Reports
Date: 31 jan 2021
Theme: Research and innnovation, Research & Development, Smart Specialisation
Languages: en
Smart Specialization policy prescribes regions to build on local capabilities to develop new activities. Studies have relied on data on patents, industries and occupations, but not yet on data on scientific domains. This report maps the scientific capabilities (publications) of 285 regions in Europe, and investigates the extent to which these scientific capabilities match their technological capabilities (patents) in 18 domains. In general, we find a positive relationship between a strong local scientific base in a domain and the ability of a region to develop new technologies in that domain for the period 2004-2018. We identified four types of regions in Europe. Strongholds combine a strong local scientific base with strong technological performance in the same domain. Scientific leaders show a strong scientific base but a weak performance in patenting in the same domain, while technology leaders show a strong local technological base in a domain, without having a strong underlying scientific base. Followers score low on both dimensions in a domain. Now and then, regions in Europe change over time, like scientific leaders that manage to transform into strongholds in a specific domain.