News from the IPL
INTRODUCTION
This newsletter is published by The Innovation Policy Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto, and sponsored by the Ministry of Research and Innovation. The views and ideas expressed in this newsletter do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Ontario Government.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Ontario Launches a New Life Sciences Commercialization Strategy
The Life Sciences Commercialization Strategy willhelpposition Ontario as one of the world’s leading life sciences jurisdictions, and will ensure cutting-edge healthcare discoveries and products are made in Ontario — keeping high-value jobs in Ontario. As part of the Strategy, Ontario is investing over $21 million in The Health Technology Exchange (HTX), which will help HTX partner with innovative companies, research institutions and health providers to develop cutting-edge medical and assistive technologies (MAT) that can be marketed to the world. Over the first five years, the investment is expected to help create more than 130 new jobs and retain additional high-tech jobs. Funding for the life sciences is part of Ontario’s Innovation Agenda to make innovation a driving force of Ontario’s economy, and also supports the Open Ontario Plan to create new opportunities for jobs and growth.
Alberta Launches New Viral Infections Research Institute
Fighting the devastating effects of viral infections such as Hepatitis and H1N1 on human health and society is the focus of the newly established Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology at the University of Alberta. Supported by a $52.5 million investment from the Government of Alberta and Alberta Innovates, as well as a $25 million grant from the Li Ka Shing Foundation (Canada), the institute aims to develop new drugs, vaccines and diagnostic tests that would enhance human health worldwide and reduce the impact of viral infections on the global economy. The institute will also recruit top-level researchers to provide world-class learning opportunities to talented graduate and undergraduate students in virology and related disciplines.
Editor's Pick
Presentations from this three day conference cover a wide variety of topics. Thematic papers summarize findings from multiple cases in the three project themes: (1) knowledge flows; (2) social foundations of talent attraction and retention; and (3) inclusive communities and civic engagement. Individual case studies explore these themes in specific Canadian cities. Paired comparisons identify different patterns of development and their policy implications. Finally, international participants reflect on lessons for Canadian cities.
Innovation Policy
State of Design: The Canadian Report
Industry Canada
In today’s complex business environment, the extent to which firms invest in product design and development (pd&d) is a key determinant of their competitiveness. Industry Canada has partnered with the Design Exchange (DX) and the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters (CME) to review the valuable service business function of pd&d. By collecting insights from the industry and international research organizations, and using economic modelling conducted by Industry Canada, this industry-government collaboration has produced a complete user/service provider profile of pd&d in Canada, summarized in this report. This unique analysis is intended to help Canadian pd&d executives as well as decision makers understand current market trends and recognize the advantages of investing in pd&d to improve business competitiveness.
Social Innovation: What it is and Why it’s Important to Understand it Better
Caroline Andrew and Juan-Luis Klein, UQAM
This report summarizes work on social innovation, focussing on the different intellectual traditions that analyze social innovation and reviews certain major related themes in order to better understand what distinguishes social innovation as a process. After doing this, it briefly describes a number of specific examples of social innovation in Canada, looking particularly at the process of development from the formulation of the original idea to a fully institutionalized example of social change. The objective of the report is to demonstrate the importance of social innovation to the present day in Canada and, on this basis, to argue for the importance of better understanding the process of social innovation.
Setting Priorities for Publicly Funded Research
House of Lords Science and Technology Committee
Decisions about how best to allocate public funds to support research, especially in these times of economic stringency, are complex. They are not a matter of applying a simple matrix or formula. Instead, they require careful judgements about the deployment of limited funds between competing priorities so that the pursuit of knowledge and its translation into practical applications meet the needs of society as effectively and efficiently as possible. They involve a web of interacting funding mechanisms that include the research councils, higher education funding councils and government departments. This report makes a number of recommendations to ensure that the government is best placed to make research funding decisions.
Eyes on the Climate Prize: Rewarding Energy Innovation to Acheive Climate Stabilization
Jonathan H Adler, Case Western Reserve Law School
This paper outlines the theory behind the use of inducement prizes to encourage and direct inventive efforts and technological innovation and identifies several comparative advantages inducement prizes have over traditional grants and subsidies for encouraging the invention and development of climate-friendly technologies. While no policy measure guarantees technological innovation, greater reliance on inducement prizes would increase the likelihood of developing and deploying needed technologies in time to alter the world’s climate future. Whatever their faults in other contexts, prizes are particularly well suited to the climate policy challenge.
Cities, Clusters & Regions
Organizing Economic Development: The Role of Development Agencies and Companies
OECD
Development processes occur within a wider geographical area than local government, and in some cases encompass a broader scope than provincial or national governments. Thus substantial inter-governmental co-operation and public-private partnership are needed. This book identifies how development agencies and companies work, what they do and what constitutes success and value added. It explores international practices in a variety of locations and contexts, and defines both the success factors and the challenges associated with economic development agencies and companies.
