Visualization of smart specialisation process using QGIS tools

Smart specialisation is identification of strategic areas for research and innovation within European countries, based on their specific strengths and potentials for growth. Smart specialization links together companies, state bodies, scientific world, and civil society and encourages them to work on implementation of European strategic documents. Only areas defined in smart specialization strategies of different countries or regions are financed through EU funds. This fact makes it very important for regions to clearly define their focus sectors, because only these sectors will be financed by the European Union. And, visa versa, for the development of the EU, it is significant to have correct sectors for smart specialization defined for each region. Any mistake in this procedure will cause slowing down of EU development process and will decrease EU capabilities to compete correctly and successfully with the rest of the world. Authors of this paper use GIS software to analyze correlations between selected smart specialization sectors for certain regions and some economic facts related to those regions. Such analysis should prove that each smart specialization sector was correctly chosen for a specific country or a region. Authors propose new methods to check starting points for smart specialization process and recommend methodology that should be implemented to avoid errors in decision making process.