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
OCRI Announces a New President
he Ottawa Centre for Regional Innovation (OCRI) has hired former software executive and military veteran Bruce Lazenby as its new President and CEO to lead a new, more inclusive and collaborative economic development organization. Lazenby’s mandate includes introducing cultural change at OCRI so it can respond faster to business needs and opportunities.
EDA Announces Cluster Initiative Winners
The Obama Administration recently announced the winners of the $37 million Jobs and Innovation Accelerator Challenge, a multi-agency competition launched in May to support the advancement of 20 high-growth, regional industry clusters. Investments from three federal agencies and technical assistance from 13 additional agencies will promote development in areas such as advanced manufacturing, information technology, aerospace and clean technology, in rural and urban regions in 21 states. Projects are driven by local communities that identify the economic strengths of their areas, with funding awarded to the best proposals. These public-private partnerships are expected to create more than 4,800 jobs and 300 new businesses, as well as retain another 2,400 jobs and train approximately 4,000 workers for careers in high-growth industries, according to grantee estimates. Each of the 20 awards average about $1.8 million per project, and winning clusters will contribute another $13 million in total matching funds.
White House Announces Initiatives to Accelerate Commercialization
President Obama recently announced several initiatives aimed at spurring technology commercialization following the signing of the America Invents Act, including two new programs to assist biomedical entrepreneurs at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The administration also will develop a national plan focused on reforms to speed commercialization and open new markets. A blueprint outlining those efforts is due in January.
Editor's Pick
The Case for Regional Development Intervention: Place-based versus Place-neutral Approaches
Fabrizio Barca, Philip McCann and Andres Rodriguez-Pose
The paper examines the debates regarding place-neutral versus place-based policies for economic development. The analysis is set in the context of how development policy thinking on the part of both scholars and international organizations has evolved over several decades. Many of the previously accepted arguments have been called into question by the impacts of globalization and a new response to these issues has emerged, a response both to these global changes and also to non-spatial development approaches. The debates are highlighted in the context of a series of major reports recently published on the topic. The cases of the developing world and of the European Union are used as examples of how in this changing context development intervention should increasingly focus on efficiency and social inclusion at the expense of an emphasis on territorial convergence and how strategies should consider economic, social, political and institutional diversity in order to maximize both the local and the aggregate potential for economic development.
Innovation Policy
Rewarding Innovation: Improving Federal Tax Support for Business R&D in Canada
C.D. Howe Institute
Business innovation is viewed by many as a solution to Canada’s ailing productivity performance. One of the more troubling aspects of Canada’s innovation track record is that businesses spend relatively little on research and development (R&D) despite having access to some of the world’s most generous R&D tax incentives. This report introduces some federal tax policy considerations to spur innovation. The federal government should continue to focus its efforts on market pull factors by ensuring taxes on income derived from patents and subsequent production of new products and services (the fruits of R&D) are kept at internationally competitive levels. The federal tax regime should also not discourage the growth of small firms into larger, globally competitive companies.
Restoring US Competitiveness: Navigating a Path Forward Through Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Center for Public Policy Innovation, CPPI
This is the latest report to unveil findings on how the U.S. can improve its competiveness. Over the past several years, economic development groups and think tanks have promoted similar recommendations on the subject, typically focused on the areas of developing a highly skilled workforce, dedicating more federal funds to R&D, and encouraging entrepreneurship. The report is divided among four main topics: Barriers to Entrepreneurship, the Workforce of Tomorrow, Government-Funded Research, and Corporate Tax Reform. Some of the highlights include: Developing new models for technology transfer, such as moving to a free agency model, where entrepreneurial professors would be allowed to choose their own licensing agents from anywhere in the world: Strengthening education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, especially at the K-12 level, and eliminating barriers to skilled immigration: Instituting a stronger, permanent R&D tax credit; and: Allowing carried interest tax rates for venture capitalists to remain at the current rate to ensure seed and early stage investments remain available for innovative small businesses.
