This article reviews the emergence of regional policy initiatives designed to stimulate learning, innovation and regional development in Europe’s less favoured regions. Drawing on the European Commission-sponsored Wales Regional Technology Plan as a case study, it examines progress and outcomes using the conceptual framework of regional experimentalism. The article concludes that the Wales RTP has helped to develop significant interactive learning processes among the regional state, firms and intermediaries. Important questions, however, are raised as to whether the RTP process in Wales has engendered the sufficiently path-breaking forms of dialogue anticipated by theorists. In this respect, the article suggests that regional experimentalism under-estimates the problems associated with creating novel policy processes in environments characterized by well entrenched interests and responsibilities.
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