Modern recovery and “smart specialisation” in the Baltic States

Modern national development paradigm involves two main components – recovery and resilience; “smart specialisation” helps to catch-up with the competitive European and global markets. Therefore, smart specialisation strategies (3S) serve as the strongest facet in national recovery and resilient plans in socio-economic modernisation. Examples from the three Baltic States reveal similar and specific aspects in a better understanding of science and research’s role in national 3S perspectives. The EU member states are obliged to prepare and present their national recovery and resilience plans (RRPs) to the Commission during 2021. Besides, modern national governance is facing a new double-transformation’s challenge dealing with the digital and green transitions in growth patterns. Thus, in the green transition the states need additional actions in order to meet Union’s ambitious target of carbon neutrality by 2050; e.g., the Commission suggested a certification framework for carbon removals, to boost the states’ sustainable growth patterns. In order to deliver on the EU’s zero pollution action plan, the states have to intensify measures in tackling surface and groundwater pollution as well as ambient air quality starting from 2022. In the digital transition, the states have to accelerate the use of digital solutions for business and education as the process has already visualised some shortcomings: e.g., the states have to accelerate production of chips in fostering innovation in semi-conductors to prevent current supply shortages. Besides, the Commission has suggested for 2022 a package of digital transition measures concerning digitalisation in schools, in higher education institutions, as well as new measures in multimodal digital mobility services; e.g., strong digital skills will be vital for SME’s progress. The Commission requires that national RRPs shall dedicate at least 37% of the budget to support climate objectives and green transition, and 20% to the digital transition [1].