Missions, conditions and the policy transfer of Smart Specialisation in the European Union

Smart Specialisation is fundamentally a bottom-up policymaking process premised on entrepreneurial discovery and peer learning. Nonetheless, the European Union has relied on coercive policy transfer through the ex-ante funding conditionality instrument to secure its implementation across regions. This paper examines how the use of conditionality has shaped the implementation of Smart Specialisation in the European Union and its regions. Furthermore, it discusses whether the use of conditionality to ensure the implementation of a particular type of innovation policy reflects a changed perception of the role of the state in the broader European integration project.