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
Canadian Government Invests in Research and Innovation in Communities Across Canada
Businesses and scientists in 11 communities across Canada will have more opportunities to conduct research in partnership with the National Research Council thanks to a new investment from the federal government. Speaking at the NRC’s Institute for Ocean Technology, the Honourable Gary Goodyear, Minister of State (Science and Technology), recently announced $135 million to support community-based technology partnerships across Canada, including $6.3 million for the institute in St. John’s. This commitment will support the development of dynamic technology-based Canadian firms, which in turn generate jobs and contribute to Canada’s global competitiveness.
Canada’s Economic Action Plan: Clean Energy Technology Gets a Boost in Quebec City
Integrated community energy systems are gaining momentum in Canada with the launch of a new project in Quebec City. The Honourable Josée Verner, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, President of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada, Minister for La Francophonie and Minister Responsible for the Quebec Region, recently announced that La Cité, Quebec’s Biomass–based Urban Central Heating Demonstration Project will receive up to $4.7 million through the Government of Canada’s Clean Energy Fund. Minister Verner was joined by Jean Morency, SSQ Immobilier’s CEO, to announce the community clean energy demonstration project.
Carnegie Mellon University and Bombardier in a Joint Venture
A new Carnegie Mellon University venture will try to make Pittsburgh an international focal point for advanced research on smart infrastructure systems, like sensors that monitor bridges and pipelines and robotic systems that control transit vehicles. The university and the Bombardier transportation company will open a $2.2 million research center on advanced infrastructure systems this fall, the university recently announced. The Pennsylvania Smart Infrastructure Incubator will focus on new technologies for building and rebuilding the world’s infrastructure.
Editor's Pick
High Technology and Regions in an Era of Open Innovation
Darrene Hackler, ITIF
Open innovation, or the process where R&D occurs outside of the commercializing firm, has become a boon for small businesses and entrepreneurs but the effects on new firms has not been fully studied. In this paper, ITIF Senior Analyst, Darrene Hackler utilizes the largest longitudinal study of new businesses, the Kauffman Firm Survey (KFS) and finds high-technology firms disproportionately rely on open innovation networks.
Innovation Policy
NESTA
Seemingly a paradox exists in the arts: creativity and novelty lie at the heart of all artistic endeavor, yet funders call on arts and cultural organizations to be more innovative. Understanding this paradox is one of the reasons why NESTA embarked on the research on which this report is based. Working with one of the world’s leading cultural economists and two of the UK’s premier cultural institutions, the report proposes a framework for innovation that can be used by both arts funders and arts organizations. It describes the rich ways that arts and cultural organizations. innovate in audience reach, push out artistic frontiers and create economic and cultural value.
The Future of Small Business Entrepreneurship: Jobs Generator for the US Economy
The Brookings Institution
This brief examines policy recommendations to strengthen the small business sector and provide a platform for effective programs. These recommendations draw heavily from ideas discussed at a conference held at the Brookings Institution with academic experts, successful private-sector entrepreneurs, and government policymakers.
Innovation, Competition and Incentives for R&D
Martin Wörter, Christian Rammer and Spyros Arvanitis
Exploring the links between the type of innovation and the type of competition is essential to understand the mutual impacts of competition policy and innovation policy. This is of particular importance for countries which rely on innovation as a competitive advantage such as Germany and Switzerland, which are the focus countries of the empirical analysis. The paper investigates three research questions: Is there a relationship between past innovation output and the type of competition? Do product and process innovation exert different impacts on the type of competition in the sales markets? Does the type of competition affect incentives for future investment in innovative activities?
Cities, Clusters & Regions
The Role and Structure of Local Strategic Governance in a Multilevel Polity
Tijs Creutzberg, Hickling Arthurs Low Corporation
This paper contributes to the growing body of research concerning the role of local governance in supporting innovation. Drawing on a case study of Guelph, Ontario, it examines the challenges of building a local strategic governance capacity that can engage and mobilize the necessary stakeholders in support of cluster goals as part of broader efforts to diversify the local economy.
