| AI | Artificial intelligence |
| AMP | Advanced Manufacturing Partnerships (United States) |
| ART-ER | Attrattività Ricerca Territorio (Emilia Romagna, Italy) |
| ASTER | Agenzia per lo Sviluppo Tecnologico dell'Emilia Romagna (Italy) |
| BCIP | Biotechnology Cluster Program (Canada) |
| BDC | Business Development Bank of Canada |
| CCEIs | Centers for Creative Economy and Innovation (Korea) |
| CEG | Center for Economic Growth (New York, United States) |
| CFA | Centre for Technological Innovation and Advanced Aeronautical and Naval Manufacturing (Andalusia, Spain) |
| CNSE | College of Nano Scale Science & Engineering (United States) |
| DARPA | Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (United States) |
| DEPA | Digital Economy Promotion Agency (Thailand) |
| EC | European Commission |
| EDP | Entrepreneurial discovery process |
| EEC | Eastern Economic Corridor (Thailand) |
| ERDF | European Regional Development Fund |
| EU | European Union |
| FDI | Foreign direct investment |
| GDP | Gross domestic product |
| GVA | Gross value added |
| GVCs | Global value chains |
| HEIs | Higher education institutions |
| ICT | Information and communication technology |
| IDEA | Innovation and Development Agency (Andalusia, Spain) |
| IoT | Internet of things |
| IPAs | Investment Promotion Agencies |
| ISI | Innovation Superclusters Initiative |
| ITI | InterTrade Ireland |
| LCUs | Local content units |
| LPWAN | Low Power Wide Area Network |
| M2M | Machine-to-machine communication |
| MMIs | Manufacturing innovation institutes (United States) |
| MNEs | Multinational enterprises |
| NCR | National Cash Register (United States) |
| NGOs | Non-governments organisations |
| NNMI | National Network of Manufacturing Institutes (United States) |
| OCN | Ontario Commercialization Network (Canada( |
| OEMs | Original equipment manufacturers |
| ONE | Ontario Network of Entrepreneurs (Canada) |
| PARC | Palo Alto Research Centre (United States). |
| PSI | Public sector innovation |
| R&D | Research and development |
| RAI | Regional Authority Index |
| RCTs | Randomised controlled trials |
| RDAs | Regional development agencies |
| RICs | Regional Innovation Centres (Canada) |
| RIS | Regional Innovation Scoreboard / Regional Innovation System |
| S3 | Smart Specialisation Strategies |
| SDA | Schumpeterian development agency |
| SDGs | Sustainable Development Goals |
| SEZ | Steinbeis-Europa Zentrum (Germany) |
| SMEs | Small- and medium-sized enterprises |
| SOSCIP | Southern Ontario Smart Computing Innovation Platform (Canada) |
| STEM | Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics |
| SWOT | Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats |
| TL2 / TL3 | Territorial level 2 / Territorial level 3, i.e. large / small regions |
| VC | Venture Capital |
| VCR | Video cassette recording |
Broad-based Innovation Policy for All Regions and Cities
OECD Regional Development Studies
