This report identifies groups of regions and countries with common energy technology interests based on a set of technologies included in the Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-Plan) of the European Union.

Through a series of illustrative maps, the report maps energy priorities, focusing on sustainable technologies, under the framework of the smart specialisation concept. It identifies groups of regions and countries with common energy technology interests based on a set of technologies included in the European Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-Plan). These common priorities can help regions develop potential cooperation as well as help policy makers define actions plans and maximise the impact of available resources.

In order to carry out the mapping, the tool EYE@RIS3 has been used and more precisely the description provided by each territorial unit and collected by this tool. The methodology proposed to develop the mapping analyses aims to avoid an individual analysis of every single regional or national smart specialisation strategy.

Once the groups of regions/countries have been defined, potential similarities have been assessed based on socio-economic indicators. Finally, the level of alignment between regional and national levels has been studied. The findings of this report establish the basis to carry out a deeper analysis focused on a specific energy technology and with a reduced number of regions.

Starting from global information available on the EYE@RIS3 some information could be extracted to provide an idea about the interest of regions in the SSP. From a national level and according to the information available by the end of October 2015, there are 26 countries with at least one encoded priority, being 20 EU28 countries and 6 non-EU countries accounting for a total of 160 and 40 encoded priorities respectively. The distribution of number of priorities per country is presented in Figure 3 of the report. 

In order to simplify the mapping process, the results and conclusions presented throughout the document are based on a limited set of information included in [Eye@RIS3 2015] avoiding the analysis of every single national or regional strategy.

Source: InfoRegio