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The role of R&D in stimulating economic development is now largely accepted. However, there remains a lively debate as to its effectiveness in promoting regional economic convergence in the face of existing spatial disparities in prosperity. EU programmes provide significant resources for stimulating R&D capacity at a regional level, with an increasing focus on the role of these instruments in stimulating economic cohesion between EU regions. This is strongly influenced by a suggestion that through such investments regions may be able to 'construct' a competitive advantage in the knowledge economy.

Yet, there is strongly contested, and polarised, debate between those that support R&D investment for reasons of EU-wide competitiveness and those that take a perspective focused on objectives of regional economic convergence. Centred on three regional case-studies this book contains the first assessment of who gets what through the EU's Structural Funds and Framework Programmes, the principal sources of EU funds for investments in R&D capacity, in the United Kingdom.