Fostering Innovation for Green Growth
OECD
Innovation is key to green growth. It helps decouple growth from natural capital depletion and contributes to economic growth and job creation. Business is the driver of innovation, but governments need to provide clear and stable market signals, e.g. through carbon pricing. This book explores policy actions for the deployment of new technologies and innovations as they emerge: investment in research and development, support for commercialization, strengthening markets and fostering technology diffusion. Competition will be essential to bring out the best solutions.
The Global Biomedical Industry: Preserving US Leadership
The Miliken Institute
The United States still holds a commanding position in the biomedical field, but countries across Europe and Asia are pursuing aggressive plans to close the gap. They’re investing heavily in research, improving access to capital for biotech start-ups and taking a page from the U.S. playbook as they standardize their regulatory regimes and offer better incentives for innovation. Multiple factors leave the U.S. vulnerable to growing international competition: increasing complexity, rigidity and uncertainty in the FDA’s approval process (especially with regard to medical devices); funding cuts; and tax policies that are not globally competitive. This report identifies specific policy changes that will support American innovation and speed the delivery of new treatments and devices to the patients who need them.
ProInno Europe
This study’s findings are presented through two research questions, which identify various dimensions of firm level open innovation practices and strategies; the first investigates the effects of open innovation practices on the innovation performance of firms, and the second analyzes the determinants of a firms’ use of open innovation practices.The empirical analysis carried out within the study has yielded a plethora of findings regarding firm level innovation. It was found that open innovation practices have a positives effect on innovation performance though impact differed between small and larger countries, high-tech and low-tech companies and SMEs and established firms. The study sheds light on the effects of increased collaboration between firms and how knowledge purchase affects their innovative performance. Finally, the authors discuss the effects of their findings on future policy amendment in light of existing policies. For instance, while EU funding strengthens university-industry linkages, it weakens the perceptiveness of firms toward industrial sources of knowledge. The study concludes that policy and funding activity should stimulate the uptake of platforms for industrial research and knowledge diffusion within the EU’s Common Strategic Framework. In contrast however, national policy should tackle the challenge of creating industry-science linkages which increase specialisation across internationalised firms within the domains of its economy.
Cities, Clusters & Regions
Jennifer Bradley and Richard Shearer, The Brookings Institution
This report tracks quarterlry trends in the economic recovery of metropolitan regions in the Great Lakes regions. Great Lakes metropolitan areas reliant on education and government have performed better than most large metropolitan areas in the United States over the course of recession and recovery. Five Great Lakes metropolitan areas were among the nation’s overall strongest performing metropolitan areas; two are educational centers (Pittsburgh and Syracuse), and one is a state capital (Madison, also home to a large university). These three metropolitan areas have also gained government jobs since their prior total employment peaks.
European Cluster Observatory
These two reports focus on exploring the links between the concept of eco-innovation and cluster policy; as well as eco-innovation priorities and practices in managed clusters across Europe. The first study “Eco-innovation and national cluster policies in Europe” examines if national cluster policies in EU Member States are being used specifically to support eco-innovation and in what way. The second study “Eco-innovation in cluster organisations in the chemical and textiles-clothing-leather sectors” aims to understand if and how cluster organisations are using eco-innovation to foster competitiveness and growth.
Statistics & Indicators
OECD Science, Technology and Innovation Scoreboard 2011
OECD
With over 180 indicators this annual scoreboard presents a policy-oriented review of science, technology, innovation and industrial performance in OECD and major non-OECD countries . The overarching theme of this year’s release is the increased importance of the non-OECD countries, including Brazil, the Russian Federation, India, Indonesia, the People’s Republic of China and South Africa, together dubbed the BRIICS countries. In the wake of the most recent global economic crisis, BRIICS countries have become more important, not just in manufacturing, but in high-tech manufacturing. While the U.S.’ vaunted higher educational system continues to boast 40 of the world’s top 50 research universities, the report provides a more diverse picture emerges once the rankings are broken out by research area.
OECD Sustainable Manufacturing Toolkit
OECD
This toolkit provides a practical starting point for businesses around the world to improve the efficiency of their production processes and products in a way to contribute to sustainable development and green growth. The key instrument of this toolkit is an internationally applicable common set of indicators to measure environmental performance at the level of facilities.
