What’s new in strategies? Once again an expert of European Research Executive Agency.

Thanks to my experience in local & regional development strategies, this year I was appointed for the second time as an expert of the European Research Executive Agency. It was established by the European Commission to finance research and implementation projects, including pro-economic and pro-innovativeness ones. It employs around 900 staff, but also uses many independent experts, and the budget of its Horizon Europe program is EUR 22.7 billion.

Together with other experts, I assessed (applying for EU funding) high-budget, multi-annual projects implementing strategies of cities and regions from various countries, aimed at stimulating their economic development and innovativeness. Such work teaches a lot, and I use what I learn when preparing subsequent strategies of Polish communes/cities and training their authorities.

Here are 3 selected insights from this learning. They may be useful to local & regional governments working on their strategies or already implementing them:

1. European local & regional authorities consistently focus on the intangible economy (digital technologies, sophisticated services, information exchange, AI, culture, recreation, etc.) in their strategies, but at the same time they are being revived in their belief in the key importance of the tangible economy, innovative especially thanks to DOMESTIC, not imported innovations. There is a good few of talk here about electronics, precision mechanics, chemistry, transport, biotechnology, energy, agriculture, the space industry, weapons, food, etc. Of course, it is easier to write it down than to do In reality, because european backwardness in non-imported innovativeness happen to considerable, but a change in strategic awareness in this area is comming up clearly.

2. These authorities are starting to notice the dependence of economic development on the combination of characteristics of society that make up the social will/ambition for this development. Therefore, not only the importance of pro-economic capabilities of society is emphasized (e.g. creativity, knowledge), but also its desire for economic development and active or even passive participation in it. So, the SOCIAL “HUNGER” FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT is beginning to be seen as an important, nonobvious condition for its occurrence. So how and if at all can it be stimulated?

3. When designing and implementing strategic public investments, e.g. infrastructure ones, more and more often the authorities comprehensively DESIGN AND CREATE their legal, demand, supply, safety, social, political and other conditions of functioning. Whether a given investment makes sense, results not only (not so much?) from the existing and forecasted conditions of its future functioning, but also (how much from?) the CAPABILITIES AND WILL of the investing and cooperating public authorities to shape these conditions favourable, also on a supra-local and even international scale. How often do we think this way? (Remember what P.F. Drucker said?)

In a week, my next trainings for Polish authorities and top management of small and large communes/cities start, during which I will talk not only about how to develop a development strategy under Polish law, but also in a way that it will allow for dynamic and innovative development. I will also talk about this during my upcoming lectures abroad.