The paper is divided into two parts.
In the first one we will address the present key challenges of innovation reviewing briefly the fundamentals of knowledge and innovation production, starting from linear models of innovation and ending with the new ideas of an ecosystem of knowledge.
The theory will be made operational focusing on the role the Science Parks, as a regionally distinct institutional and organisational endowment, can play in overcoming specific kinds of market and innovation failures. The second part describes the experience of AREA Science Park Consortium in the regional context of Friuli Venezia Giulia region (Italy), its model, innovative projects and capacity of understanding and anticipating the changes using innovative planning and control systems, with special reference to the Intellectual Capital Report and the DAP - Dynamic Activity Profile.
