National and regional S3s: organisation and governance

The Brussels-Capital Region, Flemish Region and Walloon Region each develop their own S3. Given the devolution of competencies, little coordination takes place across these three S3s. There is not a formal process to align these strategies to the national level priorities. At the same time, there are considerable efforts to involve relevant stakeholders within each region. In Wallonia, a Strategic Orientation Committee formulates proposals regarding the strategic orientations of the S3 and the improvement of its implementation, including links with other regional and European strategies. The Operational coordination by the S3 Working Group (GT S3) is in charge of the design and management of the S3 strategic monitoring mechanism. A participatory mobilisation of stakeholders with the strategic innovation areas (DIS) coordinators also takes place. The objective is to ensure the continuity of the efforts deployed during the year 2020 for the definition of the new S3 in terms of co-creation of priorities with the players in the Walloon innovation ecosystem. In Flanders, different organisations take part in the design of the S3, in particular, the Department of Economy, Science, and Innovation (EWI), the Flemish Agency for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (VLAIO), the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO), who are in turn in close contact with various stakeholders such as research organisations and universities. In the Brussels-Capital Region of Belgium, Innoviris, the Brussels Institute for Research and Innovation, coordinates policy efforts. In close cooperation with the State Secretary for Scientific Research, it designed a consultation process with the most relevant stakeholders. S3 forms the basis for a more comprehensive Innovation action plan, which coincides in terms of timing with the programming period.

For information on regional S3s, please return to the homepage: https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/assets/s3-observatory/index_en.html