National-regional governance of STI

Science, technology and innovation policy in Latvia is predominantly developed, funded and implemented at the national level. The main policy-making function is divided between the Ministry of Education and Science and the Ministry of Economics in collaboration with other sectoral ministries. The Ministry of Education and Science has a pivotal role to play in the development of policies for research and technological development. The Ministry of Economics is responsible for developing policies related to competitiveness, business support and innovation. At the implementation level, the main institutions are the Latvian Council of Science, which coordinates the implementation of research policy, and Latvia’s Investment and Development Agency, which implements support programmes for entrepreneurship and innovation. 

National and regional S3s: organisation and governance

Since 2021, the main responsibility of the implementation of the Latvian Smart Specialisation Strategy has been transferred from the Ministry of Education and Science to the Ministry of Economics. In 2022, a new Council for Innovation and Research Governance was established, bringing together the ministers and directors of the aforementioned four key organisations to ensure more streamlined R&I governance and monitoring of S3 implementation at the strategic level. The S3 governance reform foresees that, at the operational level, the main coordinating body of S3 is Latvia’s Investment and Development Agency, which formed R&I ecosystems in all five smart specialisation areas comprising enterprises, research organisations and public administrations. The S3 ecosystem actors identify collaboration opportunities and discuss options for future large-scale projects of mutual interest in each of the specialisation areas. The vision and main conclusions from these ecosystem co-creation activities are consolidated by their respective management groups into long-term strategies and actions plans for each S3 priority area. The S3 ecosystem strategies and actions plans are regularly revisited and updated.

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