RLS-Sciences is unique in its composition of regions and its connection to their governments. RLS was created to offer a dedicated space for the regions to share best practices in regional development and governance. It provides a key way not only to integrate scientific evidence into policy-making, but also to support research and development ecosystems at a subnational level with the benefit of international cooperation, including North-South and South-South exchange between peers. Cooperation increases the quality of science and the regional level is well suited but often overlooked to enable science and innovation alliances via scientific data and analyses, frameworks to share data, and science diplomacy. The multilateral, multilevel governance structure of the different coordinators (scientific, administrative and political) allows the network to quickly, efficiently and with a high scientific level collect and investigate topics within the specific themes.

The RLS-Sciences network continuously aims to work closely with RLS governments and to contribute to policy work and the robustness of R&I ecosystems in the regions. The network met virtually with political, scientific and administrative representatives from all 7 regions for a symposium to provide decision support during and after the COVID-19 pandemic around the RLS-Sciences’ themes. This international exchange between politics and science discussed best practices, challenges, and exit strategies for fighting the pandemic. With the multilateral, cooperative approach to collecting and processing relevant data in the fields of energy transition, aeronautics, space and digitalization in a regional context, the results and benefits were available in a timely way to policy and scientific stakeholders. Based on this, scientific events will be organised for 2021-2022 on the topic of Resilient and Sustainable Regional Recoveries.

The basis for the innovative format for multilateral scientific cooperation and policy support of RLS-Sciences is founded on a multilateral and multi-level structure. Scientific institutions, regional funding and business agencies and representatives of the political and administrative level from all regions work together. Each region contributes in its own way, at its own level, on the basis of its capacities and specificities.

The partners of the network are at the same time both the users and beneficiaries of the results. The RLS-Sciences network provides privileged access to regional best practices as well as diverse and multiple experimentation and testing opportunities for scientific and political stakeholders. The RLS-Sciences’ cooperative approach fosters an active dialogue with the political level in applied areas and generates new policy recommendations out of this dialogue.

Beyond the joint scientific outcomes in the four core projects, the project has generated a policy dialogue with the forum of regional governments, as well as the establishment of a shared research infrastructure that addresses and investigates regional needs. Via the RLS-Sciences network, a new governance that consolidates the RLS forum of governments has been realized. The existing resources include its scientific network of 140 academic researchers, 60 young researchers and established mechanisms of multilateral cooperation.
The following project-specific results were achieved:
- Aerospace: Teaching and training platform in aerospace, over 2000 online participants in the first e-course
- Digitalization: review and monitoring of the regional digital transitions
- Energy: Data collection and analyses on the role of RE in regional energy transitions (Monitoring Report, SWOT analysis, scientific paper)
- Small satellites: Smart formation of 6+ small satellites, joint publications

RLS-Sciences does not have joint funding yet. Therefore, continuity of work remains a perpetual question, and is often based on the willingness of partners to remain engaged and contributing. While the network has not necessarily experienced failures on a structural level because its framework conditions for cooperation anticipate different types of participation based on capacity and resources, there have been times of lower output. To manage this challenge, the network uses its management structure, which includes lead scientists from all areas, plus political representatives and science managers from all regions, to coordinate work. This ensures that the work remains relevant to all regions, while maintaining the core condition of contribution at differing levels. Further, the network has built an open online funding database which curates a collection of existing funding opportunities from all the partner regions as well as international organisations.

The connection between RLS-Sciences and the RLS political forum is a key condition for success; without this the unique link between science and policy in a multilateral, international framework at the subnational level would not exist. To support and grow the network, the RLS-Sciences website provides information about the network, R&D themes and associated work, funding opportunities, and recruitment. Its policies are based on mutual contributions at the level of capacity of each region: there is no rule that all regions must contribute the same way. This creates space for regional specificity, establishes a culture of exchange and trust, leads to a diversity of perspectives, enriches the multilateral work and ensures benefits for each region without creating undue burdens. The management structure of 21 coordinators (political, scientific and management) and 28 lead scientists is a key asset for coordinating the network, and ensures that the work remains relevant for all.

To the best of the team's knowledge, so far there is no other innovation like RLS-Sciences. Other scientific alliances exist, but its niche is the multilateral and multiregional (spanning both hemispheres and five continents) subnational level in science cooperation and science diplomacy. RLS-Sciences could be replicated through more projects (as done in 2020 with the Digital Health Initiative), more interaction (between science and policy), and more partners within the network (to expand within existing areas and into new ones). The use of our innovation by other regional alliances in the future could be within these frameworks: increased use of regionally designed and scientifically derived data and analysis for evidence-based policy making, and increased quality of science through international research cooperation between peers.

Multilateral science cooperation with an integration between science and policy is feasible at the regional level! Further, sharing and exchange at a multiregional, multilateral level can provide the necessary scale in international science, and can create the right conditions to generate innovations in science that address global challenges. In this sense, regional diversity brings key advantages to cooperation, provided that framework conditions create sufficient space for mutual contributions without restriction or burden. The diversity of cultural and scientific perspectives together creates opportunities to examine systems, challenges, and questions and in new ways, resulting in new ideas and innovations. To share these new ideas and innovations developed specifically for the regional level, it is possible to engage with policy. The interface of science and government at the regional level is a rather empty space that can be effectively inhabited.

The decision of which R&D themes to focus on within the network was a joint effort between researchers, science managers, and governments. The political level provides feedback on the work in the form of questions about it and its implications for regional governance but does not directly commission specific projects from the network. While this creates a distance between the scientific and political levels of RLS-Sciences, it also ensures scientific freedom for the researchers. While this may seem contrary in an innovation aiming to strengthen the link between science and policy, it also ensures that the R&I ecosystems of the regions benefit from international collaboration and remain innovative based on science-driven efforts.