Place-based transformative innovation policies: Exploring the role of challenge oriented regional innovation systems

There is a growing recognition that green industrial transitions and wider sustainability transformations of socio-technical systems require new approaches to place-based innovation and industrial strategies and policies. This chapter ties in with these debates by exploring how recent work on challenge-oriented regional innovation systems (CORIS) could inform and support a reorientation of established place-based policies towards tackling complex territorial sustainability challenges. We identify three key contributions that the CORIS approach can offer: first, it helps to map and analyse the place-specific preconditions for transformative innovation; second, it accords attention to various core processes that underpin transformative initiatives; and, third, it enables pinpointing different routes of reconfiguring historically grown industrial and support structures. Our chapter illustrates the significance of these insights for novel forms of place-based policies that promote transformative innovation in regions.