Download valle d`aosta smart specialisation strategy abstract

REGIONE AUTONOMA VALLE D’AOSTA
VALLE D’AOSTA
SMART SPECIALISATION STRATEGY
ABSTRACT
VALLE D’AOSTA SMART SPECIALISATION STRATEGY
ABSTRACT
The analysis carried out to define the Smart Specialisation Strategy for Region Valle d'Aosta, hereinafter also referred to as simply "S3", starts from the most relevant regional programmatic documents.
In particular, the following documents were considered1:
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“Valle d’Aosta Strategy 2020”, issued by Region Valle d’Aosta and included in “Regional Strategic
Framework 2014-2020”;
“Evaluation Report on SF 2007-2013” by NUVAL (dec.2013), concerning the 2007-2013 EU programs regional implementation;
“Strategic Plan for positioning and regional development” , issued by Regione Valle d’Aosta with the
support of the consultancy Agency “Studio Ambrosetti” (March 2008);
“Guidelines for Technological Transfer”, Valle d’Aosta Regional Government, following a “Survey
on the regional technological requirements” carried out by Politecnico of Turin;
Guidelines for “Digital Agenda in Valle d’Aosta”, for the years 2014-2018, positioning Valle d’Aosta
in the ICT branch.
“Marketing Plan for Tourism Development 2010-2012”, titled “THE UNIQUE REGION – Identity,
quality, specialisation”.
“Youth Plan” and “Youth Guarantee”, approved by the Valle d’Aosta Regional Government respectively in 2013 and 2014;
“Horizon 2020” e “HIT 2020”, particularly for the section “Regional declination of HIT 2020”.
The subsequent analysis of the socio-economic regional framework, focused on demographic and macroeconomic trends, as well as on the production system and the labor market, shows that the global crisis,
and the consequent policies of public spending containment, have heavily influenced an area, such as Valle d'Aosta, with widespread prosperity and an employment situation, until 2007, without particular structural problems.
At the moment Valle d’Aosta is struggling with a complex economic phase, characterized by a severe
economic crisis, with employment difficulties, almost never experienced in its recent history, and relevant
criticalities,
particularly
in
manufacturing
industry
and
in
construction
sector.
A regional context in which the economy is braking on at the internal level, with a contraction in private consumption, mainly due to the sharp reduction in disposable income, and where investments
slowed, because of the difficulties on the demand side, the ardous access to credit, the context of uncertainty and, concerning the public sector, strict fiscal policies. Foreign trade allowed only in part to contain
these problems, but generally failed to compensate these unfavorable internal dynamics.
The regional educational system, the level of skills and the research and innovation context, show
lights and shadows.
Compared to the levels of schooling, the education level of the population is not only lower than the national average, but also than the values of the North-Italy and those of other alpine regions taken as refer1
Annexed, the web-links to access the original documents in their integral version.
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ence. This situation is common to males and females. In contrast, the participation rate in upper secondary
education in Valle d'Aosta is aligned to the national average, while it is better than those for the other territories.
The issue of early school leaving appears to be a critical element of the regional context.
The share of GDP allocated to research and innovation in Valle d'Aosta is still modest (0.57%), below
the Italian average, the North-West and the Province of Trento, but aligned to the value of Province of
Bolzano. Factors that may explain this situation are varied, but certainly an important role is played by the
peculiarities of the environment, in particular the presence of small and micro enterprises.
In terms of SMEs business innovation propensity, some positive signals can be remarked; their percentage has been increased in the last three-year period, as well as the share of firms that have introduced into
the market new products or processes, approaching the Valle d'Aosta to the national average and aligning
it with the Province of Bolzano and Trento.
The trend of people employed in R&D is growing, but their percentage on total employment is still small
and marginal, leaving to assume that the lack of qualified personnel available constitutes one of the major
obstacles to the development of research and innovation activities in the region.
Nevertheless, in Valle d’Aosta operate several Centres of Excellence and Research, recognized as such
even by official acts of the Region, which include the Polytechnic of Turin, University of Valle d'Aosta,
the Institut Agricole Régional, ARPA, CERVIM, some scientific foundations.
In the considered years, patents represent a residual phenomenon for regional SMEs and, probably,
patent activity is still perceived as an "additional cost" and not as a future benefit in terms of market protection and the consequently potential income.
The Regional Innovation Scoreboard 2014 places Valle d'Aosta as a region with “moderate” innovation
performance (like 18 of 21 Italian regions and Italy as a whole), as a low funds user for research and innovation but as a region with good absorption capacity and expenditure of funds allocated to R&TD projects.
The context analysis, and the phase of stakeholder engagement conducted in the spring of 2014, led to
the definition of the regional SWOT matrix, related to the general economic framework and, more specifically, to the research and innovation fields; the main identified items are summarized in the following
table:
Valle d’Aosta SWOT Matrix
Strength
Weakness
-
General Contest
territory/identity
per capita income and asset
rates of employment
welfare model
renewable energy
touristic “stars”
demographic size
regional
productive
system
Technologies /innovation
- ICT for mountain
- VDA Broadband Programme
- existing Research and Technology Centers.
