Designing Research and Innovation Programs for Regional Impact

The Regional Policy of the European Union strives to mitigate significant economic and social disparities among member states and regions. This paper proposes four design principles for designing research and innovation programs for regional impact: place-based, alignment of investments & policy, stakeholder involvement and a non-linear monitoring and evaluation framework. We name this approach a multidirectional interaction approach instead of a one-dimensional transfer model. Through a discussion of four theoretical models and four case studies, we substantiate what we mean by the four design principles. The four design principles are also reformulated into policy recommendations for research and innovation programs.