The role of research in regional innovation systems: new models meeting knowledge economy demands

Today, innovation systems are being elaborated in ever-wider areas of national space-economies. Of particular interest is the growth of academic study and practical policy towards assisting formation of regional innovation systems. Over 100 of these empirical studies have been documented worldwide and in the EU over 100 regional innovation strategies were implemented in the past decade. But new pressures upon existing innovation systems are coming from a globalising knowledge economy that favours metropoles and eschews peripheries. Now, new approaches to tackling innovation deficits are emerging ground-up in Europe that give insight into the real nature of competitiveness and the interlinked roles of science, research and innovation for the future.