Synthesis of regional findings
The strategic orientation exercise is organized in each of the projects as an initial project activity.
First of all, it has the goal of enabling each of the participating regions to express their strategic orientation on the European stage in order to better grasp regional communalities and differences. This contributes to the final objective of fostering mutual learning and cooperation between European food research projects.
The second goal is to support each of the projects in underpinning their activities within explicit strategic vision on the development of their region.
Looking at the conclusions of the different regions, a number of similarities in their findings can be observed:
- 1. Reinforce external linkages of the food industry to grasp new consumer trends
- 2. Reorienting RTD on food marketing within an enlarged European market
- 3. Regional policy action for increasing benefit from EU funding schemes
- 4. Strengthen multidisciplinary research in RTD centres to address the industry’s need for applied knowledge effectively
- 5. Investing in human capital by regional policy makers
We can point out that the Strategic Orientation Rounds (SORs) reveal that broadening the resource base of regional food RTD infrastructure is vital for innovation in the Food Cluster regions. In particular the extent of financial resources and knowledge resources are identified as main challenges.
The analysis also reveals the pivotal role of regional policy. Many regions place their hope on EU funding because regional or national instruments are not sufficient, or even fail. However, regional policy is also perceived as a crucial element in bringing these funds closer to the regional actors.
This demonstrates that regional policy initiatives and European funding should go hand in hand. Regional policy makers should contribute with their understanding of local dynamics and their communication channels. Europe, in turn, contributes with instruments for companies and RTD centres to develop research areas of strategic interest. The downside of this is that where regional policy fails, Europe fails.
The individual regional strategies will be used to complement the EU-wide strategy as a tool for exploration, dialogue between the clustered projects and in the end delivering a positive contribution to the objective of bringing EU food expertise together in the ERA.
