During 2005, the Swedish Foundation for Small Business Research (FSF) formed Innovative Policy Research for Economic Growth (IPREG) as a pan-European project with partner nodes in the following European countries: Belgium; the Czech Republic; Denmark; Finland; Germany; Greece; Hungary; Ireland; Norway; Poland; Portugal; Spain; Sweden and the UK. The aim of the IPREG project is to create a network of researchers, policy makers, service providers and entrepreneurs to bridge the gap between research and policy making.

IPREG proposes to establish a scientific base for more efficient policy measures to stimulate entrepreneurship and innovation, to run major pioneering research projects focussing on Entrepreneurship and Innovation Policies, to disseminate the research results and to create forums for discussion of their policy implications among policy makers, researchers and other relevant stakeholder groups. IPREG will build bridges between research and policy making, entrepreneur­ship and innovation and knowledge and experience, as well as create a forum for a greater interplay between policy makers, business organisations, service providers and outstanding researchers in different countries.

By July 2006, 14 European countries had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with IPREG Europe/FSF Sweden to participate in the network building. In the autumn of 2006, IPREG initiated a research project to undertake a major mapping and comparative study of Entrepreneur­ship and Innovation Policies in participating countries and regions. The first research project was carried out over 15 months in partnership with 10 countries of the IPREG networks, starting in November 2006 and concluding in January 2008.

In this report, the conclusions drawn concerning measures taken in the area of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Policies are summarized and compared. We hope that the results from this report can form a base for discussions of how to develop future policy measures in the areas taking into account the specific factors for different nations. The regional perspectives are described in the various country reports.

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