In Portugal, as in most of the other EU countries, one may detect a huge heterogeneity in the frequency of supports received by institutions and regions. This is the consequence of iniquity in the institutional abilities to apply for grants related to structural funds or to R&D financing. However, it also demonstrates that some public agencies can deal better than others as intermediary stakeholders in the process of pushing innovation further, either at the regional or at the national level.

The observed phenomena are incorporated in firms’ behaviour, while also depending on external factors. Firms, in general, may be classified by their innovation aptitude. Although scientific results have been pointed out in the most recent literature, these basic assumptions for innovation policy have not been efficiently introduced.

Professor Teresa de Noronha