How can universities contribute to regional competitiveness policy-making?

This paper aims to contribute to understanding regional competitiveness policy-making and the role academic organisations can play in that process. Competitiveness policies have evolved in the past decades from a single to a multiple-domain field, which has made the policy-making process more complex by adding more actors with their particular experience and view. This complexity, together with the relevance of overcoming traditional policy implementation failures, pleads for a new approach to competitiveness policy-making, in which academic organisations can act as “anchor institutions”. This framework is based on the adaptive implementation concept.,The paper uses the Basque case to analyse the role of universities in competitiveness policy-making and focuses on a specific academic organisation, which has contributed through different projects to regional policy-making. Evidences from those projects through different policy phases are included in the case.,The case shows how academic organisations might play a key role in fostering an adaptive implementation approach in competitiveness policy-making at the regional level and which specific characteristics these organisations should develop to fulfil this role.,This paper brings together two important issues for regional competitiveness: the importance of policy implementation and the particular role of engaged universities in such a process.