S3 priorities of the region

Catalonia is an industrial region with an open, competitive and sustainable economy. It combines talent, creativity, a diversified business network and its own excellent research system, within the framework of a dynamic, entrepreneurial and inclusive society. The vision is to transform knowledge and technology into economic and social value.

The Research and Innovation Strategy for Smart Specialisation in Catalonia (RIS3CAT) sets the strategic direction of the region with a focus on seven sectoral areas of specialisation and six key enabling technologies that must facilitate Catalonia’s transition to a more competitive, sustainable and inclusive economic model.

Strategic objectives

The participatory approach implemented

One of the main challenges of RIS3CAT is to explore and promote new forms of collaboration of the quadruple helix agents (public administration, research and innovation agents, business and civil society) to provide innovative and more effective responses to the challenges we have as a society. This is why new approaches and methodologies are needed.

The pilot projects chosen by the Catalan cluster are already developing or planning to develop participatory strategies (shared agendas on the B-30, citizen participation in the design of innovative waste management systems). The Catalan cluster will deepen this perspective using three approaches:

1. Collective mapping: an educational-participatory game will be used to involve citizens in the municipal waste management system. A reflection will be generated on the different dimensions of RRI involved (gender, ethics, open access, etc.) and critical points for selective waste collection will be mapped.
2. Co-creation dynamics of innovative citizen science tools:  various agents of the quadruple helix will be involved in a co-creation process to generate an innovative tool based on citizen science.
3. Participatory design of innovative systems for the selective collection of municipal waste: the citizen science tool created in Pilot 2 will be implemented in a municipality with the aim of contributing to the participatory process to design the innovative selective collection system of municipal waste.