An industrial strategy for EU cohesion in an era of transformation

The current disruptive and systemic technological shift is posing a significant threat to persistent European Union socio-economic disparities due to path dependency forces, resistance and lock-in. The technological upgrading that is embodied in EU cohesion policies and the smart specialisation strategies has been an effective approach to allow low performing regions 'to keep-up' with higher performing regions, without, however, enabling actual convergence. We suggest that European cohesion would be better achieved with a transformative industrial strategy focused on national-level investment in productive activities that addresses the current technological transitions in digital and green in terms of both physical and human capital. Such investment can target new technologies and new industries adopting an approach that sees the techno-economic paradigm as a system of systems (sector innovation systems and technology innovation systems) nested in multi-territorial infrastructural investment. We discuss three case studies that have been chosen to portray the three tenets of transformative industrial strategy, namely: the relevance of triangulating digital, green and skills transitions; the strategic necessity to connect technology, sector and finally, coordinate multi-scale interventions and investment.