Smart Specialization Strategy for Research and Innovation (RIS3) as a national research and innovation strategy in Latvia was established in 2014 to articulate and promote economic transformation towards higher added value and international competitiveness. Accordingly, 5 smart specialization areas with the greatest research and innovation potential was defined: 1) Knowledge-intensive bio-economy; 2) Biomedicine, medical technologies and bio-pharmacy; 4) Smart materials, technologies and engineering systems; 5) Smart energy; 4) Information and communication technologies. In addition, in the context of RIS3 Social sciences and Humanities are developed as an area with horizontal impact on RIS3.
RIS3 creates policy instruments that strategically prioritise public investments in research and innovation to promote knowledge-intensive socioeconomic development. In 2016, to ensure the monitoring of the impact of public investment in R&D in the RIS3 context, a three-level monitoring system was developed. RIS3 is implemented jointly by the Ministry of Education and Science and Ministry of Economics.