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The European Union seeks to increase the impact of R&I public investment. With this aim, it has promoted the regional elaboration of Smart Specialization strategies (RIS3). According to RIS3, regional policy makers should focus in a limited number of technological areas to specialize, those in which the region do best in terms of innovation, rather than spreading funds across many sectors. The identification of these areas should be based on the existing regional skills and productive capacities, their complementarity, as well as on the strategic interest of the area.

By using patent data, this web shows the potential areas that may be worth to prioritize for each European region based on two criteria. First, the similarity between the regional capacities and knowledge bases on the one hand, and the requested skills of the new technological area on the other hand: the higher the similarity between both of them, the higher the chances to succeed. Second, the upgrading potential of the technological domain: the higher the potential (knowledge complexity), the more rewarding will be the effort.