News from the IPL
ANNOUNCEMENTS
MA Governor Announces Innovation Focused Economic Development Package
SSTI
Governor Deval Patrick recently announced an economic development package that provides new tools and training so the Massachusetts workforce is prepared to meet the needs of employers, invests in Gateway Cities to promote development across the entire state, and provides incentives to create jobs and stimulate the economy. The Governor’s bill, An Act to Promote Growth and Opportunity, builds on the Administration’s proven growth strategy of investing in education, innovation and infrastructure that has led to record job creation in Massachusetts and made the Commonwealth a global leader in key innovation economy sectors.
CASE Initiative Will Help Connect Local Suppliers with Chicago’s Anchor Institutions
SSTI
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel recently announced the Chicago Anchors for a Strong Economy (CASE) program — an initiative to connect local small- and medium-sized business to a network of Chicago’s leading anchor institutions (e.g., hospitals, universities, cultural institutions, corporations). The CASE program is intended to create economic opportunities for local suppliers across all industries, including science and tech companies, by fostering strategic relationships with anchor institutions and equipping them with the necessary tools to successfully compete for contracts with these anchor institutions. A pilot program between the University of Chicago and 10 local companies has been operating since mid-2013 as a proof-of-concept for the city-wide program.
Michigan Releases a Strategic Automotive Plan
Mlive.com
S tate officials believe they have a new plan that will help keep Michigan at the center of the global automotive industry for years to come. The 30-year “State of Michigan Automotive Strategic Plan” focuses on key enablers of what automotive companies are searching for when wanting to build new facilities. The report found that there are three fundamental enablers that Michigan should concentrate on to attract new automotive companies: Technology, talent and capital.
Editor's Pick
Startup City: The Urban Shift in Venture Capital and High Technology
Martin Prosperity Institute
High tech development, startup activity, and venture investment have recently begun to shift to urban centers and also to close-in, mixed-use, transit-oriented walkable suburbs. This report, which is based on unique data from the National Venture Capital Association, Thompson Reuters and Dow Jones, examines this emergent urban shift in high tech startup activity and venture capital investment.
Innovation Policy
Wearable Technology: Leveraging Canadian Innovation to Improve Health
MaRS
Health and fitness, and other medical applications, are areas where wearables are expected to play a transformative role. Over $450 million in capital was raised by wearables startups in 2013. The market opportunity for wearables is expected to top $30 billion by 2018, with health and fitness making up over 20% of the total. In Canada, the wearable device startup and researcher ecosystem is thriving. World-class startups have emerged in recent years from different corners of the country, with clients across the globe. This report highlights key Canadian innovators and investors, trends, challenges, and future predictions about the wearables ecosystem, with an emphasis on health.
Innovation and Foreign R&D Centres in Israel: Evidence from Patent and Firm Level Data
Daphne Getz, Eran Leck and Vered Segal
This research investigates the impact of multinational companies (MNCs) on the Israeli economy in terms of demand for innovation. The research focuses on two main impacts: the positive externalities to the national economy stemming from the activity of foreign R&D centres in Israel and the potential loss to the economy due to the utilization of locally produced IP and know-how by MNC subsidiaries. The findings of the research show that MNCs play a pivotal role in stimulating demand for innovation in the local market. The activity of MNCs in Israel spurs demand for sophisticated goods and services, which are partially supplied by local companies (especially in the fields of software development, algorithm development, product design and supply of computer hardware and communication equipment). R&D centres contribute to the promotion of important spill-over effects between firms and within the high-technology sector in Israel. Local start-ups and small firms are the main beneficiaries from these knowledge and know-how flows which promote their integrative R&D capabilities and improve their ability to carry out complex projects. Although the contribution of MNCs to the Israeli economy is highly significant, some regulatory measures are needed to be undertaken to better safeguard Israeli IP and local know-how.
Cities, Clusters & Regions
Lessons for U.S. Metro Areas: Characteristics and Clustering of High-Tech Immigrant Entrepreneurs
Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation
An open and culturally diverse environment helps promote high-tech entrepreneurship among both immigrants and the U.S.-born. Immigrant-owned businesses, the study shows, are more likely to locate in ethnically diverse metro areas that have high foreign-born populations. That’s important for metro areas hoping to attract and retain this fast-growing pool of high-impact founders. The study also reports that regional labor markets with greater percentages of high-tech industries and greater numbers of college graduates and patents – all indicators of innovation – tend to attract other high-tech companies.