Statistics & Indicators
US Federal R&D Funding by Function: 2008-2010
National Science Foundation
Funding for general science and basic research grew by 17.5 percent between 2008 and 2010, according to this report from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The report divides federal R&D funding into 20 categories defined by their function. Basic research comprises 7.2 percent of the proposed FY10 budget, up from 6.2 percent in the actual FY08 budget. Meanwhile, national defense, the leading target of federal R&D funding, dropped from 59 percent of total funding to 57 percent.
Battelle/BIO State Bioscience Initiatives
Battelle/BIO
The report is a compendium of national, state and metropolitan data on bioscience employment and growth trends from 2001 to 2008, according to the latest detailed industry data to be released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. It also presents a series of key bioscience performance metrics and state policy and program trends that are designed to accelerate the growth of the biosciences. In addition to data about the overall U.S. and state bioscience industries, the report highlights state initiatives intended to support bioscience companies and research.
Policy Digest
EU Manufacturing: What are the Challenges and Opportunities in the Coming Years?
European Commission, DG of Enterprise and Industry
The aim of this paper is to provide a basis for discussion and development of the industrial policy initiatives that will be put forward as a “new industrial policy” in the context of Europe 2020 in the course of 2010. It is based on on-going analysis and monitoring by the EU Commissionand initial discussions with different industrial sectors through DG Enterprise and Industry’s extensive network of sectoral units.The paper attempts to make a preliminary identification of the drivers and barriers which affect the competitiveness of industry in Europe, and the policy levers which can have an impact on the growth and job creation potential of industry.
Industry has been hit by the most severe crisis in living memory. Fortunately many companies entered the current crisis leaner and fitter than they have ever been, but the dramatic fall in industrial output means that it will take time to recover to the pre-crisis peak. Industry in Europe has been undergoing substantial change for
years, but in sectors where this change has not been fast enough or radical enough some painful adjustment may still be needed. The industrial base in Europe remains vital to the economy, and its importance stretches far beyond the core activity of manufacturing.
Whilst some sectors experience particular problems the most significant issues for industry today are common to many sectors:
• the need to benefit from the opportunities of new international markets and respond to intensified global competition;
• the key role of the Single Market and better regulation;
• the importance of technology and innovation and in particular of key new technologies and ICT;
• the need to improve energy and resource efficiency and to make the transition to a low carbon economy;
• the need to manage restructuring and ensure adequate access to finance;
• the shortage of adequate skills in the workforce and the need to ensure skill transitions from professions with declining demands to emerging ones;
• the increased role of business services;
• the importance of a favourable entrepreneurial and business environment, especially for SMEs;
• the need to respond to the emerging societal challenges such as demographic change and the requirements of improved health and security measures.
Policy actions fostering industrial competitiveness are partly carried out at Community and partly at Member State level. The Commission’s proposal for the Europe 2020 strategy includes a flagship initiative on an
Industrial Policy for the Globalisation Era. This will provide a good opportunity to strengthen the interactions and synergies between the two governance levels. The Commission will work together with the Member States with a view to identifying and spreading good practice. This will enable the Commission to better integrate the national dimensions of policy making in the horizontal and sectoral initiatives undertaken as the basis for an integrated European industrial policy. At the same time, it should also allow Member States to better take into account the European dimension when devising their policies.
Events
The Rightful Place of Science?
Tempe, Arizona, 16-19 May, 2010
This conference will address the challenges facing a society that is at once utterly dependent on science and technology and yet equally unprepared to govern the implications of that dependence. In his inaugural address, President Obama promised to “restore science to its rightful place” in U.S. society, but that location is far from obvious. How can we understand this provocative formulation in the context of the complexity, uncertainty, and political, social and cultural diversity that mark our world?In this conference – amid art, music, literature, media, humour and more – we will explore the place of science in society and how science and technology can most effectively contribute to an improved quality of life for all. The transformative potential of science and technology challenges our ability to understand and shape our common destiny. What inquiries, communities, networks, and institutions can improve our ability to effectively engage this challenge?
Ontario Centres of Excellence Discovery 10
Toronto, 17-18 May, 2010
Connect with dynamic business leaders, investors, researchers and entrepreneurs at Discovery 2010 – Canada’s foremost innovation and commercialization event. Learn about exciting successes and emerging trends in advanced health, clean technology, digital media, manufacturing and the green economy. Meet the people whose cutting-edge ideas and technologies are driving Ontario’s innovation economy.
