202 Copyright © 2011, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. Chapter 15 Mapping the Innovation Activities in Europe George M. Korres University of Aegean, Greece INTRODUCTION The growing importance of technological change in world production and employment is one of the characteristics of the last four decades. Technological innovation is essential to maintain their competitiveness in global markets. The ef- fectiveness of measures to stimulate or facilitate innovation depends to a very large extent on the ability of policy-makers to answer these kinds of question. Without a detailed understanding of in- novation’s complex processes, resources may not be directed where they will do most good. There is a huge literature suggesting and demonstrating that research and scientific indicators make an important contribution to the growth at the firm, industry and national levels. Most of these studies ABSTRACT This chapter analyses the innovation activities and the way they contribute essentially to the regional dimension and growth. The chapter aims to investigate how technological infrastructure and innovation capabilities affect not only regional growth, but also the whole periphery and economy, as well as how technological innovation is essential if companies - and countries - are to maintain their competitiveness in global markets. Furthermore, this chapter describes the relative measures and indexes introduced by EU and OECD during the last years, concerning Research and Development Expenditures, patents etc., namely measuring innovation activities. However, there are a lot of underlying problems and questions regarding the measurement of innovation activities at a regional level. This chapter attempts to analyze the whole framework of innovation statistics and in particular to examine the measurement and also the statistical estimation of innovation activities in EU. Within this context, it is also aiming to emphasize and review the appropriate techniques, the most common methods and the particular related problems. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61692-846-9.ch015