Policy Digest
International Benchmarking of Countries’ Policies and Programs Supporting SME Manufacturers
Stephen Ezell and Robert D. Atkinson, ITIF
This report builds on ITIF’s recent report The Case for a National Manufacturing Strategy by identifying and analyzing manufacturing support programs and practices for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) that have been implemented in ten foreign countries, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Germany, Japan, Korea, Spain, and the United Kingdom (in addition to those of the United States). Specific emphasis is given in the report to Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, Spain, and the United Kingdom, countries which have created formal agencies, institutions, or programs most like the United States’ Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program to provide manufacturing extension services to their SME manufacturers.
Five years ago it was all about lean, quality, Six Sigma, and continuous improvement, but now it is all about innovation and new product development and finding new customers and new markets. A lot of small companies can understand process improvements, but performing research and development, retooling, understanding new customer sensing, designing products for new markets, and understanding standards requirements in global markets are the new challenges.
Focus
This report focuses on the following areas:
Technology acceleration programs and practices including but not limited to:
1. Promoting technology adoption by SMEs;
2. Conducting audits to identify opportunities for improvement in SMEs’ manufacturing and operational processes;
3. Supporting technology transfer, diffusion, and commercialization;
4. Performing research and development (R&D) in direct partnership with SMEs, and/or providing access to research labs; and
5. Engaging SMEs in collaborative research and development and/or technology specific consortia.
For example, staff members at each Kohsetsushi Center in Japan spend up to half their time on research, mainly on applied projects focused toward and often undertaken in direct conjunction with local industries. Small manufacturers often send one or two of their staff members to actually work on Kohsetsushi Center projects, providing opportunities for company research personnel to gain research experience, develop new technical skills, and transfer technology back to their firms. The Kohsetsushi Centers are effectively partnering alongside SME manufacturers to help them research and develop new technologies and products.
Technology acceleration funding mechanisms including:
1. Providing direct research and development grants;
2. Providing loans to scale and grow the enterprise;
3. Providing innovation vouchers to assist SME manufacturers with new product development and innovation efforts; and
4. Funding joint pre-competitive research programs.
Many countries, including Austria, Canada, and Germany, provide innovation vouchers to help jumpstart innovation activities within firms and connect them with researchers at universities or other companies. Seventy percent of countries examined provide innovation-related funding directly to their SME manufacturers (with the United States being one of the few exceptions). Germany has three such models (beyond innovation vouchers) that provide funding for working in consortia, funding for network managers of firm consortia, and funding for single-firm innovation.
Next-generation manufacturing technical assistance including:
1. Providing export assistance and training;
2. Promoting energy-efficient manufacturing practices;
3. Promoting continuous productivity improvement including lean, Six Sigma, and other methods;
4. Providing information about and assistance with acquiring standards and certifications, and
5. Teaching SMEs about the role of design in manufacturing.
Conclusions
Overall, this study finds that global best practice in supporting SME manufacturers accomplishes two primary goals. These are:
1. Global best practices respond to where the majority of a nation’s SME manufacturers stand with regard to their manufacturing process, technology adoption, R&D, and innovation capabilities; identifies the gaps; and seeks to take firms to the next level.
2. Global best practices have seen the manufacturing support agencies become the central hub, or delivery mechanism, for a comprehensive suite of services, some of it provided by the agency itself and some of it brokered by others, all designed to boost the competitiveness of SMEs.
Moreover, this study finds that the manufacturing support agencies and programs implemented by a number of countries have achieved unequivocal and substantial economic impact in boosting sales, employment, and growth of their SME manufacturers, and thus having a clear positive impact on broader economic and employment growth in their countries.
In summary, there are many insights that the United States can learn from successful and integrated programs such as those in Canada, Germany and Japan, or even in specific examples in any of the countries examined in this report. Perhaps the strongest of these is that the path of current SME manufacturing support programs towards growth and innovation is validated and substantiated by the fact that every other country has moved in a very similar direction, even if they have started from different points or are serving slightly different markets. Continuous productivity improvements serviced through single organization, point-in-time solutions are necessary but no longer sufficient to the long-term competiveness of U.S. and world SME manufacturers.
