The term ‘appropriability’ usually refers to the ability of a business entity to capture benefits from its investment in science and technology. In this paper it is suggested that governments should focus on regional appropriability, the ability of the region they govern to capture benefits from science and technology. Regional appropriability, although in one sense a matter of common knowledge, has not been extensively discussed in the scholarly literature. This paper suggests four factors which may be important in determining whether benefits can be captured by a region. They are, first, local manufacturing; second, intellectual property protection; third, the relatively immobile nature of a broadly skilled workforce; and fourth, “contexted technology”, that is, technology which links into existing industrial strengths.