Towards Smart Specialisation 2.0. Main Challenges When Updating Strategies

The present work introduces an overview on the framework for the design of updated smart specialisation strategies (S3) in the EU for the programming period 2021–2027. The article reviews and analyses the main challenges that managing authorities face when updating or reshaping their S3 and policies, discussing potential mechanism to consider when facing them, contrasting it with numerous literature perspectives. While a theoretical perspective is presented, the article also aims at analysing the challenges from an applied point of view, structuring the different approaches in a way it can serve as a roadmap to build an updated S3.