Developing Regional Innovation Strategies: The European Commission as Animateur

During the last decade European policy-makers have acknowledged increasingly the need to improve the interaction between the demand and supply sides of the innovation process at regional level. From an early emphasis on supply-push policies based on the creation of new technological resources, the policy focus has gradually shifted to technology dissemination mechanisms and finally to means of galvanising ‘non-innovative’ firms to recognise and respond to their needs. The former were developed mainly through policies of the science and technology type, which were more concerned with the strengthening of the science base and the provision of research inputs, while the latter have been formulated recently within the realm of regional and industrial policies, and has been more concerned with economics-related issues dealing with the innovative capacity of firms and the diffusion of technology through technology transfer networks