This paper was produced by the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE), led by Lamia Kamal-Chaoui, Director, as part of the Programme of Work of the Regional Development Policy Committee (RDPC). The research was co-ordinated by Michelle Marshalian, Economist and Project Manager, under the supervision of Jose Enrique Garcilazo, Deputy Head of the Regional Development and Multilevel Governance Division (CFE/RDG). Arwen Low and Eduardo Rodriguez Montemayor (CFE/RDG) drafted parts of the paper and edited throughout. The paper also greatly benefitted from valuable guidance from Nadim Ahmad, Deputy Director of CFE and Karen Maguire Senior Counsellor in CFE, as well as input from Bridget Donovan and Andrés Sanabria (CFE/RDG).
This report benefitted from valuable comments and inputs from the OECD Enhancing Rural Innovation academic and business expert group, and from several consultations with country study teams. Jeanette Duboys and Roxana Glavanov prepared the manuscript for publication and Jack Waters co‑ordinated the production process.
The analysis in this paper draws on lessons from case study reports in the OECD series Enhancing Rural Innovation, including Enhancing Rural Innovation in Switzerland (2022), Enhancing Rural Innovation in Scotland, United Kingdom (2023), Enhancing Rural Innovation in the United States (2023), Enhancing Rural Innovation in Canada (2024) and Enhancing Rural Innovation in Japan (2005). This report provides a synthesis of lessons learned and practices related to government initiatives to support rural innovation. It also draws on thematic reports from the same series, including Unlocking Rural Innovation (2022), Assessing the Framework Conditions for Social Innovation (2024) and Networks and Rural-Urban Linkages for Rural Innovation (2023).
The OECD Secretariat thanks the delegates to the RDPC for their valuable input. This work is a part of the series of reports in the OECD Enhancing Rural Innovation project. It supports the implementation of the mandate of the OECD Working Party for Rural Policy and the Regional Development Policy Committee. The chapters of the report were formally approved by written procedure on 9 April 2024.