The Southern Regional Assembly is the Irish partner on MARIE, an interregional project which aims to improve regional public policy that supports delivery of Responsible Research & Innovation (RRI) in design, production & distribution of innovation in Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3) sectors and models in ways that prevent negative social & environmental impact and contribute to better quality of life. 

EU regions face common challenges of perceived complexity of the concept RRI and the means of application, lack of appropriate approaches for public authorities and lack of awareness over its potential impacts. 

The Southern Regional Assembly joins 9 other partners from from Italy, Romania, Greece, Spain, Finland, France, and Germany on this €1.9m project. 

MARIE uses interregional learning to deliver 3 types of RRI public support actions:

• Quadruple helix: stakeholders from research, business, public authorities & civil society must work together throughout the life cycle of the R&I process

• Open Innovation: enterprises using both internal & external ideas, partners & sources to encourage innovation, integrating their own knowledge with complementary capabilities & resources of others

• Information & tools: events, training, information hubs, methodologies, standards, ICT tools to promote understanding of RRI and assist informed decision-making about its strategic application.

Stakeholder engagement at regional and interregional level will be key to develop Regional Action Plans that result in improved policy instruments; more and better-targeted funding for RRI delivery; increased capacity among innovation actors; consolidated partnerships of quadruple helix innovation chain stakeholders.

MARIE’s outputs include:

• Interregional learning events (workshops, open sessions, study visits, feedback sessions), creation of and regular meetings of Local Stakeholder Groups;
• RRI inventory of experiences, available online Good Practices and tools on policy support tools (Quadruple Helix / Open Innovation / Information & Tools);
• A Knowledge Exchange Hub to share project material;
• 10 Policy Good Practices related to successful RRI policy instruments for transfer as part of Regional Action Plans;
• Increased capacity in design, implementation, and monitoring of policy instruments;
• Regional Action Plans for policy actions in RRI delivery designed and implemented.

Expected results:

• Policy instruments improved due to insertion of RRI concept into innovation delivery system in S3 sectors;
• More and better targeted public funding, thanks to better use of ERDF ROP; 
• New / improved models for RRI delivery in S3 sectors that promote cooperation among regional innovation chain actors (Quadruple Helix), openness (Open Innovation) and RRI awareness and capacity (Information & Tools);
• Greater awareness among regional stakeholders and wider public on the potential for regional innovation delivery policies to promote responsible growth.

The MARIE project was approved under the Interreg Europe Programme 2014-2020 and is funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). 

For further information please see MARIE project website 

Project Contact:

Karen Coughlan, EU Projects Officer, Southern Regional Assembly
Phone: +353 (0) 51 860 706
Email: kcoughlan@southernassembly.ie