Pecs, Hungary, 24-26 May, 2010
An increasingly complex array of actors is involved in today’s regional development agendas. They range from private firms and labour organizations to government and non-government institutions. Despite the growing awareness in the public and academic domains of the multi-actor nature of regional development, we still often struggle to fully comprehend the mutually interactive strategies and practices which cut across regions and countries. In light of recent upheavals in the global economic and financial system, such an understanding will be critical to future studies of regional development. Indeed this interest in actors, institutions and organizations in regional development needs to be properly grounded in the wider contexts of global change in economic imperatives, transnational working and cooperation and environmental concerns. To some regions, these contexts provide favourable and timely frameworks for action and initiatives. Other regions may find these contexts increasingly challenging and threatening. Taken together, understanding better these broader contexts can provide important insights into regional development potential, planning and practices and establish the agenda for research and policy. We welcome papers from all – academics, students and those working in policy and practice. The event is inclusive and offers major networking opportunities for scholars in our field.
BioEnergy Conference & Exhibition 2010
Prince George, BC, 8-10 June, 2010
The International BioEnergy Conference and Exhibition is the Canadian leader in the global dialogue on bioenergy. Our sponsors, speakers, exhibitors and delegates are key influencers and opinion shapers from around the world on the new technologies and processes that will bring about a global change in the way we perceive and use energy. With the addition of the BC Bioenergy Network as Conference Co-Host, the tradition of leadership and excellence will continue in 2010. We are also happy to announce that the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade will once again co-host the 2nd International Partnerships Forum and Business to Business Meetings. And 2010 will also mark the introduction of a parallel conference on Emerging Clean Technologies.
Opening Up Innovation: Strategy, Organization and Innovation
London, 16-18 June, 2010
The DRUID Summer Conference 2010 intends to explore new theoretical, empirical and methodological advances in industrial dynamics, contributing novel insights and stimulating a lively debate about how economic systems and organizations evolve. The conference will include an exciting programme of plenary debates where internationally leading scholars take stands on contemporary issues within the overall conference theme. Both senior and junior scholars are invited to participate and contribute to the conference with a paper.
Aalborg, Denmark, 21-24 June, 2010
Schumpeter 2010 serves as an opportunity for both established scholars and young researchers to present research that has a Schumpeterian perspective. The major topic of the conference is “Innovation, Organisation, Sustainability and Crises”. But the conference more generally embraces micro-studies of the innovation, routine and selection as well as studies of the macro-problems of Schumpeterian growth and development as a process of “creative destruction”. The broad range of issues implies that both economists, business economists, and other social scientists can contribute to the conference and that evidence may be provided by statistical and historical methods as well as other methods.
Experience the Creative Economy
Toronto, 22-24 June, 2010
This is a unique conference which allows scholars new in their careers to experience notions of the creative economy in a small and focused setting. This conference will bring together up to 25 individuals with similar research interests to share their work, receive feedback, foster the development of effective research methods and to establish an ongoing framework of collaborative learning and mutual exchange for years to come.
CALL FOR PAPERS – Partnerships in S&T Policy Research
Waterville Valley, NH, 8-13 August, 2010
The 2010 Gordon Conference on Science and Technology Policy will focus on a wide range of research at the intersection of science, technology, policy and society. The 2010 Conference will focus in particular on further developing partnerships between North American and European researchers. Invited speakers represent a variety of scientific disciplines in the policy sciences, social and natural sciences as well as the humanities. The Conference will bring together a collection of investigators who are at the forefront of their field, and will provide opportunities for junior scientists and graduate students to present their work in poster format and exchange ideas with leaders in the field. The collegial atmosphere of this Conference, with programmed discussion sessions as well as opportunities for informal gatherings in the afternoons and evenings, provides an avenue for scholars from different disciplines to brainstorm and promotes cross-disciplinary collaborations in the various research areas represented.
Toronto, 30 September, 2010
Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area ICT cluster, comes together for a celebration of technology as an engine of economic growth at the Allstream Centre at Exhibition Place in downtown Toronto. We live in a new world without borders. Two out of every three people in the world own a mobile communications device….and Toronto is leading the way to this borderless future. Technicity brings together technology leaders, entrepreneurs, investors and representatives of the region’s economic development agencies for a day of panel discussions, displays and an evening to remember, to celebrate, to brainstorm, network and create economic opportunity. It also serves as an opportunity to leverage our talent pool, infrastructure, and geographic location
to broaden the base of our already powerful ICT cluster.Technicity will highlight breaking technologies such as wireless data connectivity that will make up in next-generation cars to predictive analytics that is the next-generation for business intelligence.
Triple Helix in the Development of Cities of Knowledge, Expanding Communities and Connecting Regions
Madrid, Spain, 20-22 Oct, 2010
Innovation is understood as a resultant of a complex and dynamic process related to interactions between University, Industry and Government, in a spiral of endless transitions. The Triple Helix approach, developed by Henry Etzkowitz and Loet Leydesdorff, is based on the perspective of University as a leader of the relationship with Industry and Government, to generate new knowledge, innovation and economic development. The main theme of our conference is “Triple Helix in the Development of Cities of Knowledge, Expanding Communities and Connecting Regions”.
