UniS4Vest: The role of universities for sustainable smart specialisation in Vestland

Project summary

The primary aim of UniS4Vest is to analyze the roles that the main higher education institutions (HEIs) in Vestland County (UiB, NHH, and HVL) can play through their education, research and innovation activities in reconfiguring the regional innovation system towards sustainable smart specialization.

Vestland County has set the ambitious goal for itself to become the world’s first zero-emission region by 2030. To secure regional prosperity in a zero-carbon future, regional development and smart specialisation strategies need to focus on green diversification pathways of the oil and gas industry and strengthening the ability of other key industries in the region to adapt and develop competitive advantage in a zero-carbon transition. Wedding sustainability imperatives to Smart Specialisation strategies is no quick fix or add-on but requires profound attention for transformative change in regional innovation systems. Sustainable smart specialization strategies raises questions about the strategic involvement and engagement of universities and high education organisations in the regional innovation system that go beyond being a local provider of knowledge for research-based innovation. UniS4Vest aims at analyzing the roles that the main higher education institutions (HEIs) in Vestland County (UiB, NHH, and HVL) can play through their education, research and innovation activities in reconfiguring the regional innovation system towards sustainable smart specialization. Theoretically, UniS4Vest will draw on state-of-the-art insights from regional innovation systems, the way HEIs have been conceptualized in this framework and, more specifically, its recent engagement with evolutionary economic geography and sustainability transitions. This will allow the project to identify and explain the drivers and constraints for change agents within the above-mentioned HEIs in the regional zero-carbon transition. UniS4Vest engenders an active and action-oriented collaboration between researchers, regional policymakers as well as other stakeholders (such as representatives from business and civic sector in the region), in order to foster processes of co-creation across education, research and innovation to inform and shape a Vestland Sustainable Smart Specialisation strategy.