Scale Dependent Pomeron Intercept in Electromagnetic Diffractive Processes

We test the hypothesis that diffractive scattering in the perturbative and non-perturbative domain is determined by the exchange of a single pomeron with a scale dependent trajectory. Present data on diffractive vector meson production are well compatible with this model and recent results for $J/\psi$ photoproduction at LHC strongly support it. The model is inspired by concepts of gauge/string duality applied to the pomeron.