ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the institutional and policy frameworks for high-technology development in 10 European regions: Barcelona, Cambridge, Oxford, Goteborg, Grenoble, Sophia-Antipolis/Nice, Helsinki, Milan, Munich, and Utrecht/Randstad. It discusses general aspects of the technology-oriented environment and various contexts. The chapter provides an overview of national and regional trends of research and development in Europe. It examines technology transfer and knowledge infrastructure in the regions surveyed, and analyses the role of technology policy. In the regions favouring high-technology small and medium sized enterprise (SME), goals of technology policy do not deliberately include spatial effects. Networking, collective learning and knowledge development in regionally-clustered high-technology SMEs in Europe can be significantly influenced by regional and local level policy measures. The hypothesis is that the institutional and policy frameworks in network regions studied are shaped to a great extent by regional and national specialities in research and development.
