• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.61-80
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• 2006

The Cambridge Technopole has been recognised as one of the leading clusters in the world, and as such it has been benchmarked by other countries and other regions within the UK. This paper aims to analyse the governance of regional policies in the UK, with particular reference to the relationships between stakeholders operating within the Cambridge Technopole. Major findings of the research are as follows: The central government in the UK has been playing important roles as a customer, regulator and supporter of knowledge sources; Regional innovation policies across central departments have been co-ordinated by the DTI, so that overlapping of policies can be prevented; The policies of individual departments relating to regional innovation are co-ordinated by Government Offices for the Region(GOs) in each region, so that departmental sectionalism can be avoided. At the regional level, the EEDA established in the eastern region of England to which the Cambridge Technopole belongs is in charge of implementing all innovation policies within the region in a consolidated way. Networking organisations such as Cambridge Networks (CN) facilitate knowledge exchange between stakeholders, contributing to the building of mutual trust and creating a high level of social capital essential for regional innovation; The system for commercialising university technology and knowledge has been well institutionalised.