Pages: 135-145
Introduction. The public resources that are invested in R&D have the purpose to stimulate the public-private partnerships, to foster innovations and to create a pool of knowledge and spill-overs to the targeted regions. The regions from the states from European Union need to apply RIS3 strategies for investments in R&D and innovation due to pre-existing conditions to access funds from European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The European Commission launched an on-line Smart Specialization Platform (S3platform) to assist the members to develop, implement and compare smart specialization strategies and to offer data for national and regional authorities to identify the specific activities with high-added value to improve the regional competitiveness. Some indicators are presented to show the Romanian efforts for R&D and private innovation capabilities, the pre-identified potential for smart specialisation within the regions and some current evidence available on the S3platform.
Aim of the study. The aim of this article is to study the concept of Smart Specialization and to explore some evidences of how it is implemented in the regions from Romania. The concept refers to investments in knowledge activities and not in sectors. There are defined specific policy objectives that will have a specific impact in scientific and economic domains.
Keywords: smart specialization, research&development, innovation, regional development
JEL Classification: L52, O38, R11
