Presented paper adresses issue of key research areas, which are important for development of backward regions in Poland. Proposed areas of priority research activities concentrates on: building resilience of regional structures on socio-economic crises; using megatrends impact on development paths; implementing public intervention generating economic growth; developing territorial keys for development; utilising capacity of cities, especially biggest; increasing quality of public management, strengthening of innovativeness and competitiveness of EU regions and cities; using better social and cultural dimension of socio-economic development; increasing potential of cross-border cooperation and using new development concepts, monitoring of socio-economic development through objective measuring of levels and paths. For Poland It is very important to use research activities to support process of closing gap with more affl uent EU regions.