The workshop will be divided into two parts, depending on the status of smart specialisation development in the participating countries and economies:

• For Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo* and The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia it is an introduction to smart specialisation governance and guidance on creation national smart specialisation teams;
• For Serbia and Montenegro it is a training enabling entrepreneurial discovery process (EDP) coordinators and facilitators to prepare and organize it in accordance with the smart specialisation methodology.

Participants:

Group 1: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo* and The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia: representatives of institutions relevant for the smart specialisation process: ministries of economy, education and science, regional development, innovation (depending on the division of competences) – full costs for 4 participants per each country will be covered by RCC.

Group 2: Serbia and Montenegro: country teams consisting of one EDP coordinator and maximum 3 facilitators – full costs for 4 participants per each country will be covered by RCC (specific profiles described below**).

Trainers:

European Commission - JRC team (A.Gnamus, A.Kleibrink, M.Matusiak, N.Radovanovic, M.Ranga, G.Rissola and M.Dosso) and invited external experts (Slovenia, Croatia, Poland and Romania);

Contributors / Invited Experts:

European Commission: DG NEAR (P.Polajnar, A.Kosta), DG GROW (A.Lechien & J.Freitas) and DG RTD (B.Fabianek); ETF (P.Vuorinen) and country experts - SI: the Slovenian S3 Team (GODCP/MIZS), the Ljubljana Technology Park and some stakeholders from the Ljubljana start-up ecosystem (organizing the EDP and business-academia-government dialogue within the Slovenian S3); HR: SmartEIT;  PL: national S3 representative; RO: regional S3 representative from the region Nord Vest;

* This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.