Abstract

In the past decade, the EU Cohesion Policy has become dominated by the smart specialisation approach driving more place-based innovation. Its overall aim is to decrease regional disparities through Structural Funds Operational Programmes, which are important instruments of regional R&D funding. In parallel, universities’ traditional role as a provider of knowledge and education has shifted towards broader regional engagement, ‘third mission’, which has also increased expectations to support economic growth in their locations. The universities’ regional role has become widely acknowledged in international, national and regional policies, although universities may have a limited capability to respond to the diverse regional demands. As the smart specialisation approach binds universities tighter to regional policy making processes (e.g. RIS3), the SF funding can play a significant role in universities’ adaptions of the third mission. It can support universities to deliver engagement activities, especially in less-developed regions, thus contributing to the creation of regional systems of innovation and matching university research better with regional priorities. However, the universities’ role and motivation to take part in such regional programmes and projects have not been largely examined, nor has the range of different types or characteristics of universities’ engagement
located in rural regions sufficiently identified.

This research builds on the evolution of the ‘entrepreneurial university’ towards a more context-sensitive assessment of the university engagement, and previous studies providing insights on the universities’ role in delivering regional development projects funded through Structural Funds programmes. The theoretical framework of the study consists of selected mainstream concepts of the higher education studies, namely the university third mission and entrepreneurial university / entrepreneurial architecture. The study seeks to explore how (entrepreneurial) universities can manage and deliver their third mission through Structural Funds programmes in rural regions. A qualitative analysis focuses on the specific characteristics and challenges of university-led SF activities, as well as on the impact of a rural region to the overall university engagement. These issues were studied through three case studies representing regionally-focused universities located sparse innovation environments in the UK, Finland and Portugal. The research project fills in a gap in the academic literature by generating new knowledge on the organisation of the university-led Structural Funds projects and their alignment with the university third mission in universities located in these remote
regions. As a result, the impact of a rural region to the overall university engagement was assessed, suggesting that a more context-sensitive approach to the university’s entrepreneurial architecture. Also, stylised typology of four types of university-led SF projects was derived based on the empirical evidence from all case studies. The findings imply that there is yet unused potential in optimising both regional and academic benefits from the SF activities, but challenges remain related to national and regional adaptations of the Cohesion policy in designing Operational Programmes, the capacity of university organisations to make use of the this type of funding efficiently, regional and institutional communications systems stimulating collaboration with regional actors, and finally, the lack of strategic approach to designing SF projects within universities.