Regional Partnerships for Living Labs: the Case of Sicily and the MedLab Project

Session 9c, 22 October 2009 eChallenges e-2009 Copyright 2009 DRU-ARTA

Regional Partnerships for Living Labs:the Case of Sicily and the MedLab Project

Maurizio Agnese, DRU-ARTA Sicilian RegionJesse Marsh, Atelier Studio Associato

Giovanni Salemi, DRU-ARTA Sicilian Region Ferdinando Trapani, DiSPA University of Palermo


DRU-ARTA in INTERREG III

• INTERREG IIIB MEDOCC “URBACOST”– Balancing urbanisation pressures between coastal areas and

culturally rich inland villages

• INTERREG IIIC SOUTH “PROGRESDEC/ESDP Steps”– Assessing the uptake of ESDP planning principles at the local and

regional levels, with inter-regional pilot sub-projects

• INTERREG IIIB MEDOCC: “MEDISDEC/StratMed”– Pilot projects and long-term scenarios applying ESDP objectives

and principles to the Mediterranean context

• INTERREG IIIB MEDOCC: “PIC-RM”– Development of shared strategic initiatives for Mediterranean

regions in areas such as Competitiveness Indicators, Renewable Energy, and Immigration and Metropolisation


Territorial Innovation

ARTICULATIONOF DEMAND

COMMITMENTOF ACTORS

TERRITORIALCAPITAL

TERRITORIALINNOVATION

POLITICALDECIDERS

TEAM OFEXPERTS

CITIZENS,BUSINESSES

ETC.

Based on: DG XVI Art. 10 TERRA “LORE” 1997-2001; DG XIII ISPO “ISIAS” 1998-2000


Territorial Living Lab

“… integrally applies the LL approach to a territory and its citizens, its model of governance and its strategic plans for the future: in essence, it can be conceived of as a new model for regional development.”


TLL Sicily in ENoLL


TLL Sicily MoU


Lessons Learned

• Obstacles encountered– Open partnership network contrasts with existing relationships

between actors– Multi-channel funding strategy new to most actors, creating

difficulties in negotiating and defining roles– Variety of nature and form of network partners compounded by lack

of a unique “lead” partner

• Balancing factors– Role of European dimension in breaking established power relations– Transparency and invitation to “co-design” attracts new players and

creates “trust capital”– Prospect of increasing access to own funding channels empowers

participating institutions and actors


Cyclic Institutionalisation Process

SHAREDVISION

COMMITMENT& ACTION

BENEFITS &VISIBILITY

INSTITUTION-ALISATION


MedLab Project

• ERDF 2007-2013 Territorial Cooperation– MED Programme: competitiveness of Med space, territorial

cohesion, sustainable development– Objective 1.1: dissemination of innovative technologies and know-

how

• Objective: build a Mediterranean Living Lab– Multi-level multi-sector governance network– Integration of LL approach into regional policy

• Trans-national Pilot Projects– Inno-SMEs, Rural, Coastal, Planning, Tourism– Transnational partnerships and MoUs


MedLab Structure

REGIONALPOLICY

FRAMEWORK

ICTPLATFORMS AND

SERVICES

MULTI-LEVELGOVERNANCE

MODELS

LOCAL AUTHORITIESCITIZENS

SMEsNGOs

TERRITORIAL CAPITAL


Regional Policies

• European Regional Development Fund– EU Strategic Guidelines and National Strategic Reference

Frameworks provide common structure to regional OPs– Information Society Strategies: emphasis on public services

(education, health, etc.) e-government and digital divide– Innovation Strategies: emphasis on reinforcing link between basic

research (University) and industry (incl. SMEs)– Lack of transversal policies including social innovation

• European Agricultural Regional Development Fund– New programme, including innovation in rural economies and

bottom-up LEADER initiatives

• Other instruments: European Social Fund, European Fisheries Fund…


TECHNICAL SOCIAL

NETWORK-BUILDING

INFRASTRUCTURES

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY PARKS

TERRITORIAL /COMMUNITY LIVING LABS

THEMATIC CLUSTERS /POLES / DISTRICTS

PPP /TRIPLE HELIX

Regional Policies

INNOVATION STRATEGIES

DEVELOPMENTSTRATEGIES


LL-Regio Thematic Networkht

tp:/

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iona

l-te

rrito

rial.n

ing.

com


RCM LDA UIP LAZ IM I2BC TRG SIC

Inno-SME

Rural Dev

Coastal

Planning

Tourism

MedLab Pilot Projects


Planning Pilot

• Ground Living Lab experiment in concrete institutional context

• Updating the strategic Provincial Territorial Plan of Ragusa• Participatory, multi-sectoral process foreseen for the

Strategic Environmental Assessment• Basic platforms:

– CRES: Wikitel or similar WDSL network– SITER: Regional GIS system– TLL-Sicily Ning: social networking platform

• Open to integration with other ENoLL platforms– Electronic Town Meeting (Tuscany Region – Lunigiana Amica)– Process representation and argumentation support (Torre Guaceto

LL)


Palermo BarCamp and Seminar

Co-creativity for Territorial InnovationNetworks in Sicily, Italy Europe

Palermo, 1-2 October 2009http

://r

egio

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terr

itoria

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Extended Sicilian Pilot Network


Governance: INoLL


Governance: NNoLL


Conclusions

• Territorial Living Labs introduce the regional policy dimension and the concept of “territorial innovation”

• Living Lab partnerships and governance structures evolve through a cyclic institutionalisation process

• Regional policies do not adequately support transversal social innovation initiatives, but appear to be moving there

• Living Labs can benefit significantly by opening up to local networks of creative energies

• Governance issues need to be addressed through interlinked multi-level networks: regional, national, intra-national…


• Thank You…

Maurizio Agnese, [email protected]

Jesse Marsh, [email protected]

Giovanni Salemi, [email protected]

Ferdinando Trapani, [email protected]

Regional Partnerships for Living Labs: the Case of Sicily and the MedLab Project

Technology

regional partnerships

regional levels

regional policy dimension

territorial cohesion

european social fund

model of governance

governance structures

multisectoral process