Entrepreneurship and Community: 26th Annual CCSBE Conference
Calgary, 28-30 October, 2010
The theme this year is Entrepreneurship and Community. We are seeking to explore the multifaceted impact entrepreneurs and small businesses have on their communities through their new ventures, business and community outreach. There is growing recognition by policy makers, members of society, business leaders and youth, that creative approaches are needed to address environmental, economic, and societal issues. The conference program highlights the research, educational methods, and community practices pertaining to venture sustainability and social entrepreneurship. In support of the theme we have attracted an array of plenary and guest speakers, and developed workshops which will contribute to the dialogue.
Reshaping Europe: Addressing Societal Challenges Through Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Liege, Belgium, 27-29 October, 2010
Over the past couple of years, Europe, and the rest of the world, has faced an unprecedented crisis affecting all sectors of the economy. The crisis and the recovery that is now taking place in most Member States provide experiences that can be used to reshape Europe and to ensure that it is stronger and better prepared for the challenges of the 21st century. The Europe 2020 Strategy is designed to improve the business environment. It is vital that this environment offers the framework conditions to turn ideas into products and services more quickly and easily, whilst addressing environmental concerns and making efficient use of resources. At this important turning point, the Europe INNOVA conference will provide a timely opportunity to determine how innovation policy and innovation support can help Europe and its enterprises, both large and small, to best face these challenges.The conference will unite the Europe INNOVA Community with key innovation stakeholders from the worlds of politics, academia and business. Together they will discuss three approaches that are crucial if Europe is to respond to the societal challenges with which it is currently confronted.
Making Innovation Work for Society: Linking, Leveraging and Learning GLOBELICS 8th Annual Conference
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 1-3 November, 2010
Global Network for Economics of Learning, Innovation, and Competence Building Systems (GLOBELICS) is an international network of scholars who apply the concept of “learning, innovation, and competence building system” (LICS) as their framework and are dedicated to the strengthening of LICS in developing countries, emerging economies and societies in transition. The research aims at locating unique systemic features as well as generic good practices to enlighten policy making relating to innovation, competence building, international competitiveness, regional development, labour market and human capital development. In an increasingly global and knowledge‐based competition, management strategies need to be based upon an understanding of these framework conditions and the public policies which seek to regulate the environment.
CALL FOR PAPERS: The Entrepreneurial University and thte Academic Enterprise
Washington, DC, 12-13 November, 2010
The theme of the 2010 conference is The Entrepreneurial University and the Academic Enterprise. Conference presentations should focus on the potential commonalities and/or conflicts of interests among government, university, and industry participants in technology transfer. The sessions will emphasize also the assessment of technology transfer activities, especially how to examine the objectives and processes of technology transfer activities (beyond the immediate needs of the participants), including both formal and informal transfer mechanisms (Link, Siegel & Bozeman, 2007; Abreu et al, 2008). Special focus will be placed on papers which evaluate the aspects of academicuniversity research relationships beyond their immediate outputs (Georghiou & Roessner, 2000; Vonortas & Spivack, 2005, Carayannis and Provance, 2007), including intellectual property issues (Feller & Feldman, 2009), modes of commercialization (Kenney & Patton, 2009), and economic impact (Roberts & Easley, 2009).
Knowledge Cities World Summit 2010 
Melbourn, Australia, 16-19 November, 2010
‘Knowledge’ is a resource, which relies on the past for a better future. In the 21st century, more than ever before, cities around the world rely on the knowledge of their citizens, their institutions, their firms and enterprises. Knowledge assists in attracting investment, qualified labour, students and researchers. Knowledge also creates local life spaces and professional milieus, which offer quality of life to the citizens who are seeking to cope with the challenges of modern life in a competitive world. This conference will offer a range of innovative presentation formats aimed at facilitating interaction and accessibility for all members of the Knowledge Summit community. The Summit will attract a range of multidisciplinary participants including: practitioners, managers, decision and policy makers of non-government organisations, technology solution developers, innovators, urban planners, urban designers and developers, academics, researchers and postgraduate students.
Calgary, 25-26 November, 2010
The companies worst hit in western Canada during the recession tended to be those with undifferentiated products with many competitors, where price competition became severe. By contrast, the companies who did reasonably well tended to have unique products and fewer competitors. InnoWest 2010 tells the story of some of these companies, and how innovation helped them to live through the recession relatively unscathed, and position themselves for growth in the recovery. InnoWest 2010 will not focus on the very large companies [such as Suncor] or on very small companies [for example, a 10 employee company] but will focus on the large middle ground where the bulk of Canada’s GDP is generated. Keynote speakers include Sir Terry Matthews.
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This newsletter is prepared by Jen Nelles.
Project manager is David A. Wolfe.