Arts-driven innovation has become a reality in several European regions. However, the current challenge is not only to promote interdisciplinary projects, such as those promoted within the framework of the S+T+ARTS initiative, but to ensure their long-term sustainability through the support of public policies at local and regional level.

This article summarizes the main conclusions of the report “Establishing relations with policymakers at regional level”, prepared by HacTe within the framework of the European project S+T+ARTS in the City, which summarises the experience of six Regional S+T+ARTS Centres (CSR) during 2024, and offers a set of practical guidelines for any territory that wants to bet on this innovation model.

The analysis included in the report contains the details of the political influence plans that the members of the European consortium – Ars Electronica (Upper Austria), MEET Milan (Lombardy), GLUON (Brussels), INOVA+ (Matosinhos), Kersnikova (Ljubljana) and HacTe (Catalonia) – promoted in a coordinated way within the framework of the project. These CSRs deployed various strategies, described in the article, to highlight the need to also promote political and administrative transversality in support of open innovation promoted by the arts. These tactics of political dialogue came to convene 39 local and regional institutions and 107 political actors from the fields of culture, innovation, research and industry, among others. Among the conclusions of the report, the need to broaden the focus on the evaluation of transdisciplinary residency programmes within the framework of S+T+ARTS in the City stands out, since impact analysis tools can extract solid arguments in order to inform political dialogue in strategic investments and transdisciplinary innovation.