MRS in a smarter Europe

Policy objective No. 1 of the Cohesion Policy for the funding period 2021-2027 aims at fostering an innovative and smart economic transformation in Europe by supporting digitisation and small and medium-sized business.

This policy objective is closely linked to the political priority of the Van der Leyen Commission “An Economy that works for the people”. It is one of the central objectives of Cohesion Policy following the Europe 2020 strategy with a large share of funding allocated. Regionally these goals are implemented for example through smart specialisation strategies (RIS 3).

In the Baltic Sea Region in particular the Objective 3 'Increase Prosperity' and the Policy Area 'Innovation' contribute to this goal by supporting ecosystems for innovation and entrepreneurship based on smart specialisation. In the Danube Region the Pillar 3 'Building Prosperity' focuses on the development of a knowledge society, competitiveness of enterprises and people and skills. In the Adriatic and Ionian Region the Pillar 1 'Blue growth' and in particular the Topic “Blue technologies” represent the regions efforts to contribute to a smarter Europe. In the Alpine Region the core activities in the vein of a smarter Europe are implemented under the Policy Area 1  “Growth and Innovation”.