RECEBA took part in the fifth annual conference of the Smart Specialisation Community of Practice, held in Brussels on 23 and 24 June 2026 under the theme of regions driving European innovation and competitiveness. Cleantech Bulgaria, GreenWin and ACR+ represented the project.
The conference brings together regional authorities, policymakers and innovation actors from across Europe to discuss the future of smart specialisation strategies (S3) and their shift toward sustainability (S4). RECEBA’s contribution focused on a topic at the core of the project: where skills and vocational education sit in how these strategies are implemented.
Regional strategies set the direction for innovation and for the circular economy transition. Turning that direction into results depends on people, on SMEs that can adopt circular business models, on workers with the right competences, and on VET providers able to train them. RECEBA’s partners argued that this human capital dimension should be built into S3 implementation from the start, not added once strategies are already running.
The project offers a working model for it. In six European regions, RECEBA connects VET Excellence Panels that map industry skills needs, modular training and micro-credentials co-designed with companies, and Circular Business Labs where learners and SMEs work on real circular economy challenges together. The Brussels discussion was a chance to test that approach with the wider S3 community and open exchanges with regions facing the same question.
Read more about the conference: https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/policy/communities-and-networks/s3-community-of-practice/s3_conference_2026_en
- francescolembo
- June 23, 2026
- 2:11 pm