Innovation and research activity of the region is an important determinant of regional development. Innovation and research have been billed to play an active part in product development, process development and extensively regional economic development. The aim of this research thereof, is to identify the impact of innovation and research activities in NUTS 2 regions in the European Union for European Union policy making and knowledge of regions with better innovation performance on regional development. First research hypothesis constructed supposes that "there is a positive and significant relationship between R & D inputs and regional innovation. Second hypothesis constructed was also established that "there is a positive and direct impact between regional innovation and regional development". Linear regression was used to assess the measure of innovation, that is patent with regional development indicators- Real GDP per capita, employment rate and Disposable income. The entire 274 NUTS 2 regions were the sample assessed in this research with particular focus on regional policy structuring in the European Union.
However, the regions were classified into Northern, Western, Eastern and Southern EU NUTS 2 regions. It was discovered Eastern EU NUTS 2 regions had relatively almost the same impact on Real GDP/capita as Northern and Western and Southern regions in 2007. However, although disposable income of Northern and Eastern EU NUTS 2 regions recorded experienced quite higher impact by patents in both 2007 and 2012, it could not be concluded to be better than Western and Southern regions due to unforeseen impact of non-monetary Research and Development processes in the regions. Employment rate rather, had almost no impact from patents for all classified regions in both 2007 and 2012.
