Smart Specialisation in a Lagging-Behind Region: The Case of Apulia

Introduction Re se a r ch a nd Innovation (R&I) are today recognised as drivers of all EU policies and they have become key ingredients of EU Cohesion Policy. Moreover, Cohesion Policy has become a key instrument to effectively implement and enforce the principles of the “Europe 2020” Strategy as the culmination of a more than twenty year process when the European Union has been striving to promote integration between research and innovation strategies with regional economic development. Since both are intended as growth enhancing policies, complementarities between investments in R&I policy and economic and social cohesion policies have been continuously emphasised by the European authorities (European Commission 2012). Yet, the excellence principle underlying research and innovation policies, which mainly stresses the potentialities of the most endowed areas, may be at odds with the fundamental objective of Cohesion Policy in terms of economic social and territorial cohesion, which provides support especially to less well-off regions. This article presents the case of the Apulia region to discuss the potential successes and failures of a lagging behind region in carrying out an effective regional innovation system, focusing in particular on ERDF instruments targeting SMEs and building to a great extent on the work carried out for the ex-post evaluation of Cohesion Policy programmes 2007-2013.