EU-China Regional Innovation Joint Study

The Asia section of the European Union’s International Urban Cooperation programme  has just published a major EU-China Regional Innovation Joint Study .

The study, a collaboration between Chinese and European experts, compares the European and Chinese approaches to regional (sub-national) innovation processes including an analysis of six sub-national case studies in China and the EU, respectively.

The study confirms that both the EU and China recognize the key role of innovation and innovation policy in promoting change.  On both sides the key role of enterprise is recognized along with the need for public-private partnerships. Knowledge flows and transfers are therefore key, although differences emerge in the approach to this issue. In China, initiatives tend to be generated centrally and rolled out on the territory, for example through zoning areas as technology centres, while the essence of regional innovation systems in the EU lies in the role of regions generating their own vision and strategy for innovation and change.

The authors of the study suggest that their differing experiences in relation to promoting innovation at the sub-national level provide a fruitful terrain for cooperation. In practice this cooperation will be carried out in a systematic way under the EU’s new International Urban and Regional cooperation programme, 2021-24, which has a reinforced component for region-to-region collaboration on innovation. 

Notes:  This study is an initiative in the framework of the European Union’s Cooperation with China on Regional Policy as established in the Memorandum of Understanding of 2006 . Part I of the study analyses the regional innovation in the EU and China. Part II contains case studies of the following areas: Basque Country (Spain); Baden-Württemberg (Germany); Centro (Portugal); Jiangsu (China); Shandong (China); Chengdu-Chongqing (China).