The forms of collaboration and the relationships among public and private actors are crucial to create value for regional development and to enable economic growth. Policy makers promote projects to stimulate innovation and to facilitate knowledge creation and diffusion. The paper aims to investigate the emergence of a network set up to develop a complex project. In particular, our work tries to investigate inter organizational relationships and collaboration among academic institutions, industrial organizations, researchers, policy makers and institutional actors participating to a common project to boost regional development. Firstly, our contribution focuses on the evolution of this network. Moreover, it analyses the role of different actors and the governance of the forming network studying the effects of collaborative processes on knowledge creation and diffusion. The project was set up to introduce and create a SEZ (Special Economic Zone) in the South of Italy (Campania Region) in order to foster regional development and to boost employment as well as local and national growth. The present preliminary study is part of an ongoing program including Universities, institutional actors and organizations from different industrial sectors. The research is based on a qualitative investigation using the case study approach. The findings could be a useful tool for institutional actors, policy makers, organizations and management to develop strategies to enhance local development. At the same time, it is essential to understand and assess the economic impact of the introduction of the SEZ, as proposed by the Regional Council (DGR No. 175 of 28/03/2018) on the entire regional economy. The observation of collaboration interactions while the network is forming is useful to understand the actors’ behavior and governance mechanisms. The development of clusters is a complex process linked to actors’ collaboration and to inter-organizational relationships. Integration task as well as roles in knowledge creation and collaboration among actors are key elements crucial for the development of the local areas.