This publication 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 OECD would like to thank Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and South of Scotland Enterprise for their generous financial contribution and in‑kind support.
This publication was co-ordinated by Michelle Marshalian, Economist and Project Manager, under the supervision of Jose Enrique Garcilazo, Deputy Head, and Dorothee Allain-Dupré, Head of the Regional Development and Multi-level Governance Division of CFE. The report also benefitted from valuable guidance from Nadim Ahmad, Deputy Director of CFE. Chapter 2 was drafted by Michelle Marshalian, with statistical analysis and support from Sara Maioli and Thao Nguyen (Newcastle University). Chapter 3 was drafted by Stefano Barbieri, Michelle Marshalian, Keizo Nonomura (OECD) and Alastair Reid (independent consultant, REID Consulting and EFIS Centre). It received valuable comments from Betty-Ann Bryce. Chapter 4 was authored by Max Bulakovskiy, with support from Melis Aslan.
This report benefitted from valuable comments and inputs from the OECD Enhancing Rural Innovation academic and business expert group and from several consultations with local teams, including substantial input from Amanda Fox, Richard Hastings and Phil Raines (Scottish Government); Robin Clark and Catherine MacNeil (Highlands and Islands Enterprise); Garry Legg and Chris Rigby (South of Scotland Enterprise); Julia Latto and Julian Pace (Scottish Enterprise).
Jeanette Duboys and Leslie Greenhill prepared the manuscript for publication and Pilar Philip co‑ordinated the production process. Professional editing services were conducted by Eleonore Morena.
The OECD Secretariat thanks the delegates to the RDPC for their valuable input. The final report was approved by written procedure on 15 May 2023 [CFE/RDPC/RUR(2023)8 and CFE/RDPC/RUR(2023)8/ANN1].