Dimitrios Pontikakis is an Economist at the Territorial Development Unit of the Directorate for Growth and Innovation, Joint Research Centre, European Commission, based in Seville, Spain. He is responsible for Greece within the project Smart Specialisation Strategy Support to Lagging Regions and for the JRC Working Group Understanding and Managing Industrial Transitions. He is an expert on innovation systems, and his published work has covered aspects such as the governance of national innovation systems, business innovation, human resources for innovation, the measurement and evaluation of European innovation funding, university-industry interactions and fiscal incentives for innovation investments. His current research is focused on broad-based business innovation and on system-level innovation policies. Prior to joining the European Commission, Mr. Pontikakis was an Economist at the Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry of the OECD in Paris, working at the time on Country Reviews of Innovation Policy and on System Innovation.