Project co-ordination: URENIO Research Unit

The Regional Technology Plan (RTP) of Central Macedonia illustrates a strategy for Innovative Regions which took substantial proportions in the European Union. It unites all the institutions of Central Macedonia that promote applied research, co-operation between research and industry, technology transfer, human technology skills and entrepreneurial capabilities for the renewal of products and the production processes.

The Central Macedonia RTP constitutes part of a new European policy which enhances the synergy between Research and Technological Development Policy and Economic and Social Cohesion Policy. This policy was introduced through pilot applications of Regional Technology Plans in 4 Northern European (Limburg, Wales, Leipzig, Lorraine) and 4 Southern European (Central Macedonia, Abruzzo, Castile y Leon, Norte) Regions. The RTP of Central Macedonia is one of the first to be completed, it has solved a series of organisational and methodological problems, which may be useful in the actual extension of this policy to a larger number of European Regions.

The preparation of the Central Macedonia RTP followed five stages including
(1) the institutional and organisational setting of the Plan,
(2) the analysis of the regional innovation system,
(3) the elaboration of a regional innovation strategy,
(4) the elaboration of an action plan, and
(5) the preparation for the implementation.

Part of the project was the development of a Regional Innovation Observatory as a system for the continuous monitoring and evaluation of the RTP and dissemination of information concerning innovation and development in Central Macedonia.

Final Report