Synergies between Interreg Europe and Smart Specialisation

The Interreg Europe (IE) programme supports projects in which interregional consortia
develop a set of peer-learning activities, followed by action-plans, aimed at improving
given policy interventions. The programme gives priority to projects focussed on
instruments in ERDF Operational Programmes that have a direct link to S3. Despite this
potential, little attention has so far been paid on exploring systematically the
complementarities between Interreg and S3 to maximise policy learning. This paper aims
at bridging this gap by framing the relationship between IE and S3 in the broader debate
about synergies between different EU funds and stressing the importance of monitoring
such complementarities. The present work argues that the Interreg Europe programme
can provide a space for experimentation, learning and generation of good practices in S3
that can serve broader purposes. This argument is put forward by describing and
analysing an exercise conducted by the Catalan government, which targeted synergies
between IE and S3.