Regional Innovation System in the Podkarpackie against selected Polish and EU regions

Innovation and innovativeness should be seen as a vast and internally complex set of measures carried out to improve management efficiency, build strong competitive positions and obtain economic benefits from enterprises, national economies and societies. A possibility of achieving these benefits is the category of competitiveness, hence, relative position of a region is measured using various indicators. The aim of the study is to analyze the level of the selected RIS indicators of the Podkarpackie against selected EU regions. The study will make it possible to understand in which area Podkarpackie performs better and in which worse? The analysis is carried out at the regional level NUTS 2. The most important approach in which quantitative indicators have been used comprehensively is EIS, which makes it possible to compare the Podkarpackie with the selected regions of Poland and the EU. Seven regions were selected for our analysis: 1 in Denmark, Germany, the United Kingdom, Czech Republic and 3 in Poland. When it comes to innovativeness, the Podkarpackie region is a Moderate Innovator. The results of our research show that the relative strengths in the regional innovation system are design applications, sales new-tomarket/firm innovations, R&D expenditures business sector, non-R&D innovation expenditures, and tertiary education. Relative weaknesses are: marketing or organizational innovations, and also life-long learning.