ABSTRACT
Introduction While universities are important actors in local economic development, their impact on the design and implementation of innovation policy is shaped by national and regional administrative structures. By focusing on the role of universities in regional innovation policies in different countries, this chapter examines the underlying logic and the intended outcomes of science and technologically focused policies, and addresses issues both about the relationship between the national and regional level in policy formation and implementation, as well as the extent to which different levels reinforce existing Islands of Innovation (Hilpert 1992, 2003) or enable the formation of an Island of Innovation in its field of techno-specific expertise effects.
