This document discusses place-based policy and its implications for development. Place-based means territorial, bottom-up, multi-actor, multi-sector, integrated, grounded in evidence, and innovative. Place-based policy considers the specific assets and conditions of a geographic area. It involves collaboration between multiple local stakeholders from different sectors to pursue economic, social, and environmental objectives. Place-based policy emphasizes learning from evaluation to inform governance and support all forms of innovation in a territory. Smart specialization strategies should apply these place-based principles to avoid replicating differences in development levels across European regions.