Following the constitutional reform of 2001, which gave increased autonomy Italian regions, and the new European guidelines from the Lisbon Agenda, there has been an upturn in regional legislative activity concerning innovation, leading to a critical review of the instruments adopted, mainly towards greater selectivity. Regional intervention tends to be highly fragmented, focusing on the funding of applied research and using grants as the preferred policy tool.
In terms of sources of funds, structural funds have gained importance since the 2007-13 programming cycle, partly due to the economic crisis, and in the southern regions account for nearly all the resources devoted to fostering innovation.
This paper presents a summary indicator, consisting of three "sub-indicators" approximating, respectively, the input of the innovation process, innovation output, and a quantitative measure of regional policies for innovation.