Events
Jefferson Innovation Summit: Creating a Society of Entrepreneurs and Innovators 
Charlottesville, VA, 11-12 October, 2011
Through an unconventional and provocative format, the Summit will bring together the brightest minds in business, government, academia, media, and the arts to grapple with how best to create and sustain a society of entrepreneurs and innovators.
Lund, Sweden, 13-14 October, 2011
The conference offers two days of plenaries, presentations and intense discussions on preconditions and strategies for regional innovation policy and regional development in Europe. It is organized around five key themes: (1) Preconditions for sustainable development (economically, socially and environmentally) in European regions: (2) the role of universities in the promotion of regional development; (3) sectoral specificities (resource based and cultural/creative industries) and their impacts on regional competitiveness; (4) Southern European regions and their strategies to grow out of the global economic crisis; (5) the growth of emerging economies in Asia and Latin America and consequences for European regions. Confirmed keynote speakers include Meric Gertler (University of Toronto), Claire Nauwelaers (OECD), Staffan Laestadius (Royal Institute of Technology KTH), Dominic Power (Uppsala University), Mario Rui Silva (University of Porto) and Cristina Chaminade (Lund University).
Culture, Place and Identity at the Heart of Regional Development
St, John’s, 13-15 October, 2011
This conference will examine the relationship between the arts, cultural heritage and regional development in islands and in rural and remote regions. It will bring together representatives from academia, government, the arts community, the cultural heritage community, the knowledge economy, the tourism industry, and organizations dealing with regional development. It will examine global trends in tourism, technology and demographics, and will feature global best practices in cultural tourism.
Building Better Bridges: Creating Successful Partnerships
Ottawa, 25-26 October, 2011
This is a course designed to provide tools and insights for assisting technology management, research services and applied research professionals from Canadian universities, research hospitals, polytechnics and colleges, develop new and improved practices and models for effectively engaging and carrying out collaborations with industry, government and non-profit partners. Participants will explore new ways to convey the concept that academic-based research organizations are open for business and encourage collaboration.
Living in the Endless City – Global Challenges in an Urban Age
Toronto, 26 October, 2011
Toronto is a big city in need of ideas. This public lecture series features global leaders in urban an regional planning. This lecture, by Ricky Durdett (Director of the London School of Economies Cities and the Urban Age program) focuses on how global cities can best plan and deliver big projects and on how rapid urbanization is affecting the way the world lives.
SSTI 15th Annual Conference: Innovative Economies – Creating Our Future
Columbus, OH, 8-9 November, 2011
No longer limited to a niche group of practitioners, promoting growth through innovation and technology has achieved widespread acceptance as the key to our economic prosperity. You’ll find it in blog posts and opinion pages from across the political spectrum, and in virtually every corporate or civic dialogue today on revitalizing America’s economy. Meanwhile, most state and local governments — where the majority of funding for technology-based economic development (TBED) comes from — are experiencing a fiscal crisis that won’t go away anytime soon. Also, activities funded directly by universities are feeling the pinch. Then there’s the federal budget situation.This conference brings together leaders in the field to share best practices and lessons learned, so you walk away with practical tips and new ideas to apply, including those that can have an impact even with a limited budget. And we’ll also look at the latest developments in the field and when they make sense for your area.
INNOVATION 2011: Canada’s R&D Partnership Conference
Montreal, 20-22 November, 2011
INNOVATION 2011 is a networking and professional development conference that draws from the global community of technology transfer and industry engagement practitioners from academia, industry and government as well as venture investors and other managers of Canada’s intellectual assets. Partnerships with local, regional and national industry associations and others will enrich the program significantly. In addition to professional development, opportunities for networking, marketing and building relationships with key individuals and organizations in Canada’s Innovation Ecosystem are key cornerstones of the Conference.
