Consultation on the National Smart Specialisation Strategy

The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is seeking the views of stakeholders on the development of a Smart Specialisation Strategy for Ireland.

Smart Specialisation is an enterprise innovation policy concept developed by the European Commission that aims to boost regional innovation, contributing to growth and prosperity by helping and enabling regions to focus on their strengths.

The development of a new Smart Specialisation Strategy (also known as S3) presents an opportunity to assess, with stakeholders, our regional competitive advantages, future market opportunities, solutions to societal challenges, and the effectiveness of the current suite of enterprise innovation supports.

It is intended that this strategy will serve as an important strategic bridge, connecting national level innovation policy with regional enterprise priorities. As such, Smart Specialisation is one of the thematic areas of the Regional Enterprise Plans (REPs), for which consultations are currently underway. It is also intended that this strategy will inform the regional enterprise aspect of the next national innovation strategy for Ireland, consultations for which are occurring in parallel.

The purpose of this consultation is to collect the views of stakeholders with an interest in the development of the national and regional enterprise innovation landscape, especially businesses or business support organisations, national/regional/local public authorities and research and innovation organisations. This consultation will also provide stakeholders an opportunity to input on regional strengths and areas of emerging areas of future opportunities.

The general public and other key stakeholders are invited to make a written submission setting out views on enterprise innovation. A stakeholder consultation paper has been developed to provide background information on Smart Specialisation and to help guide responses (attached below).

Submissions should be no longer than 2000 words and should be submitted by email to david.barrett@enterprise.gov.ie with “Smart Specialisation Strategy” in the subject line. The closing date for receipt of submissions is close of business, Tuesday, 10 August 2021.

Responses will inform the preparation of the Smart Specialisation Strategy.

Data Protection and Freedom of Information

We are committed to engaging with stakeholders in a clear, open and transparent manner. Any person or organisation can make a submission in relation to this consultation. All submissions and feedback will be considered before the final version of the Smart Specialisation Strategy is published.

Please note that it is intended that all submissions received will be made available under the Freedom of Information Act 2014 (FOI) and as such may be published on our website following the publication of the Strategy.

In responding to this consultation, parties should clearly indicate where their responses contain personal information, commercially sensitive information or confidential information which they would not wish to be released under FOI or otherwise published.

We would like to draw your attention to the department's Data Protection Data Privacy Notice which is available on our website and explains how and when we collect personal data, why we do so and how we treat this information. It also explains your rights in relation to the collection of personal information and how you can exercise those rights.

As part of the development process for the National Smart Specialisation Strategy, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment conducted a public consultation and invited stakeholders and other interested parties to submit responses to an online questionnaire, as well as free form inputs to a dedicated email address. Written submissions are published and available to download at the links below.

Responses are published here as they were received. Personal identifying information contained in submissions has been redacted and will not be published in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Acts 1988 to 2018.