Regional Innovation Strategy as One of The Fields for Research in Innovative Gender (Innogend)

The documents of the European Commission's European prospects for 2020 emphasise, in a special way, that the equal participation of men and women is essential for Europe to exploit the full potential of innovative strengths. Innovativeness is in fact vital for the development of a knowledge-based economy and society. Due to its importance, it is promoted by instruments such as an innovation strategy and policy. The proposed article titled “Regional Innovation Strategy (RIS) as one of the fields for research in Innovative Gender (InnoGend)” indicates how preparation and implementation of RISs may become a research field in assessing the role of women and men in the innovation processes resulting from these strategies. In the analysis regional innovation strategy in Małopolska is used as an example. Therefore, the article contains two threads. The first one focuses on the evaluation of women’s and men’s involvement in the creation of strategic documents constituting in what way is their potential used to boost innovation. The second thread is a pilot proposal of methodology for describing and assessing the role of women and men in the implemented innovation process.