In this
paper we demonstrate the findings of using the Entrepreneurial discovery
process (EDP) to foster the involvement of the companies and other actors in
the design, governance and implementation of public regional policies. In the
EDP three types or classes of actors can be identified: entrepreneurial agents
(companies, higher education institutions, research institutes and innovation
agents), policy makers, and society in general. The emphasis on the EDP as the
main process for generating information to identify the limited set of research
and innovation priorities required in a RIS3 means that the intervention that
is required is not about telling the regions what to do, but about helping
companies and entrepreneurs to discover what to do.

This paper
highlights the potential of companies as active entrepreneurial agents in the
Baltic Sea Region by analysing research, development and innovation initiatives
and challenges proposed by the companies. The paper utilises a pool of
development challenges collected in the project Baltic TRAM, Transnational
Research Access in Macro-region that was funded by the Interreg Baltic Sea
Region programme from 1.3.2016 to 28.2.2019. During the project altogether 68
innovation challenges to solve specific company challenges were collected
around the Baltic Sea Region via open company calls. In this paper the
interaction between companies and universities in the framework of smart
specialisation and building innovation driven economies at regional level are
analysed. The paper argues that such process to be successful certain framework
conditions in the business-university cooperation need to be present. One of
the key conditions seems to be the technology readiness level of the companies.
Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) are indicators of the maturity level of
particular technologies applied in companies. Universities and other analytical
research facilities in regions can through dedicated collaboration processes
support companies to overcome development challenges that are connected to
advancing further to the consecutive stages of higher technology readiness
levels and developing new commercial products that in turn positively affect
the regional economy and innovation ecosystem.