Fifteen years after the introduction of smart specialisation strategies in EU regions, it remains unclear whether these approaches are meeting their intended objectives. This is the main finding from a recent analysis by the European Court of Auditors (ECA), which points to ongoing challenges in identifying and funding meaningful priorities, encouraging effective cooperation between regions, and evaluating if smart specialisation is fulfilling its purpose.
Smart specialisation aims to improve the use of EU cohesion policy funds by focusing investments on areas where regions have particular strengths or opportunities. Regions must have a smart specialisation strategy to access research and innovation funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), which allocated €73.8 billion for this purpose between 2014 and 2027.
“Smart specialisation helps regions to focus their efforts on self-selected priorities. However, at a time when the EU budget is being revamped, with new emphasis on industry and defence, the existing framework means that little is done to assess the value of those priorities or whether they align with the EU’s wider goals,” said Annemie Turtelboom, ECA Member responsible for the review. “It is crucial to reconcile bottom-up and top-down approaches, and to ensure that measures actually implemented in the regions are consistent with decisions taken at EU level. Otherwise, we will simply fail to achieve a more strategic and effective use of EU funds.”
The ECA notes that there is currently limited oversight in how regional priorities are chosen under smart specialisation strategies. The European Commission does not assess or influence these choices, which can result in regional priorities diverging from broader EU goals such as advancing industrial policies related to batteries, microchips, or hydrogen production. As a consequence, regional initiatives often proceed independently from EU-wide innovation objectives.
Collaboration across regions has also been identified as an area needing improvement. While interregional cooperation could help regions share knowledge and resources, many have not fully embraced this opportunity. During 2014-2020, cross-border projects were rarely included in smart specialisation programmes; although cooperation has been highlighted as a priority for 2021-2027, significant challenges remain in increasing engagement.
Since its inception in 2014 as a requirement for accessing certain types of funding—and reinforced further for 2021-2027—smart specialisation has not undergone thorough evaluation at either regional or EU level. This lack of comprehensive assessment makes it difficult to determine whether it effectively supports strategic regional development or simply serves as an administrative step for securing funding.
Between 2014 and 2020, 185 smart specialisation strategies were developed across Europe; more than 170 are included for the current period up to 2027.
Unlike audits conducted by the ECA—which typically involve detailed checks—a review like this one provides descriptive analysis based mainly on publicly available data.
A related ECA report examined how different countries rely on ERDF funding for research and innovation through programs such as Horizon 2020.