Financial instrument for cohesion policy

The workshop aims to explore how FIs can support Cohesion Policy (CP), with a specific focus on the regional ecosystem approach to innovation. Based on the experience of the JRC, Innova-FI partners and EU regions, some FIs can be more successful in some sectors and actors than others. But what circumstances make it possible to make the most of FIs, when attempting to support territorial development and its stakeholders such as SMEs or innovation intermediaries?

The workshop will stimulate dialogue and inspire decision makers at regional, national and EU level to improve the use of FIs with the purpose of further contributing to CP objectives.

To increase the level of participation from the audience and interactivity, the workshop will be designed as follows:

The session will begin with an interactive dialogue between the moderator and the participants, outlining main issues on FIs for cohesion policy and asking the participants for key words.

An introduction to FIs at EU level will be presented by the workshop moderator, presenting FIs overall, possible difficulties in designing or implementing FIs encountered by the regions, existing European initiatives addressing those issues, etc… With the support of the public, the moderator will translate the key words into four main questions.

Speakers will then present practical examples and experience of FI in supporting cohesion policy. The moderator will coordinate the presentations and any questions, ensuring equal time per partner, and engage with the workshop participants during the Q&A part.
The following cases will be presented:

An innovative financial instrument "Guarantee fund for Venture Capital", from Friuli Venezia Giulia Region;
Experience of and expertise with Financial Instruments of the Slovenian Government Office for European Cohesion;
The experience of blending Financial Instruments from the North of Portugal;
A competences centre for Financial Instruments from Bulgaria.

The moderator will then sum up the main lessons learnt and conclusions of the session, providing some answers to the previously collected questions and guiding the public through the end of the workshop.

Moderators:
Mathieu Doussineau, Policy Analyst, Joint Research Center, B3, European Commission, Spain.
Chiara Frencia, Board Member, Startup Europe Regions Network, Belgium.
Elisa Gerussi, Policy officer, European Commission - Joint Research Center, Spain.
Speakers:
Alexandre Almeida, Coordinator of the National Strategy for Smart Specialisation, Portuguese National Innovation Agency,, Portugal.
Simona Hočevar, Specialist for Financial instruments and Smart specialisation Strategy at Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy, Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy, Slovenia.
Francesca Pozzar, EU Project Manager, Friuli Venezia Giulia Regional Authority, Italy.
Kiril Velichkov, Director of “European Projects and Financial Institutions, KBC Centre for competences for European Financial Instruments, Bulgaria.
Code: 14WS1259V
Format: Workshop
Theme: Cohesion and Cooperation
Partners: Autonomous Region Friuli Venezia Giulia, European Commission - JRC, Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy of Slovenia, National Innovation Agency From Portugal, SERN - Start-up Europe Regions Network
Language: English (EN)
Virtual platform: Zoom