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...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess how national and regional authorities in south-east Europe in a period of crisis perceive and set in motion research and innovation strategies for smart specialisation (RIS3) and the options that these strategies offer to overcome the current...

One of the main issues facing almost all European regional policy-makers is how to ensure a smooth adaptation of their industrial structure in the face of changing societal and technological parameters. In the case of the Belgian region Wallonia, industrial decline has particularly marked the...

This paper analyses the development of the emerging SME-based recycling and environmental technology sector in the region of Freiberg in the former centrally planned economy of the German Democratic Republic. The author analyses a relatively successful process of economic renewal resulting from...

This paper highlights the need for Cyprus, a small peripheral European country, to become a knowledge-based economy, as a way to increase living standards in the long run. Key factors for a successful transition to the knowledge economy are improved education, appropriate funding for research...

The aim of this chapter is to explore some of the issues and to underline the main aspects that have been focussed upon in the PILOT project. We begin the chapter with consideration of why so much academic and policy attention has been paid, in our view disproportionately, to high-tech...

It is often argued that high tech industries drive growth processes, and that they are the sources of growth in output, employment and productivity in the knowledge economy. This is a special case of a more general argument that economic growth is characterized by the creation of new and the...