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Abstract
The article draws on a thematic evaluation of Research Technological Development and Innovation (RTDI) related actions supported by the Structural Funds to assist declining industrial areas or Objective 2 regions, during the period between 1989 and 1999. Over the 10 year period, three main approaches were identified in Objective 2 regions, the last two becoming predominant during the latter part of the period: technology push with funding of large projects such as science parks and research facilities; technology transfer with measures to disseminate technology; and demand pull with clearly identified and self contained RTDI priorities. While drawing lessons from the last decade, the paper also integrates some preliminary observations on structural funds investments for innovation during the current 2000–2006 programming period and concludes with a review of possible scenarios for the further development of RTDI in lagging regions in the framework of the Lisbon Strategy.
Acknowledgement
The authors are grateful to David Jacobson and two anonymous referees for their constructive comments.
Notes
1. That this is not just assertion is substantiated in the work of the FP5 project, PILOT (www.pilotproject.org). See, in particular, Hirsch-Kreinsen et al. Citation(2005).
2. See www.cordis.lu for further information on the EU's RTD Framework programme.
3. See http://europa.eu.int/comm/regional_policy/index_en.htm for further information on EU regional policy and the Structural Funds.
4. For an evaluation of RDTI measures in Objective 1 regions see Tsipouri Citation(1999) discussed later in this paper but also Kaufmann and Wagner Citation(2005) as well as Kuitunen Citation(2002).
5. It is noteworthy that the report talks about the contribution of Structural Funds to R&D rather than the contribution of R&D to the achievement of the Structural Funds objective of promoting regional development!
6. This estimation is based on a weighted sum of coefficients given to the three types of measures: 1 for pure RTDI measures; [0.66; 0.75] for mixed measures with a majority of resources dedicated to RTDI; and [0.25; 0.33] for one star measures. The set of solutions is 16.3; 17.Citation3.
7. An EU25 wide strategic evaluation of innovation and knowledge measures in the Structural Funds is being carried out for DG Regio by Group Technopolis. The final results should be available by September 2006 but remain under a contractual embargo at the time of writing.
8. The Commission published on 6 July 2005 a draft Community Strategic Guidelines entitled “Cohesion Policy in Support of Growth and Jobs: Community Strategic Guidelines, 2007–2013”. The Guidelines set out a framework for new programmes which will be supported by the ERDF, the ESF and the Cohesion Fund. Available at: http://europa.eu.int/comm/regional_policy/sources/docoffic/2007/osc/index_en.htm.
9. Incidentally, Henderson Citation(2000) analysed the relative success of regional policy initiatives designed to stimulate learning and confirmed the development of significant interactive learning processes among the regional state, firms and intermediaries in Europe's less-favoured regions. Kuitunen Citation(2002) came to a similar conclusion underlying that one of the major benefits attributable to the Structural Funds is the improved strategic thinking amongst regional actors. In the same vein, Muscio Citation(2006) shows how the innovative potential of industrial communities can be enhanced through the promotion of capabilities of self-governance at the local level while stressing also that access to institutional actors (universities and technology centres) of a RIS will be facilitated if the firms' linkages with the regional and local socio-economic context are strong.
10. Hospers (Citation2004, p. 9) cautions against an excessive use of territorial benchmarking in EU regional policy: “Politicians are just like entrepreneurs in that they tend to imitate a first mover in the hope to share in its success—but as more imitators enter the scene, the profit opportunities of the innovative policy fade away and a shake out is likely to set in”. He argues that the starting point of an effective local policy will be in the existing culture and structure of the area under consideration: local traditions will need to be combined with global trends, with much creativity, the old economy becomes then the basis for the new development. The author cites various examples of European regions where traditional local activities were revived through the introduction of new technologies or production processes and the authors of this article have themselves devoted an entire piece of research on this theme (Musyck, 1993).