DEPARTAMENT D'ECONOMIA I HISENDA

Their core work

The Departament d'Economia i Hisenda is the regional economic and finance department of the Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalan Government), responsible for economic policy, public finance, and regional development strategy. In H2020, it contributed as a regional policy authority in projects focused on Smart Specialisation Strategies (S3) — the EU framework that guides how regions direct research and innovation investment. Their value in consortia is not research capacity but rather institutional legitimacy: they represent a real regional government applying S3 governance frameworks and testing participatory policy design in a live public sector context. For project partners, they offer direct access to regional policymakers and a testbed for scaling innovation governance models.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Their two projects span 2019–2022 and show a clear progression from structural governance to participatory process. The earlier project (SeeRRI) was about the architecture of regional innovation ecosystems — how governance models and smart specialisation policies can be made self-sustaining. The later project (TRANSFORM) moved deeper into the human layer: how citizens, businesses, and government co-design R&I agendas together using deliberatory forums and design thinking. The direction of travel is from policy design toward democratic participation in innovation governance.

They are moving toward open and participatory governance models — future collaborations would likely fit projects that need a regional public authority testing co-creation or citizen engagement approaches in real policy contexts.

How they like to work

They participate exclusively as consortium partners — never as coordinator — which reflects their role as a public authority bringing institutional context rather than project management capacity. With 24 unique partners across 2 projects, they operate in medium-to-large consortia typical of CSA coordination actions. This suggests they are brought in as a regional policy use-case or validation site, not as a technical or research lead.

They have connected with 24 unique partners across 7 countries through just 2 projects, indicating active multi-partner consortia rather than bilateral work. Their geographic footprint is European but likely anchored in southern and western Europe given the S3 policy context.

What sets them apart

Very few regional government finance and economy departments appear in H2020 research projects — their participation signals that Catalonia's government is actively testing evidence-based and participatory methods for regional innovation policy, not just administering funds. For consortium builders, they offer something rare: a real public authority willing to pilot governance innovations and co-design approaches within an actual regional administration. This is particularly valuable for projects that need policy uptake or institutional legitimacy in Spain or Catalonia.

Highlights from their portfolio

• SeeRRI
  The larger of the two projects (€81,982) and the entry point for this department into H2020 — it positioned Catalonia as a regional testbed for Responsible Research and Innovation governance frameworks.
• TRANSFORM
  Notable for the breadth of participatory methods it introduced — citizen science, deliberatory forums, design thinking — applied directly to regional S3 policy revision, which is unusual for a government finance department.