The 7th International Seminar on Regional Innovation Policies

How can Regions enhance Europe's Innovation Union Agenda commmitments?

Porto, 11th to 13th of October 2012

Why are regions at the heart of the Innovation Union Agenda?

How can their role in helping Europe create sustainable competitive advantages be enhanced?

How can regional policies strengthen the regions’ innovation capabilities?

What kind of regional policies does Europe need to fully embrace an innovation-driven model for economic and social development?

The Regional Innovation Policies seminars place the emphasis on regions, bringing to the forefront their relevant role in building sustainable competitive advantages. Previous seminars held at Porto (University of Porto, Portugal), Salzburg (University of Salzburg, Austria), Santander (University of Cantabria, Spain), Edinburgh (Napier Edinburgh University, Scotland), Grimstad (University of Agder, Norway) and Lund (Lund University – CIRCLE, Sweden) have contributed to the debate on the impact of regional policies on  innovation and economic development.

The 7th edition of the Seminars returns to Porto, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and will be hosted by INESC Technology and Science – INESC TEC – a Portuguese Associate Laboratory coordinated by INESC Porto, internationally recognized for its commitment to science and technology advance.

This year’s event will address the following themes:

- Regional innovation systems and specific challenges for EU regions under Innovation Union commitments;

- Frontier versus follower regions and the scope of regional innovation policies;
- Territorially-intensive competitive advantages: creating value from cultural and natural assets;
- The role of universities in promoting regional development and innovation;
- Policy devising and practice based research in regional development processes.

The RIP 2012 is for researchers, policy makers, academics, and practitioners interested in issues related to regional innovation policy, regional competitiveness and regional development.

The RIP 2012 Local Committee and the city of Porto look forward to welcoming you in October for a challenging debate on regional innovation.

 

The “7th International Seminar on Regional Innovation Policies” will also include several special sessions on “Cluster Life Cycle”.

The RIP 2012 includes several special sessions on Cluster Life Cycle. These sessions are linked to an ESF project coordinated by prof. Robert Hassink, from the University of Kiel, Germany, and the themes discussed will include:

- processes, factors and dynamics that are responsible for the cluster life cycle and separate the life cycle of the cluster from that of the respective technology or industry;
- endogenous drivers through the cluster life cycle, as well as exogenous drivers that may, nevertheless, influence that cycle;
- policy advice to develop stage-specific measures to create environments that are more targeted in order to contribute to the emergence of new clusters, preventing existing clusters from declining and turning declining clusters into new clusters.