- public and private R&D expenditure as % of regional GDP
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Opportunities
Threats
fragmentation
- low international openness degree of the regional economy
- youth unemployment
- public accessibility (transport
system)
- “Mountain” brand
- “green economy” global trends
- SMEs internationalisation by
ICT
- early school leaving rate
- levels of education
- low ICT diffusion in SMEs and
local community
- university and education system
- ICT evolution (beyond “internet
2.0” )
- growing demand of quality and
security in mountain
- local universities
- enterprise network solutions
- regional financial resources re- - de-industrialisation
duction
- digital divide
- ageing population
- leak of most qualified HR
- new “competitors” in tourism
The bottom-up process implemented for the S3 definition - begun with a first public presentation and
carried on with a series of meetings with stakeholders (five focus groups involving enterprises, business
associations and centers of excellence, a specific final workshop and the activation of a dedicated web
channel for the "open discussion" with local partners) - led to the identification of the Valle d’Aosta territorial perspective (the long-term vision), strongly focused on the territory and its identity characterization: the mountain.
"Mountain" underlying geo-environmental and landscape peculiarities, with unique geographical, cultural and ethnographic specificities, that, in the S3 context, are enriched with vocational elements - also
in terms of production activities – becoming "container "and" content " and good to consolidation and
growth of the regional economy, as “natural resource” for endogenous development.
The S3 is therefore based on a vision with the mountain as central, and its evocative brand element is
divided into three main areas, distinct but highly interconnected, and addressed to transform the identity
profile in regional pattern of economic development:
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Excellent Mountain
Smart Mountain
Green Mountain
Innovation - technological, organizational and social - should be the main driver of local development,
adressing the different target activities as the primary key-factor of success to compete and represent
the essential ingredient to develop and affirm Valle d’Aosta as a "laboratory", specialized on some specific technologies (products and services) “for” and “from” the mountain; furthermore, innovation has
also to penetrate horizontally within all the local system sectors, allowing the widespread development
and modernization of the overall regional economy, even in the most "traditional" sections.
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On the technological side, research and innovation should focus on use, diffusion and development of
several selected technologies (key enabling technologies - KET), starting with those on which the local
system already indicates strengths and existing skills.
They must be primarily directed at strengthening and qualification of the various (12) target areas identified in the medium to long term vision and should focus starting from the existing technological specializations2:
THE SPECIALISATION AREAS
EXCELLENT MOUNTAIN
SMART MOUNTAIN
ICT
ICT
Special Steels
High-speed networks
Mechanical
engineering and
Electronics
ICT Systems
Network of
Cultural Heritage
Materials for mountain
Ski Resorts
Hiking-trekking
Mountain-huts network
GREEN MOUNTAIN
Public Digital
Services
Monitoring and territory
management systems
Intelligent Mobility
MICRO
and
NANO
ELETTR
ONICS
MICRO
and
NANO
ELETTR
ONICS
ICT
Renewable energies
Agrifood
Green Tourism
Natural environment, ecosystem,
waste management
MICRO
and
NANO
ELETTR
ONICS
Sustainable building
and bio-constructions
BIO
TECH
The enabling technologies identified - on which to make pervasive research and innovation and to generate cross-fertilization into the regional economy - are:
• ICT, hardware infrastructures and applications, with pervasive and cross-cutting nature, directed to
manufacturing system, tourism, territory and environment management, resident inhabitants, for the improvement of their quality of life (smart & wellbeing community);
• micro- and nano-electronics, support and necessary complement to the smart ICT applications;
• bio-technologies, mainly for their applications in “agrifood” and in systems for “monitoring and management of ecosystems and bio-diversities”.
The S3 for the Valle d'Aosta specify four strategic objectives:
1 - Stop the process of de-industrialization;
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The framework analysis and the selection of Valle d’Aosta technological specializations get validation in the “Map of technological specializations – Regional Framework” updated in March 2014 by INVITALIA.
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2 - Spreading innovation in the system pervasively;
3 - Increase of the international openness degree of the regional economy;
4 – Improvement of the quality (skills) of human resources;
and six regional priorities for research and innovation:
1 - Strengthening the existing industry through R & I
2 - Encouraging new innovative industrial settlements
3 - Networking the local production system
4 - Encouraging development and diffusion of ICT and related services
5 – Supporting innovation transfer to the traditional system
6 - Strengthening of the local system of research and HR training and its orientation
coherent with each other, and towards which is directed an action plan including 18 actions - with its
triennial operational program - grouped by distinct policy objectives:
• support to the demand for research and innovation
• attraction of new innovative settlements (territorial marketing)
• support to new entrepreneurship
• financial support for SMEs R & I
• support to the capitalization of innovative firms
• support to the development of networks of enterprises
• support to centers of research and excellence in technologies
• connection between research centers and manufacturing environment
• broadband network in the region.
The actions are translated into an operational model of technology transfer described in the S3.
