![](https://jobs.undp.org/images/undp-jobs-logo.jpg)
Almost three years ago, Montenegro became the first candidate-EU country that adopted the Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3) and the accompanying Action Plan. With the S3 adoption, Montenegro opted to transform its economy towards increased competitiveness by concentrating knowledge resources and their linking with a limited number of priorities. The Council for Innovation and Smart Specialisation (ISS Council) (Government Decision on formation of Innovation and Smart Specialization Council (Official Gazette 078/21 of 19 July 2021 and 120/21 of 12 November 2021) was set up as a high-level body for the S3 implementation. The establishment of this political body at the highest level ensures synergies among all actors in the innovation policy and is a sign of Montenegro’s clear commitment to knowledge and innovation-based society based on S3 concept as the driver of its development.
Based on UNDP’s experience with establishing effective innovation ecosystem trough UNDP Accelerator labs network globally and recognizing both the Government’s genuine commitment to enforce the innovation potential in the Country as well as the Council’s strong foundations, the UNDP has committed to supporting S3 Strategy implementation.
Smart Specialisation (S3 – Smart Specialisation Strategy) was conceived within the reformed cohesion policy of the European Commission, as a place-based strategic approach characterized by the identification of priority areas to be supported, based both on the analysis of the strengths and potential of the economy and on an Entrepreneurial Discovery Process (EDP), with wide stakeholder involvement. Smart specialisation links innovation policy to selected priority areas. In the priority areas selected, appropriate measures mechanism is used to follow and support innovations in the broad sense, primarily (but not exclusively) those related to technological progress.
Through its partnership and bottom-up approach, smart specialisation brings together local authorities, academia, business community and the civil society, working for the implementation of long-term growth strategies based on innovations and supported by EU funds. One of the most important elements of smart specialisation is coordination in the programming and utilisation of EU funds, which was lacking in the previous period, causing investment fragmentation.
The main goal of the S3 is to modernize and increase the competitiveness of the Montenegrin economy by concentrating available research, natural and economic resources on a limited number of priority areas. S3 should enable further intensive development of the subject priority areas, as well as the development of new sub-areas within them and development of new industries with strategic potential based on the synergistic interaction of the priority areas. The achievement of the main goal of the S3, i.e. modernised and competitive Montenegro, relies on three key strategic directions that represent the general long-term vision of the country’s development.
The priority areas of the S3 strategy are:
- Sustainable agriculture and food value chain;
- Energy and sustainable environment;
- Sustainable and health tourism; and
- Information and communication technologies as a horizontal priority in the function of development of the previous 3 (vertical) priorities.
By identifying the key development priorities, the goal is to give priority to investment in research and innovation in an economic area that is recognized as competitive. Therefore, programming of various instruments to support innovation at the national level is fully focused on S3 priorities, which are also the key segment of connecting with partners who have the same or similar comparative advantages at the regional and EU level.
The goal of the S3 Action Plan for the period 2019-2020 was to support development within the identified priority areas by means of imposing different and efficient policy instruments. The reporting process to the Government of Montenegro and EU is ongoing and will show the effectiveness of this approach. However, the need for better program orientation of Montenegro in priority thematic areas and the definition of development projects, i.e. the development of new S3 support instruments was also one of the recommendations by the EU that proved necessary during the implementation. The intention was to achieve this through the Operational Program for the implementation of the Smart Specialization Strategy 2021-2024 with the Action Plan 2021 -2022, which was successfully developed and adopted by the Government in December 2021 (as per the Government Work Program for 2021).
Regarding further developments related to implementation of Smart Specialisation Strategy, the ISS Council adopted the S3 National Implementation Framework, which enables efficient process management, continuous consultations with all stakeholders, adequate and quality monitoring and evaluation. As such, it provides an adequate mechanism to manage the implementation process, further maintains and strengthens the commitment of high-level political bodies in this process and enables continuous work to strengthen collective awareness of the effects of smart specialization in the context of knowledge and innovation-based development.
One of the important parts of the S3 National Implementation Framework are the functional Innovative Working Groups that enable the maintenance of the continuity of the Entrepreneurial Discovery Process (EDP). The EDP has a clear objective of discussing results of quantitative and qualitative mapping and ultimately recommending priority domains of the Smart Specialisation Strategy, together with relevant policy mix and indicators. Upon completion and adoption of the strategy, maintaining the interest and focus of stakeholders has proved more challenging and required setting up (or developing) a long-term framework for EDP. The key actor in this process are just the Innovative WGs.
The Innovative Working groups are thematic working groups, focusing around the priority domains, keeping a long-term engagement and connections between stakeholders from the quadruple helix (academia, government, business, civil society). The main purpose and overall role of the working groups is to foster dialogue and co-operation between all actors in their priority domain.