OECD Reviews of Regional Innovation – Catalonia, Spain
OECD
This review of regional innovation assesses how to improve Catalonia’s current strategy and actions in order to boost its innovation system through both its own programs and those of Spain and the European Union. It finds that with over seven million inhabitants and a GDP of around EUR 204 billion, Catalonia is not only an important region within Spain, but within the OECD as well. Indeed, its economic output is similar to countries like Portugal and Norway. The region experienced massive population growth over the past decade, due to immigration, which in part drove GDP growth. However, Catalonia’s productivity is slipping, relative to other OECD regions, necessitating the transition to a productivity-driven growth model through a stronger regional innovation system. The region has successfully strengthened its research base, with investments in R&D having increased four-fold over the past decade. Catalonia is now mobilizing actors across the innovation system in regional centers, such as Barcelona, to improve productivity and address social challenges.
Knowledge Dynamics, Regional Development and Public Policy
Henrik Halkier, Margareta Dahlström, Laura James, Jesper Manniche & Lise Smed Olsen
This report is a result of the project Regional Trajectories to the Knowledge Economy: A Dynamic Model (EURODITE). The main objective of the EURODITE project was to investigate knowledge dynamics; that is, how knowledge is generated, developed and transferred within and among firms or organizations., and their regional contexts.
Statistics & Indicators
Has ICT Polarized Skills Demand? Evidence from Eleven Countries Over 25 Years
Guy Michaels, Ashwini Natraj, and John Van Reenen, NBER
OECD labor markets have become more “polarized” with employment in the middle of the skill distribution falling relative to the top and (in recent years) also the bottom of the skill distribution. We test the hypothesis of Autor, Levy, and Murnane (2003) that this is partly due to information and communication technologies (ICT) complementing the analytical tasks primarily performed by highly educated workers and substituting for routine tasks generally performed by middle educated workers (with little effect on low educated workers performing manual non-routine tasks). Using industry level data on the US, Japan, and nine European countries 1980-2004 we find evidence consistent with ICT-based polarization. Industries with faster growth of ICT had greater increases in relative demand for high educated workers and bigger falls in relative demand for middle educated workers. Trade openness is also associated with polarization, but this is not robust to controls for technology (like R&D). Technologies can account for up to a quarter of the growth in demand for the college educated in the quarter century since 1980.
The Brookings Institution
Based on change in Gross Metropolitan Product (GMP), four of the nation’s top 100 metro areas are beginning to rebound sharply, moving from the worst impacted by the Great Recession to some of the fastest growing for the most recent quarter: Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA; Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, OH; Bradenton-Sarasota-Venice, FL; and Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale, AZ. These upbeat conclusions, drawn from Brookings’ latest quarterly MetroMonitor, are coupled with troubling signs for many metro areas across the country. Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, OH, and Bradenton-Sarasota-Venice, FL – two more metro areas among the 20 that experienced the worst effects of the Great Recession – moved up three quintiles by the most recent quarter to be among the second strongest 20 metro areas for GMP. Only one other metro area jumped three quintiles between maps: Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale, AZ, moved from the second overall weakest 20 metro areas to be the nineteenth fastest growing area in the most recent quarter.The maps point out other compelling regional trends: the resiliency of the economies closest to the national capital, for instance, enjoying the least negative impact from the recession and some of the fastest growth rates during the most recent quarter. There are also strong indicators that the worst is not over for some metro areas that are seeing little to no growth as the country slowly creeps out of the recession.
Policy Digest
SMEs, Entrepreneurship and Innovation
OECD
Small firms are playing an ever-increasing role in innovation, driven by changes in technologies and markets. Some spin-offs and high growth firms are having remarkable success. However, the broad bulk of small firms are not capitalizing on their advantages. This book explores how government policy can boost innovation by improving the environment for entrepreneurship and small firm development and increasing the innovative capacities of enterprises. Policy findings and recommendations are presented in three key areas: embedding firms in knowledge flows; developing entrepreneurship skills; and social entrepreneurship. In addition, country notes present statistics and policy data on SMEs, entrepreneurship and innovation for 40 economies, including OECD countries, Brazil, China, Estonia, Indonesia, Israel, the Russian Federation, Slovenia and South Africa.
