Timișoara is the third-largest city in Romania, located at the crossroads of the Bucharest–Budapest–Vienna–Belgrade transport corridor of the major European capitals. For two decades following the collapse of state socialism, the city had been shrinking, losing 50,000 inhabitants (14%) by 2008. Since then, Timișoara has bounced back. To confront future depopulation trends, the city has prioritised economic development by attracting strategic foreign direct investment (FDI). This policy brief showcases one of the successful solutions to foster urban resilience and propel sustainable development of the city of Timișoara as a growth pole of West Romania and a smart specialisation pioneer across the Danube–Criș–Mureș–Tisa Euro region (DKMT, formerly known as the Banat). Building on local knowledge and the stakeholders’ experience in implementing a strategic investor-driven smart specialisation strategy, the brief demonstrates how to develop a solid evidence base, design, and build a public policy for attracting new business investors, thus, contributing to a sustainable and diverse urban economy, with direct impact upon the broader metropolitan development.

3S RECIPE is part of the Joint Programming Initiative (JPI) Urban Europe's ERA-NET Cofund Smart Urban Futures Call (ENSUF). This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 857160.