National-regional governance of STI

In Greece, research and innovation policy is the responsibility of the Ministry of Development. The Ministry focuses on promoting economic development through innovation, research and development (R&D), and investments in new technologies and enterprises. At the national level, the General Secretariat for Research and Innovation (GSRI), under the Ministry of Development, is tasked with planning and coordinating the implementation of R&I policy. It supports the activities of the research community, as well as trade and industry bodies, through competitive R&I programmes, and it supervises most public research centres. Furthermore, it follows EU and international developments related to R&I and represents Greece in its competence areas in EU committees and international organisations. A second agency, the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI), also supervised by the Ministry of Development, was founded in 2016 to promote R&I in Greece and, more specifically, to support and assist unrestricted research without any thematic or geographical limitations, having quality and excellence as a unique criterion. It helps Greek researchers at all stages in their careers and in all research fields. The National Council for Research, Technology and Innovation (NCRTI) and 13 Regional Research & Innovation Councils (RRICs) provide advice, respectively, to ministers, national agencies, and regional authorities on R&I topics. The 13 Regional Administrations also have competencies in implementing policies supporting R&I in their regions, mainly through the regional offshoots of the national Smart Specialisation Strategy. The Ministry of Education, Religious Affairs and Sports (MERAS) is responsible for higher education institutes and university research institutes and oversees the Hellenic Authority for Higher Education (HAHE).

National and regional S3s: organisation and governance

Greece has a National Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3) with 13 Regional offshoots. The planning and monitoring of Greece's National Smart Specialisation Strategy are the responsibilities of the Programming, Coordination and Monitoring Unit of the National Smart Specialisation Strategy (MON-ESEE), in cooperation with the General Secretariat for Research and Innovation and the Secretariat General for Industry. The 13 Regional Administrations are responsible for carrying out the Entrepreneurial Discovery Process at regional level and implementing the regional S3 offshoots, while their regional programme provides the funding. However, the Ministry of Economy and Finance decides the budget envelope centrally as part of the designing process of the National Partnership Agreement. Accordingly, the management of the funding relies on the Managing Authorities of the respective regional programmes.

For information on regional S3s, please return to the homepage: https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/assets/s3-observatory/index_en.html