Major findings and messages
- The importance of new and small firms to the innovation process has increased;
- SMEs are playing new roles: they upgrade and aggregate the productivity of the economy by displacing firms with lower productivity, they enable the commercialization of knowledge, are often active in breakthrough innovation, and participate strongly in the flow of knowledge within innovation systems;
- SMEs are significant contributors to the economy: Across the OECD they represent a major share of all firms (99%), all employment (about two thirds), and all value added (over one half);
SMEs and Knowledge Flows
- SMEs do not innovate alone: but rather in collaboration with others, including suppliers and customers, and with universities and research organizations. Collaboration is an important element in the strategies of innovation of SMEs to overcome some of the barriers they face;
- Spatial clustering of SMEs is strong: especially in knowledge-driven sectors i.e. those where R&D intensity, basic university research and highly-skilled workers are most important;
- Connecting to global knowledge flows is equally important;
SMEs and Skills
- Entrepreneurship training: SMEs have been helped in part by higher education initiatives to provide entrepreneurship training, especially to innovative faculty;
- Small firms provide less in-house training: and there is a gap between training opportunities for young, better-educated workers in highly-skilled occupations versus less skilled workers;
- SMEs can boost entrepreneurship skills: through use of Knowledge Intensive Service Activities (KISA) – the use of external consultants and other experts – to help implement change or strategies;
- SMEs exist within local skills ecosystems: These involve regional and industry-specific networks that bring together public and private training providers, employers, industry representatives, unions, labour market and training intermediaries, and community representatives in order to develop skills strategies and deliver training.
Recommendations
The main recommendation of this report is that policies to strengthen entrepreneurship and increase the innovation capabilities of SMEs should be one of the main planks of government innovation strategies. Governments should target SMEs and entrepreneurship as a major potential source of new jobs in the recovery and recession. To realize these benefits, governments should introduce an innovation strategy for SMEs and entrepreneurship. It should stress action in four main areas:
- Promoting conducive entrepreneurship cultures and framework conditions;
- Increasing the participation of new firms and SMEs in knowledge flows;
- Strengthening entrepreneurial human capital;
- Improving the environment for social entrepreneurship and social innovation.
Events
Resilient Places: The Future for Local Economic Development
Manchester, UK, 13-14 July, 2010
Local economic development is changing as the policy context and the on-the-ground challenges evolve and intensify. This CLES Summit is about unpacking and exploring what these changes will mean for your work, your organization and for the future of economic development. Many topics will be discussed such as the future for local economic development and regeneration, the green economy, and the changing relationship between the region and the local.
Waterloo, 14 July, 2010
Southwestern Ontario’s biggest technology business conference that brings together leading entrepreneurial thinkers, startups and investors to spark innovation and make new things happen. Featured speakers include Clayton Christensen, Bill Taylor and Noel Biderman.
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.
Liverpool, UK, 18-19 November, 2010
First established in 2002 this annual conference has developed into a renowned international event in which incubators, science parks, investors, universities, governmental organizations and industry discuss and evaluate their strategy on how best to support young start-ups on the road to succes. Be a part of this inspiring event!
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.
Ottawa, 5-7 December, 2010
Globally, innovation is recognized as the driving force towards lasting sustainable prosperity in the coming decades. The federal government’s S&T strategy promotes action to grow the translation of knowledge into commercial applications that generate wealth for Canadians and support a high quality of life. We have the opportunity to build a world-class innovation ecosystem in Canada. The challenge is to foster increased partnerships and collaboration among public, academic and private sectors to ensure we improve knowledge mobilization and commercialization for world-class next generation products and services. In keeping with these challenges and opportunities, ACCT Canada, Federal Partners in Technology Transfer (FPTT) and the Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE) are pleased to present their first national joint conference on innovation and competitiveness in Canada: INNOVATION 2010.
Managing the Art of Innovation: Turning Concepts into Reality 
Quebec City, 12-15 December, 2010
Organized by ISPIM in collaboration with local partner INO, a leading non-profit R&D center in Optics/Photonics in Canada, this symposium will bring together academics, business leaders, consultants and other professionals involved in innovation management. The symposium format will include facilitated themed sessions for academic and practitioner presentations together with interactive workshops and discussion panels. Additionally, the symposium will provide excellent networking opportunities together with a taste of local French Canadian culture.
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This newsletter is prepared by Jen Nelles.
Project manager is David A. Wolfe.