competitiveness Program (CIP).

The Directorate General of International Cooperation and Institutional Relations is preparing the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the first half of 2010. Our presidency will take place in a crucial moment where the efficient use of the different R&D funding sources is more important than ever, due to the current period of economic downturn.

With this general objective in mind, during the Spanish Presidency, the Ministry of Science and Innovation will co-organise, together with the European Commission, the "European Week of Innovative Regions", which is the result of merging three different conferences:

• a) Conference on the efficient and effective use of budget earmarked in the Structural Funds for RTD and Innovation, including their synergies with the FP and the CIP.
• b) "Research Potential" conference, which focuses on the assessment of the results and the identification of best practices of the Research Potential (REGPOT) calls within the FP7 Capacities Programme, aimed at the increase of the research capabilities of the best research centres of the European regions, with an special emphasis in Convergence and Outermost regions.
• c) "Regions of Knowledge" conference, which deals with the assessment of the results and the identification of best practices of the Regions of Knowledge (REGIONS) calls within the FP7 Capacities Programme, aimed at fostering regional cooperation through "research-driven clusters" by means of a comparison of the different regional strategies and joint action plans defined.

Topics to be discussed in common sessions are, among others, the aggregation of the good practices found in the development of the two programmes, REGPOT and REGIONS, and some possible synergies, such as the stimuli to foster research potential of areas of interest of a cluster in a given region or groups of regions, or the clustering around a high quality research centre in a certain regions. The synergies between the different innovation instruments (FP, SF and CIP, the National and Regional initiatives) will also be a common subject of study during the European Week of Innovative Regions.