A video conference was held with Ciaran Dearle, Senior Expert on Interaction of R&I and Cohesion Policies, Unit B/5 - Spreading Excellence and Widening Participation, Directorate for the Innovation Union and the ERA, DG Research and Innovation, European Commission. Mr Dearle delivered a presentation titled The Challenge and the Opportunity of Smart Specialisation: a chance for Europe and Lithuania.
Marius Skarupskas, Vice-Minister of Economy, talked about smart specialisation and an opportunity to transform Lithuania's economic policy. Albertas Žalys, Director of the Department of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Ministry of Education and Science, shared his insights into smart specialisation of the Lithuanian science policy.
Smart specialisation is a strategy on state support to research and innovation, wherein Lithuania, just like the other EU Member States, identifies its priorities in connection with research, experimental development and innovations in view of available or possible competitive advantages. The Lithuanian Smart Specialisation Strategy was officially endorsed by the European Commission at the beginning of 2015. Representatives of the European Commission believe that Lithuania is ready to build a knowledge-based economy, make effective use of its scientific achievements and turn the available knowledge into money. In order to ensure that the strategy was based on mutual agreement, all stakeholders, including scientists, businessmen and public sector representatives, were engaged in the process. They revealed their approach through wide-scope surveys and fifty expert discussions.
