Support to the management of the Smart Specialisation Community of Practice - 2025CE16BAT006

In 2022, the Commission tendered a service contract to establish and operate a Smart Specialisation Community of Practice (S3 CoP), to connect and support S3 stakeholders across the EU and beyond. That contract will end in September 2025. The purpose of the current tender is to ensure further development and continued operation of the S3 CoP for the following three years, from 2025-2028.

The S3 CoP serves as the EU’s one-stop-shop for guidance, networking, support and peer-learning on S3. It shall foster robust governance and good implementation of S3 across the Union. The S3 CoP shall serve all S3 stakeholders, in particular the public bodies or institutions responsible for S3 required by cohesion policy legislation and the Managing Authorities of ERDF programme with S3-related spending.

The S3 CoP shall also be open to S3 actors in third countries, in particular candidate countries, in agreement with the contracting authority and within limits which might be imposed by, e.g., resources. The S3 CoP covers all elements of the S3 concept and all steps of the S3 process, including governance, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. A particular emphasis is placed on those S3 elements that are required by cohesion policy legislation.

The S3 CoP shall also facilitate interregional cooperation based on shared and complementary S3 priorities, primarily by supporting the Thematic Smart Specialisation Platforms and Partnerships (TSSP). The main activities to be performed under this call for tender include:

• Developing and operate the S3 Community of Practice, including its Secretariat.
• Providing practical support to S3 practitioners in the Member States, including through targeted, on-site technical assistance, mutual learning opportunities, guidance and training material, good practice examples, workshops, webinars and seminars.
• Offering analytical and expert support for the further development of the S3 concept.
• Supporting, monitoring, and disseminating the work of S3 thematic platforms and partnerships (TSSPs).
• Developing and managing the S3 CoP website, as well as performing other dissemination and communication activities.
• Developing and managing the S3 Observatory, including the possibility to integrate this database with other existing databases (e.g. the map of regional ecosystems and sectors and the clusters, etc.).