Norte

Presentation of the Region

Norte is one of the most industrialised regions in the European Union, with a strong export-oriented economy and a diversified production structure. It combines a robust industrial base, still largely anchored in traditional sectors, with emerging medium-high- and high-technology activities, supported by a solid scientific system and skilled human capital. Despite this diversified profile, the region continues to face structural challenges in upgrading its economic specialisation, particularly in terms of productivity, technological intensity and value creation.

In recent years, the region has made progress in innovation performance. However, according to the Regional Innovation Scoreboard 2025, Norte is classified as a Moderate Innovator, still below both national and European averages. Despite this positioning, recent trends indicate a gradual convergence with the European Union, particularly between 2023 and 2025, reflecting renewed dynamism in the regional innovation system.

The region’s innovation potential remains closely linked to its industrial profile and entrepreneurial culture. However, the updated diagnosis highlights a structural challenge: while investments and scientific outputs are relatively strong, the diffusion of innovation and its impact on productivity and employment remain limited, particularly among SMEs.
Addressing these challenges requires strengthening cooperation within the regional innovation ecosystem, improving the articulation between firms, research organisations and intermediaries, and fostering more effective knowledge transfer. Greater integration into interregional and international value chains is essential to increase the scale of innovation, enhance productivity and improve value capture in industrial activities. This is particularly important for SMEs, where innovation capacity remains limited, requiring stronger collaborative networks to accelerate the diffusion and economic impact of innovation.

RIS3 Priorities

Considering the export-oriented and industrial profile of Norte, the smart specialisation paradigm provides an opportunity to leverage the region’s resources, foster synergies and combine competitive advantages at the European level, with a view to strengthening its integration into interregional value chains. Enhanced cooperation between European regions is essential to exploit commonalities and complementarities, improve innovation performance and support sustainable economic growth.

In this context, NORTE S3 is founded on the mobilisation of human capital and on the potential to combine knowledge bases and productive capabilities within a related variety framework, where diversity contributes to an innovation ecosystem that reinforces regional competitiveness. The NORTE S3 priorities for the 2021–2027 programming period are the following:

• Creativity, Fashion and Habitats
• Industrialisation and Advanced Manufacturing Systems
• Agri-environmental Systems and Food
• Sustainable Mobility and Energy Transition
• Health and Life Sciences
• Tourism Services and Territorial Assets
• Sea Resources and Economy
• Technologies, State, Economy and Society

NORTE S3 plays a crucial role in supporting R&D, innovation and economic competitiveness. Together with its governance model, it provides the framework for prioritising R&I investments under European cohesion policy. It also contributes to strengthening the region’s internationalisation by facilitating access to knowledge and business networks and reinforcing its integration into global value chains.