The paper analysed the trends in regionalisation of research and innovation policies in Europe and took stock of the experience and practices in governance and delivery mechanisms of policy support measures at the regional level.

It did so with the objective to draw lessons applicable to stakeholders involved in the funding scheme ‘Regional Research Funds’ in Norway. The Norwegian Regional Research Funds were created in 2010 with the aim to stimulate research and innovation at regional level in seven regional funding areas. To implement the programme, seven regional funding areas have obtained own funds jointly managed by the respective regional councils.

The paper analysed lessons for the Norwegian regional partnerships at two levels:

• It synthesised trends in the regionalisation of research and innovation policy and the implications this had for the interactions between national and regional policy governance based on a review of academic and policy literature.
• Lessons were drawn from specific regional cases of research and innovation policy governance and policy based on the RIM database and ERAWATCH/TrendChart reports.

This paper was based on desk research and on-going work being undertaken by the European Regional Innovation Monitor (RIM) and of ERAWATCH/INNO Policy TrendChart.

In this respect, the paper first summarised the state of play of regional research and innovation policies and their most recent trends in terms of devolution it presented recent examples of organising multi-level governance at the meeting points of national and regional policies and discussed the practices in creating a network among the actors in the regional innovation system. It presented examples of delivery and funding mechanisms and finally it listed the key challenges of regional research policies.

Kincsö Izsak
Partner