The framework of financial resources refers to resources coming from the European programs for research and innovation, the multiannual "Guidelines for the Digital Agenda in the Valle d'Aosta", and from
regional resources available for research and innovation at the regional public bank Finaosta.
It is about 91 million EUR of public funds in the years 2014-2020, that attract private funds, combined
with public interventions, for further 28.5 million, for a total of about 120 million EUR in the period.
This amount, which should increase with other resources coming from other European programs (ESF,
ERDF-cooperation, Horizon 2020) or from the regional budget, allows us to predict an impact on spending in R&D doubling in 2020 his weight on regional GDP level, with an expected value close to 1%.
Finally, S3 defines the governance model of the strategy, with the monitoring actions and the related
system of identified measurable indicators, based on three basic principles:
• sharing and inclusion of stakeholders in the built-in mechanisms
• actions effectiveness
• flexibility and adaptability of objectives and actions over time.
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On the basis of these underlying elements, the S3 governance system is structured as follows:
Valle d’Aosta Region - Regional Government
It is the institutional body responsible for overseeing and directing at the political level the S3 implementation process.
Interdepartmental Working Group
Composed of the coordinators of the different regional departments, and officiated by the Industry Regional Department, it carries out the function of connection between the organizational unit responsible
for handling S3 activities (Smart Community Team) and the various regional administrative departments.
S3 Technical and Monitoring Committee
It is charged of monitoring the implementation of the S3.
Composed of experts representing members of the regional public administration, local authorities, innovative enterprises, universities, research centers, training agencies, it is the main responsible of the S3
monitoring and evaluation process and acts as liaison with european and national structures and community dedicated to S3.
Smart Community Team
It is the regional administrative unit responsible for the implementation of the S3 Regional Plan of Action and its related activities.
Directed by a Smart Community Manager, it also performs technical secretariat for the S3 Technical and
Monitoring Committee and for TWGs.
Thematic Working Groups (TWG)
Initially, three working groups for the three thematic areas defined by S3 are set up: Excellent Mountain,
Smart Mountain and Green Mountain.
With variable composition and including the most relevant actors and experts at the regional level, the
TWGs are responsible, on the one hand, of producing consensus on the S3 implementation and, secondly, of exploring themes and specific topics, also collecting suggestions and promoting initiatives
with the involvement of testimonials and bearers of good practices in the S3 development process.
TWGs, over time, can also be reduced in number and/or reoriented on issues which have become more
important and of more urgent relevance to the development and evolution of the strategy.
S3 monitoring and evaluation activity takes place on two levels:
a) the strategic level, guaranteed and officiated by the S3 Technical and Monitoring Committee,
which must periodically report back the results to the Regional Government;
b) the operational level, assigned to the Smart Community Team, which responds to the Regional
Government and shall report the results to the S3 Technical and Monitoring Committee.
The monitoring activities are based on tests of the performance of a set of measurable indicators defined
and grouped into three major typologies:
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• impact indicators, related to the socio-economic context, measure the impacts of policy-mix instruments adopted;
• output indicators, measuring the progress of the processes related to the actions taken.
• performance indicators, measuring the change that occurred as a result of these actions.
The S3 implementation and its related actions of monitoring and evaluation, requires a flexible and
adaptive approach, able to grasp the inevitable evolution of the environment in the medium and long
term and, if needed, restructure objectives and priorities.
In order to keep the attention of the recipients on the issues, opportunities and outcomes of the strategy
during the implementation phase, a "S3 Communication Plan" is implemented in the region, aiming to
inform the local Community (potential beneficiaries of the operations, media, general public) on the
performance of the operating path of the smart specialization strategy and on the underlying opportunities.
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ANNEXES
(web-links)
“Valle d’Aosta Strategy 2020” in Regional Strategic Framework 2014-2020
http://www.regione.vda.it/europa/Politica%20regionale%20di%20sviluppo%20201420/Quadro_strategico_regionale/default_i.aspx
“Evaluation Report on SF 2007-2013
http://www.regione.vda.it/europa/nuova_programmazione_2007_2013/valutazione/rapporti_di_valutazio
ne_i.asp
“Strategic Plan for Valle d’Aosta Positionning and Regional Development”
http://www.regione.vda.it/europa/por_competitivita_regionale/programma/interventi_in_corso/marketingt
erritoriale_i.asp
“Digital Agenda in Valle d’Aosta”
http://www.regione.vda.it/innovazione/Pianioperativi/piano_pluriennale_i.asp
“Marketing Plan for Tourist Development 2010-2012”
http://www.regione.vda.it/asstur/marketingturistico/pianomarketing20102012_i.aspx
“Youth Plan” and “Youth Guarantee”
http://www.regione.vda.it/lavoro/Piano_Giovani/documenti_i.aspx
http://www.regione.vda.it/lavoro/GaranziaGiovaniValledAosta/default_i.aspx
HIT 2020:
https://www.researchitaly.it/uploads/50/HIT2020.pdf
BANK OF ITALY – “THE ECONOMY OF VALLE D’AOSTA”. Annual Report 2013.
https://www.bancaditalia.it/media/notizie/aosta_2013
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