The IPL newsletter: Volume 1, Issue 8

US federal government approves largest R&D budget in history 
With across-the-board increases for federal R&D programs, the total  spending on R&D by the US federal government will reach $91 billion for FY2001, a total that exceeds the requested amount of $85.4 billion.  Receiving the greatest increases are the National Institutes of Health (NIH),  the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Energy, and Department of Defense.  [See Table] 

The European Commission launches new innovation support program
Titled ‘The Pilot Action of Excellence for Innovative Start-ups’, this program is designed to look at mechanisms to facilitate the setting up and development of innovative companies. It has two main objectives: to identify and network economic areas which have created ideal environments for start-up and spin-off companies; and to support projects which validate and promote novel strategies for the encouragement of the creation of innovative firms. 

Electronic Commerce in Canadian Universities 
Here is an overview of the research and course offerings related to e-commerce and e-business in Canadian universities.  The paper aims to support both the Talent Pool mandate, current areas of policy research on the development of e-business clusters as well as a national research agenda on e-commerce and the digital economy. 

Leading in the next millennium; National Biotechnology Advisory Committee, 6th Report 
This report contains some 40 recommendations designed to pinpoint the specific changes members believe government should act on if Canada is to grow as a global leader in the field.  The top three recommendations are political championship of biotechnology in Canada, the availability of highly qualified human resources and competitive policies on intellectual property protection and regulatory approvals.  

The Telehealth Industry in Canada: Industry Profile and Capability Analysis 
This report, commissioned by Industry Canada, reviews the developments in the telehealth industry since the period just prior to the publication of the Sector Competitiveness Framework (SCF) of the Telehealth Industry, in March 1998. The report describes the Canadian capacity in the field of telehealth, identifies current characteristics of the telehealth industry, outlines current and future activities of the telehealth industry in Canada and discuss some of the characteristics of the marketplace. 
 

R&D Collaborations by SMEs in ICT industries: opportunities and limitations
Narula R, University of Oslo and MERIT
This paper looks at the impact of globalization on the way in which SMEs undertake  innovation in the ICT sector.  Although SMEs have the advantages of being flexible and responsive, the paper argues that there are also limitations due their size, a constraint that has been enhanced due to increased cross-border competition.

1999 – ICT Sector Gross Domestic Product
Here are the latest figures on the Canadian ICT sector by Industry Canada.  The ICT sector contribution to the Canadian GDP in 1999 was $43.3 billion (in 1992 constant dollars). This represents an increase of 20.4% from 1998 compared to 4.3% for the overall Canadian GDP. 

Wiring rural communities – a case study
Berkshire, Massachusetts, overcomes digital divide providing a model for helping bring poor rural communities into the new economy.

Luncheon Lecture: E- Commerce to M-Commerce: Business in an Online Age 
November 16, Toronto 
A presentation of CITO and the North York Chamber of Commerce 
Bell Sympatico-Lycos Inc’s Marc Tellier will discuss recent trends in e-commerce, including business-to-business, business-to-consumer and the emerging mobile commerce (dubbed m-commerce) segments. He will also discuss how the recent deal with Thompson and the anticipated creation of a new $4 billion Canadian multimedia company will enhance Bell Canada’s Internet reach in Canada and around the world.  For additional information or to register, please contact: Amy Ruddell, North York Chamber of Commerce, Telephone: 416.226.9345.  Cost: CITO/NYCC Members: $35.00 Non-Members: $45.00

CITO/OCRI Techtalk Workshop on User Interface Technologies
November 21, Ottawa
This research TechTalk workshop examines the range of issues surrounding the design of usable, accessible and desirable systems from the user’s perspective. Special topics that will be addressed include key questions about home interaction devices and the human and social issues of the broadband home, design issues for new consumer wireless communications devices and, design issues affecting successful services for the World Wide Web.

Innovation and Enterprise Creation: statistics and indicators
November  23-24, Sophia Antipolis, France
Organised by the Innovation programme of DG Enterprise and Eurostat (with the assistance of Technopolis), this conference aims to achieve an exchange of understanding and experience between those developing and analysing innovation indicators, and those who apply them in policy formulation. Contributions will be made  to the development of policy by concentrating on The focus will be on advances in innovation indicators, the impact of innovation on firm performance, results of national and regional Innovation studies and policy-orientated innovation indicators.

CANARIE’s 6th Advanced Networks Workshop: “The Networked Nation”
November 28-29,  Montreal
CANARIE, Canada’s Advanced Internet Development Organization, is hosting its 6th Annual Advanced Networks Workshop. This year’s theme, “The Networked Nation”, will focus on application architectures, “grids” made up of customer owned dark fiber and next generation Internet networks like CA*net 3 that will ultimately lead to the development of the networked nation where eventually every school, home and business will have high bandwidth connection to the Internet.

Policy Agendas for Sustainable Technological Innovation
December 1-3, London, England
This is the third of four conferences organized as part of the European POSTI project: “Policies for Sustainable Technological Innovation”.  The London conference will focus on the policy implications of Science, Technology and Society (STS) research on socially, economically and environmentally acceptable technological innovation. It will draw upon the body of recent and current post-graduate and post-doctoral research in Europe as well as the work of senior academic researchers in STS and professionals in the world of policy research, development and implementation.

Ottawa Life Science National Conference and Exhibition: The BioProducts Revolution
December 4-6, Ottawa
This will be the Ottawa Life Science Council’s 7th annual national conference.  Sessions include an examination of biotechnology’s impact on the health and agriculture fields and on the financing of biotech start-up companies. 

Workshop: Innovation, technological change and growth in knowledge based and service intense economies
The Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, February 1-2, 2001
This workshop seeks to stimulate applied and theoretical research on the changing nature of innovation and to bring researchers attention to the problems associated with measurement of technological change and growth in the more knowledge based and service intense economies. The main objective is to discuss problem related to: innovation and growth indicators, data quality, concepts, models and theories of growth, technological change and competitiveness at the firm level.  The participants of the workshop are invited to submit their abstracts before December 1, 2000 to the workshop organisers to the following address:
hans.loof@lector.kth.se <mailto:hans.loof@lector.kth.se>.

The 5th International Conference on Technology, Policy and Innovation
June 26-29, 2001, Netherlands Congress Centre, The Hague 
Theme: Critical Infrastructures
Abstract submission deadline:  December 15, 2000
The conference focuses on infrastructures such as those enabling transportation of goods and people, telecommunications, and the supply and distribution of energy and water have become vital to the daily functioning and security of society.  Proposals are invited for workshops or presentations dealing with vulnerability, institutional management, historical lessons, innovation, and methodologies for interdisciplinary analysis and design, all related to critical infrastructures.