We need to talk about smart specialisation!

However, cities are not mere fractal reflections of their regions. Each city has its own specialisms that may or may not align with those determined at regional level.  This is true for both small and large regions and for small and large cities. It means that in practice some of the clusters identified at regional level will not be relevant for a particular city. Other local clusters that may be a key part of the city’s local economy will not be relevant at regional level. This mismatch affects the city economy because it may restrict funding opportunities from Structural Funds that are cluster focused. Of course these cities are the ones that most need support from cohesion policy to shift their local economies into a new place.

Figure 1:In a fractal the deeper you go the more it stays the same - Mandelbrot set.  Source Wikipedia

Alfred Marshall was one of the first economists to write about industrial districts in 1919. He emphasised the cooperative aspects between companies in such districts that were mutually inter-dependent. He showed how the city operated both with a specialised division of labour between firms and with supportive infrastructure. He characterised it as a factory without walls for the production of certain items such as a knife made in Sheffield which went through numerous neigh bouring factories before being wrapped and sold. In modern economies the relationships have changed although it seems likely that propinquity, or closeness is still a feature in enterprise ecosystems and when we survey the European start-up scene we find that it is often particular neighbourhoods in a limited number of cities that are relevant for key types of start-up such as those in tech and coding. Relatively little research has been published about the micro-geographies of these clusters but it is reasonable to suppose that proximity and social networks play a part in their genesis. 

Other forces play a role. The abandonment of parts of cities by older trades often creates new opportunities for young creatives. Where creatives go, coders and other start-ups follow, often enjoying the edginess of these transition areas. However, over time property values rise, gentrification starts to squeeze out the enterprises. The rise of these areas usually happens outside of or despite the planning system. Once established, planning rarely does enough to protect them. 

But EU innovation is heavily concentrated in the higher end of the urban hierarchy and in the ‘Blue Banana’ which extends from London, Manchester and Birmingham to Milan and Turin in Italy. This is particularly true for research projects financed under each generation of the EU Framework Programme. Despite two decades of effort by cohesion policy support, getting an innovation culture to flourish outside the banana has proved difficult and especially in smaller urban and more sparsely populated areas.

A key element of successful innovation policy for both cities and regions is the concept of the triple and quadruple helix.  

Successful triple helices have dense interactions between small and medium sized enterprises and the research infrastructures of the area.  These are facilitated and supported by the public sector, often through the setting up of arms-length development agencies such as Brainport in Eindhoven, a lead partner in URBACT network CHANGE. The quadruple helix takes this a stage further by engaging actors from civil society in the development of new products and processes. This is both important for testing new products and for co-producing, co-designing and co-creating new services. There is a strong overlap with the Living Lab movement which offers the city and its communities as test areas for new developments.  URBACT has worked extensively on issues around business-research links including in networks REDIS led by Magdeburg and eUniversities led by Delft. Good practice examples of triple helices were high

lighted in the recent URBACT New Economies publication which referenced Eindhoven, Dublin and San Sebastian. 

Figure 2: The Blue Banana in Europe source Reclus 1989

Smart specialisation, cities and URBACT

Despite the potential offered by the resources available from Smart Specialisation focused priorities[1] in the new Structural Fund Operational Programmes, anecdotal evidence from the ten cities[2] of the URBACT In Focus network suggests that cities have often been excluded from the discussion. This exacerbates the risk of mismatch between regional strategies and what is happening in the cities. The process of ‘entrepreneurial discovery’ that is supposed to inform the discussion of emerging sectors and technologies has often been superficial and according to Miguel Rivas Lead Expert of the network did not sufficiently involve the urban actors. The result is that too many of the Smart Specialisation strategies are sitting on a shelf. It will need cities to bring them to life.

In Fcous is addressing these questions about how cities can benefit from and drive regional smart specialisation strategies and has sub themes on clusters, entrepreneurship, new spaces, and branding/ attractiveness. The network includes major technological cities such as Bilbao, Porto, Bordeaux, Grenoble, Torino and Frankfurt.  Each of these has many cluster opportunities to choose from ranging from financial services in Frankfurt to Optoelectronics in Bordeaux. The network also includes cities in regions that are focusing on innovation but without so many assets and in regions with lower levels of development including Plasencia in Extre Madura, Bielsko Biala in Poland and part of Bucharest.

In addition, URBACT network Smart Impact, led by Manchester, is exploring the question of how smart districts can be developed within the burgeoning brand of Smart Cities. Often these districts will be the locus for new collaborations between research and industry and the test beds for new products and services.

Cities all over Europe can learn how better to be engaged with the smart specialisation process. Even if they missed out in the drafting of this generation of strategies there will be opportunities to influence the next generation. Most importantly, they need to understand the process and the opportunities that the strategies present. Cities in every region should be reading their region’s smart specialisation strategy and operational programmes, making contact with the Managing Authorities and drawing up local plans for projects to promote innovation. URBACT will be publishing sessons for cities about how they can be both smart and more specialised to inform the debate and build know-how.

Figure 3:  A DNA quadruple helix source: source Huffington Post

Acknowledgement: This article draws on the baseline study carried out by URBACT expert Miguel Rivas for IN FOCUS a network led by Bilbao. It is anticipated that the baseline will be published in July. All comments expressed here are those of the author.