This roadmap addresses the issue of the significance and role of specialisation analysis in the context of the development and implementation of a smart specialisation strategy for research and innovation. Specialisation analysis has a threefold usefulness in the process of designing and implementing RIS3:
- it helps inform the Entrepreneurial Discovery Process (EDP) on RIS3 prioritisation choices,
- it facilitates public-private investment decision-making in RIS3 priority areas, and
- it supports system of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) in that it makes possible to change (‘real-time’) regional specialisation during the RIS3 implementation.