Abstract

In Italy innovation policy is the matter of a process of devolution from the national State to Regions. For regional governments this is a transition from a situation characterized by scarce resources to one where both their jurisdiction and available resources are substantially increased. In this paper we discuss the local and regional dimension of innovation and recall the main arguments supporting the idea of a regional level of innovation policy. Later we express some doubts on the contents and on the methods used in order to design and implement regional innovation policies, with specific reference to the Italian case. Lastly, we propose four possibly emerging models of regional innovation policy.