Reports

This document contains the personal reflections of Professor Bill Slee on the links between Smart Villages and the European Green Deal. As an active member of the European Network for Rural Development (ENRD) Thematic Group on Smart Villages, he argues that smart rural communities are already...

The European Entrepreneurship Competence Framework (EntreComp) is a free, flexible reference framework developed by the European Commission that can be adapted to support the development and understanding of entrepreneurial competence in any setting. EntreComp has the potential to be used in a...

Cultural and creative sectors are important in their own right in terms of their economic footprint and employment. They also spur innovation across the economy, as well as contribute to numerous other channels for positive social impact (well-being and health, education, inclusion, urban...

The policy of competitiveness clusters has been the subject of several impact studies which have focused on its ability to encourage companies to invest more in research and development (R&D). This policy also aims to develop partnership relations between public actors and private sector to...

The first European ‘climate law’ was published by the European Commission at the beginning of March in the framework of the European Green Deal with the aim to enshrine the 2050 climate neutrality in legislation. In this framework, the Commission will also propose an impact assessment plan by summer...

This Final Report presents the learning drawn by the Project Coordinator and the Project Manager at the end of the European Commission (EC) Pilot Action ‘Regions in Industrial Transition’ implemented in 2018 and 2019 in 10 European Union (EU) regions and two EU Member States (‘Pilot Regions’). Key...

Socially responsible public procurement (SRPP) is about achieving positive social outcomes in public contracts. Procurement affects a large number of people, whether as users of public services, those involved in production and delivery, or staff of the buying organisation. Beyond those directly...

The spread of digital technologies is contributing to improve the well-being of modern society. They allow us to do things that were unthinkable 10 years ago. They give us the access to an enormous amount of knowledge. However, they can also make us more vulnerable. Cyber attacks can shock our...

The European Commission published its hydrogen strategy for a climate-neutral Europe on the 8th July 2020. This strategy brings different strands of policy action together, covering the entire value chain, as well as the industrial, market and infrastructure angles, together with the research and...

This paper by Christian Ketels and Sergiy Protsiv takes a fresh empirical look at how cluster presence matters for economic performance. It analyses a new data set developed for the European Cluster Observatory to assess the impact of clusters on industry-level wages and regional prosperity. It is...

The Peer2Scale-Health project has published it's final report - a Design Options Paper (DOP) - following the conclusion of activities in May 2020. Peer2Scale-Health was a 12-month peer-learning action by four regional health innovation agencies acting as clusters and providing specific innovation...

The European Construction Sector Observatory (ECSO) has updated its 2017 report 'Improving the human capital basis'. Including data gathered up to January 2020, it provides insights on the construction sector’s workforce, asserting that the sector will need one million new and replacement workers by...