European Regional Competitiveness Scoreboard

The European regional competitiveness scoreboard offers a powerful tool for analysing a region’s competitive position and its position in global economic networks, using a visualisation of regional data. It determines the European regional competitors of industries in regions, the position of those industries in interregional and international trade, and it places regions vis-à-vis their competitors. The purpose of this tool’s careful analysis of regional economic positions is to contribute to a regional economic development strategy that is built on a sound analysis of regional assets and technology.

Visualisation of interregional competitiveness

The tool provides information to enable regional and national policymakers to develop an evidence-based scientific regional smart specialization strategy. Having such a strategy is compulsory when applying for European regional subsidies. The tool makes use of the newest data visualisation technology to present all aspects of interregional competitiveness. The use of the tool is largely intuitive, and there is a documentation on the regional competitiveness scoreboard, containing examples of how to use the tool (available in Dutch and English).

The website is developed in collaboration between PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency and the Institute for Prospective Technology Studies of JRC. The tool will be embedded in the PBL website and in the S3 Platform website (S3 Tools, available in late November 2014)