International boundaries have been mainly considered as barriers in literature on the ‘cross-border regional innovation system’ (CBRIS), in line with their traditional understanding. In this paper, we underline that such a perspective presents limits, and argue in favour of an understanding of multidimensional borders that are subject to dynamic change over time. By mobilizing conceptualizations from the field of border studies, we examine the various functions of borders to explain the innovation-led development potential in cross-border regions. In this view, international borders can function as an interface, a marker of difference or a symbol, rather than a mere barrier that separates regions. Further, we suggest that these border functions are key factors in explaining the ‘fluctuating’ integration dynamics of regional innovation systems across the border. Mobilizing evidence from two case studies in European and North American contexts, the paper sheds light on the border as a potential resource for innovation and discusses implications for future research.

This paper explores possibilities for cross-fertilization between the mission-oriented approach (MOA), informing the European Union (EU) Missions, and Cohesion Policy (CP). It argues for mutual policy learning between CP and MOA to address their shortcomings: CP faces a gradual erosion of its identity, while MOA lacks a territorial perspective. MOA can offer a theoretical ‘blueprint’ for reorganizing and clarifying CP’s ever-expanding and blurred thematic scope, providing direction to strengthen CP’s result orientation, and encouraging the adoption of ‘whole-of-government’ approaches to streamline CP’s complex governance relationships. MOA can benefit from adopting the CP architecture, which allows for common broad priorities to be adapted to territorial contexts and to regional strategies. MOA could also learn from CP’s goal of maximizing equity and efficiency, its focus on empowering regions, and its redistributive approach for fostering the full potential of all regions to address societal challenges to support the objectives of the EU Missions.

During the times of the COVID-19 pandemic, nations have issued unprecedented border closures around the world, yielding abrupt impacts on the movement of goods and people. This has heavily affected the quality of life in border regions, which are often found to be at a disadvantage when compared to other regions in terms of employment, accessibility, social services and economic growth. Based upon developing threads in the literature concerning the untapped potential for development in border regions, we argue that the Mission-Oriented Approach (MOA) can fit well with the ambitious goal to revitalize those territories in the aftermath of the pandemic. Despite the surge of MOA in discourses on innovation policy, we seek to implement it in a regional development perspective, pursuing both economic and social policy objectives. The authors unravel the policy concept of MOA into three main aspects: (I) address a sound societal challenge; (II) Research & Development (R&D) regional agenda embedded in a cross-border regional development vision; (III) mobilizing multiple cross-sectorial projects. Through a desk study analysis, the authors draw insights from selected case studies where these aspects have been implemented to inspire policy intervention in the aftermath of COVID-19. This paper presents the MOA theoretical model, which has potential explanatory power in other cross-border regions.

This paper studies cross-border cooperation at the US-Canadian Cascadia region by implementing an in-depth analysis to examine the role of cognitive proximity as a proxy for favourable conditions for cross-border economic interaction (measured as co-publications, co-patents and networking). The analysis deploys primary and secondary data sources analysed with qualitative and quantitative methods. Based on the results, the case study region demonstrates what is termed as a ‘proximity puzzle’: relatively low levels of economic interaction despite high cognitive proximity across the border. The paper concludes by discussing, based on survey data, the barriers that impede cross-border economic interaction.

This paper investigates the main forces driving economic integration in cross-border regions (CBRs). Drawing on the proximity framework, it contends that all four forms of proximity need to be stressed in cross-border regional economic integration discourses. The paper is based on a comparison of two cross-border regional contexts in North America, which have been investigated using a survey and semi-structured interviews. Based upon the data collected, the two case studies shed a light on cognitive proximity as an underestimated driver in CBRs. Moreover, the cross-border regional identity as well as the access to a talented workforce emerge as remarkable assets to leverage through appropriate cross-border regional policies.