Regional Innovation Strategy — from Design to Implementation. Lubelskie Voivodship Case Study

The objective of the article is to present the process of designing and implementing Regional Research and Innovation Strategy for Smart Specialisation (RIS3). The paper is composed of two parts. The first part presents the idea of Smart specialization and its implementation in the current programming period, as well as the legal basis, premises, and assumptions of development of RIS3. In the second part, in the context of endogenic potentials, competitive advantages, and level of competitiveness of the region, the process of development of Regional Innovation Strategy for the Lubelskie Voivodship 2020 is presented in practice from the stage of identification of the areas of regional smart specialization in the entrepreneurial discovery process, through defining goals, priorities, and directions of measures and determination of the implementation assumptions, to the specification of financing sources. In the context of financing, the assumptions of the strategy were confronted with the provisions of the Regional Operational Programme of the Lubelskie Voivodship 2014–2020. This permitted drawing conclusions regarding financing pro-innovation measures on the regional level. In comparison to the assumptions of Regional Innovation Strategy for the Lubelskie Voivodship 2020 a considerable increase of resources in the scope of the Priority Axis 3 aiming at the improvement of competitiveness of SMEs was recorded. The cognitive value of the article is the presentation, in a broader context, of the methodology of development of RIS3 of the Lubelskie Voivodship, and translation of provisions of the strategy into specific measures in the financial sphere.