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
USAID Award US$130 Million for Universities to Spur Development Innovation Through S&T
With $130 million in funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), seven universities will establish development labs to address global development challenges through science and technology in partnership with agency experts and policymakers. A new discipline of development science that combines math, science and engineering at the University of California-Berkeley and a Social Entrepreneur Accelerator at Duke University focused on health care delivery are among the projects supported as part of USAID’s Higher Education Solutions Network. The network has up to five years to achieve its goals, and for every $10 of USAID funding, the universities and their partners are contributing an additional $6.60 to the network.
MaRS Centre for Impact Investing Received $1 Million Gift from RBC
The MaRS Centre for Impact Investing recently received a $1 million, five-year commitment from RBC to help build its capacity as a leadership hub for social finance and impact investing. The announcement was made at the Centre’s annual Social Finance Forum, taking place at MaRS Discovery District. With this gift, RBC becomes a founding partner of the Centre, which was launched in late 2011 to increase awareness of social finance and direct new capital and talent to tackle social and environmental problems in Canada. The donation will fund educational programs for investors, social enterprises and financial advisors, as well as the development of models, tools, products, research and services to create and measure positive social and environmental impact.
Editor's Pick
Manufacturing the Future: The Next Era of Global Growth and Innovation
McKinsey Global Institute
The global manufacturing sector has undergone a tumultuous decade: large developing economies leaped into the first tier of manufacturing nations, a severe recession choked off demand, and manufacturing employment fell at an accelerated rate in advanced economies. Still, manufacturing remains critically important to both the developing and the advanced world. In the former, it continues to provide a pathway from subsistence agriculture to rising incomes and living standards. In the latter, it remains a vital source of innovation and competitiveness, making outsized contributions to research and development, exports, and productivity growth. But the manufacturing sector has changed—bringing both opportunities and challenges—and neither business leaders nor policy makers can rely on old responses in the new manufacturing environment. This report presents a clear view of how manufacturing contributes to the global economy today and how it will probably evolve over the coming decade.
Innovation Policy
aerospacereview.ca
The Aerospace Review report contains two volumes: Volume 1: Beyond the Horizon: Canada’s Interests and Future in Aerospace and Volume 2: Reaching Higher: Canada’s Interests and Future in Space. The Aerospace volume notes that Canada has built an aerospace industry that is the second largest in the world, relative to GDP, and that this achievement has made significant contributions to the country’s prosperity and security. But it also stresses that global conditions are changing, new aerospace players are on the rise, and Canada must redouble its efforts if it wants to maintain and strengthen its position in the global aerospace business. The reports state that success will depend on effective collaboration between industry, researchers, and governments. They conclude with a set of recommendations regarding the future governance of federal policies and programs.
The proceedings contains 36 papers presented at the 16th Annual Cambridge International Manufacturing Symposium, held in Cambridge from 20 – 21 September 2012. Themes covered include Supply Networks, Value Chains, Internationalisation of Emerging Country Multinational Corporations (MNCs), Global Manufacturing and China (GMC) and Food Supply Chains.
University-Industry Collaboration: Researchers Weigh In
Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal
On the occasion of the third edition of Rendez-vous du Savoir, the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal unveiled the findings of its latest survey, University-Industry Collaboration: Researchers Weigh In. Conducted in partnership with Léger Marketing, this survey reveals how Quebec university research centres and chairs perceive collaboration with the private sector. Collaboration with the private sector is relevant and necessary for research work according to survey findings.
Skilled Immigrants an\d the Employment Structures and Innovation Rates of U.S. Firms
Sari Pekkala Kerr, William R. Kerr, and William F. Lincoln
This paper studies the impact of skilled immigrants on the employment structures and innovation outcomes of U.S. firms using matched employer-employee data. The authors use the firm as the lens of analysis given that many skilled immigrant admissions are driven by firms subject to regulations and mandated caps (e.g., H-1B visa). OLS and IV specifications find rising overall employment with increased skilled immigrant employment by the firm; employment expansion is greater for younger natives than older natives. Departure rates for older workers appear higher for workers in STEM occupations. Skilled immigration expands firm innovation with little impact on the traits of patents filed.
Cities, Clusters & Regions
A Push for Growth: The Time is Now
The Institute for Competitivenss and Prosperity
Ontario’s prosperity gap with peer jurisdictions persists. The time to push for the economic growth Ontario needs is now. As the recession recedes, the Task Force on Competitiveness, Productivity and Economic Progress calls on all Ontarians to build on the province’s strengths and make the decisions and investments needed to achieve the 2020 Prosperity Agenda. The Task Force singles out the “dead cash” on the balance sheets of Ontario businesses as an opportunity to enhance the province’s prosperity.
Insight: Is West Virginia Missing out on the Creative Economy?
Martin Prosperity Institute
A previous Insight article touched on Vermont, and the attraction of its natural environment, forests, small towns and cities, as an alternative to big city life. For many potential migrants, including creative professionals and entrepreneurs – these lifestyle factors can be a draw and, along with telecommunications, opens up economic opportunities away from larger cities. The article included references to qualitative interviews, population growth numbers, as well as the successes of local enterprises in Vermont. A key to all this is the environment and natural landscapes. So what are “smart policies” versus “dumb policies” for states like Vermont and West Virginia? For smaller jurisdictions (and even larger ones as well) — where the natural environment and small town/city environments are draws for new residents and tourists, it would be preserving these advantages, through environmental conservation and planning initiatives designed to curb sprawl, preserve forested and rural landscapes, and promote city and town centres.
Statistics & Indicators
How Significant is the U.S. Skills Gap?
