The essence of the sustainable development policy is the integration of social and economic goals, while taking into account environmental challenges. In activities for regional development carried out by Małopolska, all three dimensions of interventions are strongly represented.
At the level of strategic documents, this combination is visible in the structure of the main regional document, namely the Development Strategy „Małopolska 2030”. Its first pillar is Małopolska with their health, safety and education needs. This dimension also includes activities for the development of regional culture and heritage, proposes counteracting demographic changes and responds to the challenges of the labor market. Another pillar is the Economy and measures for innovation, digitization and increasing the competitiveness of regional SMEs. In this dimension, it is proposed to support the circular economy, which is a bridge with the third pillar, namely climate and environment. It focuses on biodiversity and ecological education aimed at limiting climate change.
Another key regional document, also with a long-term time horizon, namely the Regional Innovation Strategy of the Małopolska Region 2030 (RSI), naturally focuses on activities building innovative facilities, potential and image of the region, as well as increasing innovation and industrial transformation of enterprises . However, the social dimension of the intervention is also visible. It focuses on building trust and diffusion of knowledge in the innovation ecosystem.
There is a need to promote and support the development of innovation in rural and mining areas, or to help in the process of succession in SMEs.
The environmental dimension is treated in the RIS as a horizontal goal, implemented by the postulate of co-financing projects related to the reduction of the impact of economic activity on the environment and the implementation of circular economy assumptionsThe mentioned RIS is intended as a document driving intelligent development, i.e. knowledge-based, built on the cooperation of entities with synergizing competences, using modern digitization and robotization solutions (industry model 4.0). By adapting to these standards, Małopolska cooperates with a number of international partners and actively participates in knowledge exchange platforms and testing innovative solutions.
An example of such cooperation is the participation for almost a decade in the Vanguard Initiative, which aims to develop modern industries through interregional economic cooperation, bringing together 47 regions.
The region is also a member of the Berry + partnership focusing on the processing of renewable natural resources, or the NEREUS thematic network representing the interests of European regions using space technologies.