Since the mid-1990s German technology policy has experienced a paradigmatic shift from standard grant schemes towards a region-oriented and competition-based R&D policy. Currently, a new policy experiment, the InterClust contest, is under way, trying to simultaneously foster place-based...

This compilation of papers from a researchproject funded by the German Ministry provides a political perspective andunifying concept of how local industrial clusters can be strengthenedbypolicy measures.The chapters in Part I cover theoretical approaches, thechapters in Part II present case...