ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the territorial component of innovation and emphasize the strategic role that it should play in the present phase of technological ruptures. It shows how the analysis of local synergies might be applied for improving regional technology policies. Spatial proximity appears as an efficient solution to that functional constraint because it is an informal and non-restrictive one. The experience of Sophia Antipolis shows how appropriate territorial structuring helps to extend technological performances far beyond incubation processes. A pool of high-technology know-how and information networks are emerging which may in due course constitute innovation resources. Local synergy policies for older industrial regions would favour solutions in which R&D institutions and technological high-schools were implanted in the area and networks of technology transfer set up with a strong emphasis on product development. The chapter elaborates a regional strategy, it is necessary to have a working hypothesis about the nature and direction of current technological evolution.
