The general objective of this project is to support dissemination of the EU regional policy experience and good practices and to develop further cooperation between national and regional authorities and specialised agencies in 3 Brazilian states (Pará, Pernambuco and Paraná), as well as between Brazilian partners and EU countries and regions on the identification and implementation of decentralised, regional-level innovation and smart specialisation policies. This will be achieved through the establishment of a variety of mechanisms including a platform for knowledge exchange and transfer of good practices among participating states and regions.

Specific objectives of the project are: a) to facilitate the sharing of information and lessons learned on promoting regional innovation systems, including its linkages with national policies on innovation, competitiveness and smart specialisation; as well as on the policy setting, implementation and management with respect to clusters and SME innovation-inducing policies in domains of common interest, in order to contribute to a learning process based on concrete examples and best practices, as well as b) the identification of concrete projects or programmes for the development of regional and national competitiveness that each participating Brazilian state could implement in the short term.