Sustainable Local Development and Smart Specialisation Strategies: Recent Developments in Agri-food Research and Innovation Partnerships in Puglia, Italy

This paper investigates how agri-food research and innovation (R&I) activity may interact with sustainable local development processes. The focus is on smart specialisation strategies and partnerships between agri-food business and research organisations, established under the open innovation paradigm. An exploratory study is carried out on recent (2010–19) agri-food R&I activity in Puglia (Italy), covering both projects and patents carried out by 47 research centres (affiliated to any of 11 research institutions) and 40 agri-food enterprises. Beside project data analysis based on categorisation, the methodology applied social network analysis to partnerships. Findings point to Sustainable Manufacturing and Human and Environmental Health being the prevalent target areas of innovation activity, thus resulting in some form of sustainable agricultural intensification, with a bias towards Industrial Biotechnology, Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology. Open innovation approaches seem to be still phasing in, and the innovation potential of agri-food enterprises appears to be largely untapped. Future research may address the friction between industry-driven smart specialisation strategies and place-based innovation patterns that harness the intangible potential of social and relational capital.