The IUC project held today an experts’ discussion on the EU-China Regional Innovation Study currently under elaboration. The meeting was moderated by Amadeo Jensana and Guillermo Martínez from Casa Asia. At the exchange, Prof. Lun Liu and Prof. Robert Hassink introduced the updated version of the European and Chinese case studies, namely Baden-Württemberg (DE), Centro (PT), and the Basque Country (ES) as well as Jiangsu, Shandong and Chongqing/Chengdu – all in China. Experts discussed the impact of the COVID19 crisis on sectoral deglobalisation and its impact on regional innovation. Along with Dr. Ronald Hall – Senior Adviser to DG REGIO – they debated about the differences between regions depending on the global value chain and those focused on endogenous consumption. Moreover, regional innovation capacity is strongly linked with the political-administrative structure of the regions also in Europe, they said. They also discussed possible comparisons schemes of regional innovation schemes and agreed to avoid oversimplification as regional innovation approaches are very diverse in both China and the EU. Experts referred to the European innovation scoreboard 2020 recently published, discussed possible policy recommendations to be included in the study, and agreed on the next steps. The discussion was joined by IUC team experts who provided their insights on regional innovation cooperation between European and Chinese regions.

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