Regional Innovation Strategies – a factor in Polish industrial space activation

The main goal of the article is to present the regional innovation strategies in the context of the industrial changes in Poland. The analysis has three parts. The first part introduces the general aims of RIS and their history in Europe, the second concerns the RIS in Poland and one of the Polish RIS in particular – RIS Silesia, and the third part describes the effects of Regional Innovations Strategies. RIS are the instruments of regional governments to build the regional innovation systems. A regional innovation system is the environment improving the entrepreneurship and innovation. RIS have been known in Europe since the 1980s but in Poland they are a new instrument implemented by the relatively new structures of regional government. The process of creation and implementation of these documents should be observed by the academics from the beginning, as it may turn out to be one of the most important instruments of the economic policy of the Polish regions. This is because of the financial capacity of the Polish regions and their willingness to follow the West European regions’ example