The Marche region is subdivided into four similar-sized provinces - Pesaro-Urbino, Ancona, Macerata and Ascoli Piceno, running from north to south. Marche is characterised by small and medium-sized settlements. Only the regional capital, Ancona, has over 100 000 inhabitants.

The population density in Marche is below the national average. In 2001, it equalled 151.7 inhabitants per km2, compared to the national figure of 192. Between 1952 and 1967 the population of the region decreased by 1.7% as a result of a negative migration balance, well above the national average, with a rate varying between 4.9% and 10.0%. per 1000 inhabitants. In the same period the natural balance of the population was positive, but lower than the national average and not able to counterbalance the negative net migration.

Although the natural balance continued declining till 1971, the total net balance of the population started being positive from 1968. Between 1990 and 2001 the population of Marche increased in number by 3.3%, reaching 1 469 million people in 2001. Marche has an ageing population. In 2001, the share of young people living in Marche (under 25 years of age) was equal to 23.6% of the total population, whereas the share of those over 65 years of age was 21.5%.

Industrial development, instead of causing a geographical displacement of the workers, has gone to the workers themselves. This was possible because the local industrial structure is made up of small businesses well distributed throughout the region. While industry gained undoubted advantages from this form of organisation, the economy of Marche also benefited from a quiet revolution which kept to a minimum the damage caused elsewhere by uncontrolled industrialisation.

The consequences of this successful development are a crime rate lower than the national figure, activity rates higher and unemployment lower than the national average. The weaknesses resulting from this type of development are: - an industrial structure using low technologies which exposes it to growing competition from developing countries; - an ageing population; and - a transport system which favours the north-south axis along the coast to the detriment of communications with the interior.

Unemployment mainly affects young people and, amongst young people, those who have a higher level of education. In 2002, 27.9 thousand people were unemployed in Marche. Of these, 39% were men and 61% women. Young people (below 25 years old) seeking for a job accounted for 25% of all those available for employment. Young people looking for their first job counted for 43% of all those available for employment, and had in large part (57%) a senior secondary school-leaving certificate or a diploma of higher education.

The Programme aimed to establish a Strategic Plan for the development of biotechnology in the region. Its main objective was the setting-up of a network involving the region, local universities, local scientific and technological parks and local firms, including handicraft firms and SMEs, to promote innovative actions in biotechnology. It aimed to promote the use of biotechnology as a tool for innovative actions in firms.

The program included the following actions: Knowledge-based economy: streamlining the research-development-innovation system; promoting the transfer of knowledge among SMEs; strengthening expertise. E-EuropeRegio: setting up networks between regional actors in the field; introducing new methods for the transfer of technologies, exchange of experiences and best practices; drafting a regional innovation plan. Furthermore, the European Commission has now approved a second RPIS “ISSOCORE - Innovation and Sustainable Development as Identifying Factors for Marche Region Competitiveness.

During the period 2006-2007, the European funding of 2 million euro will attract Euro 2 million in further investment from the public sector and Euro 1.4 million from the private sector creating total resources of Euro 5.4 million. The programme aims to promote active management of the existing changes at regional level, through the support to the elaboration and implementation of eco-sustainable development strategies. Through this “Regional Laboratory” of experimentation, the regional authority will test innovative practices to enhance the quality of the next 2007-2013 Structural Funds programming period and will consolidate a regional policy that can more effectively meet future socio-economic challenges.

The general aim of the programme is to promote a regional innovation system with regard to 2 strategic priorities: the promotion of an integrated approach to regional competitiveness including all relevant territorial and thematic stakeholders; the environmental sustainability of development focusing on the regional identity. The programme will be structured in the following actions :

• 1) the implementation of experimental measures to develop innovative products and processes that can be characterised by new certification systems. These measure would support enterprises with innovative tools as : certification schemes, safety management system, new engineering systems to obtain products and processes with high environmental traceability and sustainability.

• 2) the implementation of industrial research pilot projects and specific technological audits within the small/medium enterprises. This actions aims to facilitate the access of SMEs to research and technological platforms and to transfer the results into the regional productive system.

• 3) the development of new relationships between the public and private sectors with the aim of an optimal use of natural resources and a high level of environmental protection. The different activities to be developed (feasibility studies, pilot project, awareness campaigns) will promote the adoption of clean technologies and the economic use of energy.

• 4) planning and testing activities will be developed to define an innovative system of mobility, highly efficient both under the environment and energetic point of view. The idea behind this action is that it is possible to use the railway system in a different and more complete way, reducing congestion and pollution, without penalising the overall accessibility to inhabited areas. A specific restricted area will test the feasibility of a light underground system that will be able to serve both the urban and the rural areas in complete synergy with traditional transportation and particularly suitable to the extensive settlement model of the hinterland around cities.

• 5) the promotion of innovation and networking both at national and European level. It important to avoid any risk of self-reference linked to planning procedures which do not take into account the researches and good practices worked out outside the region. By capitalising on the Regional Innovation Observatory (created within the previous Innovative action programme) the exchange and the transfer of experience and knowledge will be highly facilitated.