An analysis of technological potential and regional development processes in Rhone

An analysis of technological potential and regional development processes in Rhone — Alpes

Colletis, Gabriel

A region's technology potential can be developed in three ways: public finding; private investment (by business); and an intermediate area which ensures coherence between the public and private sectors, and which is mainly to be seen in interface structures between universities and business. After presenting these ways for Rhone-Alpes, the paper introduces the regional policy to promote science and technology. According to French centralized political structure, the regional government acts as a lever. The region's innovation-oriented policy, which should not be confused with a research-oriented policy, has the impact of aiming all action at improving the technological environment of business, and at facilitating their economic development by integrating new technologies. Similarities between Rhone-Alpes and Baden-Wurtemberg have led these two regions to cooperate increasingly in the fields of science and technology. The 'four motor-regions for Europe' (with Lombardia and Catalonia) experiment in the field of new-material investment cooperation could be useful if we think of the process aimed at strengthening integration in the European Community.