Boston Consulting Group
The skills gap in U.S. manufacturing today is more limited than many people believe and is unlikely to prevent a projected resurgence in U.S. manufacturing by the end of this decade. But more severe shortages could develop, threatening to constrain that revival, unless aggressive steps are taken now, according to new research by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). BCG estimates that the U.S. is short some 80,000 to 100,000 highly skilled manufacturing workers. That shortage represents less than 1 percent of the nation’s 11.5 million manufacturing workers and less than 8 percent of its 1.4 million highly skilled manufacturing workers. What’s more, only seven states—six of which are in the bottom quartile of U.S. state manufacturing output—show significant or severe skills gaps. The shortages are local, not nationwide, in nature and reflect imbalances driven by both location and job classes.
Ryan Macdonald, Statistics Canada
This paper examines the survival characteristics of firms, using microdata from the Longitudinal Employment Analysis Program (LEAP) of Statistics Canada. Entry rates and survival functions for the 2002 cohort are analyzed. The business sector is disaggregated along industry and size dimensions. The results indicate that groups with higher entry rates have lower survival probabilities. There is a statistically significant difference in the survival curves for most units from the remainder of the population; however, the magnitude of the difference is small.
Innovation Index: Benchmarking the Rhode Island Knowledge Economy
Rhode Island Science & Technology Advisory Council
Innovation depends on an environment that links a pipeline of ideas and talent with the creativity that can transfer discoveries and knowledge into products with value in a marketplace. Rhode Island has that environment. As the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution, we have a long legacy of turning ideas and knowledge into products. And today, with a dense concentration of science and technology assets and a hyper-connectivity of people and communities spanning higher education, industry, finance, government and the arts that is second to none, we are well situated to continue our tradition of innovation. The RI Innovation Index is a joint project by the RI Science and Technology Advisory Council and the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce to benchmark and track Rhode Island’s knowledge enterprise and innovation capacity. The data from the Index provides a picture of our innovation capacity and allows us to strategically identify and support initiatives that will insure RI continues to be a major hub of innovation.
Policy Digest
Building an Innovation-Based Economy
Darrell West, Allan Friedman, and Walter Valdivia, The Brookings Institution
The Internet is creating tremendous social, economic, and cultural value. Through digital connections, people are innovating, communicating with one another, and creating businesses. Yet despite these positive benefits, the United States is experiencing slow economic growth and major barriers to public and private sector innovation. The U.S. needs smarter policies in order to take full advantage of the digital economy and strengthen its capacity to build society, generate jobs, and improve long-term economic growth. This focus should be front and center for policymakers as they wrestle with social and economic challenges. This paper looks at ways to reform the economy, improve public sector performance, and train people for 21st century jobs. It draws on a day-long workshop organized with two dozen innovation leaders in June, 2012 and online crowd-sourcing with several hundred experts around the country in the areas of innovation, technology, and economic development. The convenors asked these individuals to help develop new solutions to continuing economic and political woes. This included the identification of promising reform ideas and ways to encourage growth through innovation.
Recommendations include :
• Better metrics for measuring worker productivity in the 21st century economy. Past approaches based on worker hours or total employees in relation to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ignore the transformational nature of digital technology.
• Encourage entrepreneurship by expanding Small Business Administration credit for start ups, adding entrepreneurial skills to school curricula, and making changes in immigration policy that encourage entrepreneurs to come to America.
• Governments that learn to innovate and collaborate, and develop new approaches to service delivery, transparency, and participation. This includes placing more data online and employing data analytical tools, social media, mobile technology, and search results that improve decision-making.
• Strengthen infrastructure by investing in broadband, data centers, and mobile cell towers, and improving access to spectrum for wireless applications.
• Protect vital digital assets by updating the Federal Information Security Management Act and developing procedures for monitoring threats to critical infrastructure.
• Improve knowledge transmission through faster adoption of digital textbooks, more widespread use of creative commons licenses for instructional materials developed with taxpayer dollars, and policy changes that speed education innovation.
• Increase technology transfer and the commercialization of knowledge from universities and federal laboratories so that public and private investments translate into jobs and economic activity as well as better health, security, and well-being.
• Harmonize cross-border laws to promote global innovation and freedom of expression.
Events
Madrid, Spain, 10-12 April, 2013
The Conference aims to encourage dialogue betweens academics and practitioners to improve innovation policy design, implementation and evaluation. The conference will offer keynote speeches, parallel thematic sessions, roundtable discussions, special activities for young researchers and ample space for all participants to interact. Visits to research and innovation centres both in public and private institutions will be offered after the conference.
16th Uddevalla Symposium 2013: Innovation, High-Growth Entrepreneurship and Regional Development
Kansas City, 13-15 June, 2013
The critical role of innovation and entrepreneurship in regional economic development in terms of productivity and employment growth has been well documented theoretically as well as empirically by researchers in recent decades. The specific mechanisms through which innovation stimulates regional economic development are less well established. It is often assumed that entrepreneurship in the form of new firm formation and the growth of newly established firms plays a critical role, but how, why, when and under what conditions is less clear. Empirical studies show that a limited share of new business ventures have the capacity to rapidly up-scale and to generate substantial new jobs in the regions where they are launched. From the perspective of regional policy makers, this implies that it is critical to understand what regional economic milieus are capable of generating innovations that can be the basis of high-growth entrepreneurship as well as provide the right environment for entrepreneurs to launch entrepreneurial initiatives.Against this background, we seek papers that, in particular, topics related to exploring these themes.
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This newsletter is prepared by Jen Nelles.
Project manager is David A. Wolfe.