Research and innovation policy dynamics are shifting because of the increased interest in tackling societal concerns. While having an innovation ecosystem with the scientific and technological skills to effectively solve the major societal concerns, a challenge-oriented approach nevertheless requires specific public sector competencies to coordinate and offer directionality. According to this viewpoint, a challenge-oriented policy does not apply to all situations. This research suggests a composite index to evaluate regional readiness for societal challenges (REgional Social Challenge Oriented Readiness - RE-SCORE).  

The case of Italy was chosen to test the index, evaluating the regional readiness to address four selected Social Challenges (SCs)—bioeconomy, climate change, health, and inclusive, innovative, and reflective societies, over 8 years (2009-2017). This analysis intends to elaborate on regional R&I policy directionality as a key indicator to evaluate regional proficiency in tackling specific SCs. 

The results of this article aim to provide a tool to assess regional readiness to tackle SCs and to indicate that there are significant geographical differences in Italy's ability to solve SCs that go beyond the "traditional" North-South divide. The index enables the comparison of regional capacity and finding potential interregional synergies centred on particular SCs. The construction of the RE-SCORE index method makes it applicable to evaluate the regional readiness to address SCs in broader European contexts, which may have political ramifications for benchmarking European regions. 

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