Multi-level Governance and Partnership in EU Cohesion Policy
Vienna, Austria, 29-30 November, 2011
The first workshop will tackle the issues of multi-level governance and partnership in EU cohesion policy. The imposition of multi-level and horizontal cooperation in implementation of cohesion funding challenged the established patterns of interaction between the levels of government and the actors involved in regional policy delivery. The partnership principle has also been praised for its positive impact in terms of improvement of administrative capacity and favouring learning across organizational boundaries. In addition, effective multi-level governance mechanisms and horizontal partnership are also considered as crucial for purposeful and strategic use of the Structural Funds. Thus, EU cohesion policy is expected to become more results-oriented in 2014-2020 thanks to, among other measures, an emphasis on a place-based approach, a concept closely linked with multi-level governance and partnership. However, there are major barriers for the functioning of multi-level governance, such as reluctance of some national governments to allow the sub-national actors to play a more important role; or lack of capacity at the regional level to actively take part in shaping and implementation of EU cohesion policy, particularly in countries with centralized and hierarchical administration systems. Likewise, as the ex-post evaluations of 2000-2006 period and the academic research to date suggest, the application of horizontal partnership varies considerably across the Member States and can remain superficial and ‘formal.’
Innovation in a Sustainable Supply Chain: A Global Challenge
Montreal, 5-6 December, 2011
Aéro Montréal, the Québec Aerospace Cluster, in collaboration with CRIAQ, is organizing the third forum entirely dedicated to aerospace innovation. More than 500 participants and renowned speakers from the aerospace industry from Québec, Canada and abroad. The program includes conferences, workshops, B2B technology meetings and innovation exhibits.
CALL FOR PAPERS – DRUID Academy Conference 2012
Cambridge, UK, 19-21 January, 2012
The conference is open for all PhD students working within the broad field of economics, entrepreneurship and management of innovation and organizational change. We invite papers aiming at enhancing our understanding of the dynamics of technological, structural and institutional change at the level of firms, industries, regions and nations. DRUID is the node for an open international network – new partners are most welcome (we of course encourage DRUID Academy PhD students and students previously connected DRUID conferences to submit an abstract as well). Do not hesitate to apply even if you have not been in contact with DRUID previously.
Saint-Etienne, France, 26-28 January, 2012
Public and corporate actors are faced with pressing questions concerning innovation policy and the return of R&D investment. To answer these questions, new perspectives are necessary to overthrow received wisdom. This first European seminar on “Geography of Innovation” invites scholars from all disciplines to present their work on local and global processes of innovation, on the interaction between science, technology and policy, on clusters, entrepreneurship and competitiveness, and on green growth and sustainability. To further our understanding of innovation processes, the seminar intends to bring together a variety of disciplines including economic geography, regional science, economics of innovation, network theory and management science. We further welcome new contributions to the establishment of (European) databases as well as new analytical tools, including spatial econometrics, network analysis, (interactive) visualization, bibliometrics and policy evaluation tools.
The Governance of Innovation and Socio-Technical Systems: Theorizing and Explaining Change
Copenhagen, Denmark, 1-2 March, 2012
‘Governance’ is a notion that has gained increasing currency the past years in the field of (sectoral) innovation systems and socio-technical systems’ studies. Generally speaking, it refers to the ability of a society to solve collective action problems in issues that involve science, technology and innovation. However, there continues to be a considerable level of indeterminacy in the literature. Firstly, because the empirical literature on systems exhibits multiple understanding of change, and hence about how governance processes take place. This diversity has not been properly spelled out, obscuring the way in which change is linked to specific forms of (effective) governance. And secondly, because these empirical studies tend to use the notion ‘governance’ in rather loose conceptual terms and sometimes even only implicitly. This tends to underestimate or ignore the coordination aspect embedded in any form of systemic change. For these two reasons, the actual explanatory capacity of the notion ‘governance’ when studying systems’ change remains limited. This workshop aims at addressing this gap in the literature, asking how do agents and institutions coordinate in the process of generating change in complex socio-technical and (sectoral) innovation systems.
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This newsletter is prepared by Jen Nelles.
Project manager is David A. Wolfe.