Progress of Polish Regions in the Process of Intelligent Specialization

Abstract

The concept of smart specialisation has been proposed and developed by the European Commission as a central element of the EU cohesion policy contributing to the Europe 2020 Strategy for smart, inclusive and sustainable growth in Europe, launched in June 2010. Within the smart specialisation process, member states and regions are required to identify a limited number of priority areas taking into account their own strengths, comparative advantages and potential for excellence. This approach should help regions develop their innovation potential and reshape industrial structure and centres of excellence in order to address emerging industries, services and international markets. The concept of smart specialisation is of key importance as an ex-ante conditionality for the cohesion policy programmes from a 2014-2020 perspective. This seems to be of great importance especially in Poland - the biggest beneficiary of the EU cohesion policy from a 2007-2013 programme perspective - being an example for other new EU member states. The main objective of the paper is to assess the advancement of 16 Polish regions (NUTS 2 level) in the process of smart specialisation through the following detailed objectives: 1. Presenting smart specialisation as an economic concept and as a framework for the EU cohesion policy; 2. Presenting the transposition of the smart specialisation concept into strategic national documents in Poland; 3. Assessing the advancement of the smart specialisation process in Polish regions. Descriptive analysis and an analysis of strategic documents have been used as research methods in the paper.