Organised under the frame of the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the 6th Week of Innovative Regions in Europe (WIRE 2015) takes place in Riga, Latvia, on the 4th and 5th of June, 2015.

The WIRE 2015 Conference will focus on regional aspects relevant to the estimation on the impact of EU 2020 Strategy implementation and on the revision of the research and innovation policy priorities in the post-crisis period till 2020.

It will provide stronger link between EU 2020 Strategy implementation, Horizon 2020 and Cohesion Policy, which is particularly important for the effective planning of human resources, building of critical mass and for ensuring effective planning of national and foreign financial resources in widening countries.

The overall objective of the Conference is to promote research and innovation investment in regions and Member States, to discuss the new policy instruments for the programming period 2014-2020 and to highlight the potential of innovation and knowledge, narrow the innovation split among European regions and to optimize the Smart Specialization Strategies. 

This year WIRE will focus on the following issues:

• From programme to implementation: the key challenges for regions;
• How to close the innovation divide: the role of regions;
• Overcoming the barriers to innovation and stimulating regional strategies.

The main topics of the Conference are:

• Towards jobs and growth: boosting research and innovation investment at regional level;
• Meeting the implementation challenge: rolling-out and scaling-up implementation of Smart Specialisation Strategies;
• The challenge of Open Data;
• Maximising the impact of the available funding instruments: the Synergies Challenge to reduce the innovation divide.

For more information visit:

http://ec.europa.eu/research/regions/index_en.cfm?pg=wire&lg=en

http://wire2015.eu/en