The EU Joint Research Centre annual conference, Brussels Oct. 2016 was entitled “Human capital for territorial growth” discussed how Member States, regions and cities can harness the potential of human capital under the current socio-economic and environmental challenges, to make their territories more dynamic, creative and resilient. RIGHT partners are aware that they face a skills challenge which clearly needs a new approach to achieve this growth. RIGHT approach is to connect smart specialisation strategies (SSS) in the North Sea Region (NSR) to human capital and skills. Through collaboration it will define: - existing and potential regional growth sectors and sub-sectors (blue and energy)- skills gaps to unlock innovation capacity by testing new models to overcome skills barriers.The project is a pilot in that it will build methodology, knowledge and understanding giving a model for long-term solutions and transferability. It will design and test tailored educational and training programmes and initiatives to bridge the skills gap in a fast changing skills environment in emerging and growth sectors. The results will be capitalised by the partner regions to give long-term impact as a response in the context of fast changing skills demands. The idea is to roll out the success stories in other North Sea regions and Europe. Defining and solving the skills gap in relation to regions’ growth potential through smart specialisation is a new approach for the 7 regional partners.