ABSTRACT
Today the regional dimension of innovation policy is receiving much more attention than hitherto. This is for at least five reasons. First, the development of multi-level governance, particularly in the European Union, means that many traditional aspects of national industry and competition policy, as well as aspects of regulation, have moved upwards to supranational level. This means that countries are less able to protect either ‘national champions’ or uncompetitive industries in the ways they once did (see, for example, Begg and Mayes 1993a, b). Thus regional administrations in which uncompetitive industries are located, such as coal, steel, textiles, shipbuilding and some military industry, have been forced to become more active in assisting restructuring and evolution towards new, more competitive and innovative industries.
