In recent years, many countries launched decentralization or regionalization policies for their administrative and political structures as well as their economic and social actions. This evolution tends to redefine the space and modes of interaction among the institutions in charge of innovation, and therefore tends to create overlaps between different spatial levels in the determination and evolution of the institutional frameworks within which innovation policies are designed and implemented. In this context, the region is a privileged space for targeting innovation policies. However, while this trend is well documented in many studies, it remains to be demonstrated that the regional space is the relevant scale for organizing innovation dynamics and policies. Based on the French case, this paper comments on this phenomenon by identifying the factors able to foster (or, conversely, inhibit) the efficiency of innovation policies targeting the regional level, especially regarding the funding mechanisms for innovative projects. JEL codes: L52, O38, R58