The evolution of Industry 4.0 capacities across regions in EU research programmes

European policy supports cutting-edge research on Industry 4.0, aiming to promote excellence and ensure a balanced distribution of regional Industry 4.0 capacities. We analyse Industry 4.0 research projects financed by the European Union’s framework programmes over a 14-year period, investigating whether less developed regions benefit from interaction with more advanced regions that have a stronger capacity to diversify their Industry 4.0 technologies. We find a strong path-dependency in technological diversification between programming periods. Moreover, while national Industry 4.0 programmes negatively affect the capacity of regions to diversify technologies, possibly generating a substitution effect, we find that regional networking does not support less diversified regions in mastering multiple technologies.