Intelligence and co-creation in Smart Specialisation Strategies: Towards the next stage of RIS3
The white paper on “Intelligence and Co-creation in Smart Specialisation Strategies” outlines some key conclusions from the Online S3 project, funded under the Horizon 2020 programme of the European Commission. The Online S3 project has produced an online platform composed of software applications and roadmaps that facilitate the design and implementation of Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisation (RIS3).
Taking into consideration the 28 applications that have been developed throughout the 
The article “Smart City Planning from an Evolutionary Perspective ” by N. Komninos, C. Kakderi, A. Panori and P. Tsarchopoulos was published in the Journal of Urban Technology and focuses on the parallel efforts and initiatives that have been made in the case of Thessaloniki to promote its vision to transform the city into a smart and sustainable place, including ICT solutions fostered by civic communities and individual developers. The study clearly shows that the strategy and actions guided by the vision for an open, global, smart, and resilient city, have been largely shaped by a series of opportunities that appeared gradually over the last few years, both at global and local levels.
The working paper Blockchains unchained blockchain technology and its use in the public sector, produced by OECD, tries to work as a guide to equip public servants with the necessary knowledge to understand what the Blockchain architecture is, the implications it could have on government services, and the opportunities and challenges governments may face as a result. Moreover, it also tries to clear what the Blockchain architecture is not to help policy makers look past the hype and determine whether Blockchain technology is something that may help them advance their missions.
The white paper Blockchain and distributed ledgers, produced by ILNAS and ANEC, tries to shed light in a variety of aspects related to blockchain technology and its impacts on economics and businesses. The main questions arising in this report refer to: existing features, differences and similarities in major blockchain platforms; the ways in which will blockchain affect different economic sectors; emerging benefits of adopting blockchain within a given business; recent developments in blockchain technical standardization; and, existing sets of standards that are relevant to this technology.
The white paper Blockchain in Cities: Restoring trust and Transparency in digital Transactions has been produced by National League of Cities (NLC). The main scope of the document is to provide an overview regarding the opportunities arising for smart cities and governance, as well as existing challenges and barriers. Some key insights for city leaders are also provided at the end of this report.
The Agile Governance: Reimagining Policy-making in the Fourth Industrial Revolution white paper, published by the World Economic forum, tries to investigate the ways in which forth industrial revolution affect policy-making cycles. Given that emerging technologies scale up much quicker than in previous industrial revolutions, irrespective of whether we develop new governance systems to manage them, it is essential to act towards shaping the impact of technologically driven systems for a shared vision.