Cultural Connections: The Role of the Arts and Humanities in Competitivenes and Local Development
Alan Hughes et al. UK-IRC
This report considers how the arts and cultural institutions contribute to the appeal of place. Cultural institutions are a prominent part of UK society – and many have a rich and long heritage. The impact of such institutions has often been evaluated in terms of engagement and participation or on the direct economic impact of cultural institutions. This study primarily focuses on the wider role of cultural institutions in their local economies; their innovative activities; how they connect to other local organizations such as universities; and how they collaborate with academics from the Arts and Humanities.
Can Cities and Rural Counties Come Together?
Governing
Recent political battles have highlighted the decades-old divide between urban and rural areas, making groups that occupy a middle ground more necessary than ever. Regional planning and development strategies are essential to addressing current economic challenges. The article touches on strategies for how to spur meaningful public dialogue, advocate for a shared regional policy platform, and provides examples of implementation from across the country.
Statistics & Indicators
Halo Report 2013: Analysis of the U.S. Angel Market
Silicon Valley Bank
The 2013 Halo Report finds angel investment activity on the rise with more high-valuation deals closed in 2013 than in 2012. While median round sizes held steady at $600K per deal, they were at a three year high when angels co-invested with non-angels. The share of angel investment in Internet, healthcare and mobile startups continued to increase. Golden Seeds, Tech Coast Angels, and Houston Angel Network, which is new to the list, were the three most active angel groups in 2013. With a continued progression toward more even distribution of investments nationally, entrepreneurs throughout the country are likely to find it easier to access angel investors for critical early stage funding.
Automation Alley 2013: Technology Industry Report
Automation Alley
Detroit ranks second only to Chicago in tech employment among Midwest cities, according to the Automation Alley report. The researchers estimate the region’s total number of technology jobs exceeds that of San Jose. Detroit’s concentration of tech employment in 2011, the percentage of all jobs that are focused on technology, was the highest in the Midwest. Many of these jobs are associated with the region’s automotive industry, which remains the largest in the country. About 9.7 percent of all advanced automotive employment in the U.S. remains in the greater Detroit region, according to the report. The growth of advanced automotive employment, as well as life sciences jobs, fueled an increase in tech employment twice the national rate in 2011.
Building Momentum: Investing in Pittsburgh’s Technology Sector – Trends and Highlights 2009-2013
EY & Innovation Works
The last fi ve years have shown positive momentum for technology companies in the Pittsburgh region. During the period from 2009 to 2013, the region saw a strong increase in the amount of capital invested and continued growth in the number of companies attracting investment. It also showed an improvement in its relative position compared to other regions around the country in attracting outside investment.The software sector, including consumer and enterprise software, garnered the largest share of investment in our region in 2013, followed by energy, medical devices, biotechnology, healthcare IT, electronics and advanced materials. The diversity of these sectors speaks to the broad base of technical talent in the Pittsburgh region, as well as the strengths of the region’s universities and corporations. As Pittsburgh aspires to become a global leader in tomorrow’s most promising fields, it is critical that the city nurture its entrepreneurial ecosystem to support high-growth, innovation-led companies.
Policy Digest
Promoting Research Excellence: New Approaches to Funding
OECD
National research systems face an increasingly competitive environment for ideas, talent and funds, and governments have shifted funds from institutional core funding to project funding, often on a competitive basis, or reward success in raising third-party funds in performance-based funding schemes. It is in this context that “research excellence initiatives” (REIs) have emerged. This is an instrument designed to encourage outstanding research by providing large-scale, long-term funding to designated research units. They provide funds for research and research-related measures, such as the improvement or extension of physical infrastructure, the recruitment of outstanding researchers from abroad and researcher training.
This report presents new evidence on how governments steer and fund public research in higher education and public research institutions through REIs. The report can help inform discussions on future government policy directions by providing information on how REIs work and on the functioning and characteristics of institutions that host centres of excellence. The findings show some of the benefits to be gained through REIs and note some pitfalls to be avoided.
REIs provide Centres of Excelence (CoEs) with relatively long-term resources for carrying out ambitious, complex research agendas. This is particularly important for interdisciplinary and cooperative research and for high-impact, high-risk research (e.g. basic research). Their focus can be wide or narrow. Some countries operate a single excellence initiative while others operate several. The former may provide a boost to the broad research system, while the latter can target specific topics (including challenges such as climate change).
REIs can therefore lead to broad changes in the structure of the research system by pushing research centres and institutions to continually prove and develop their strengths, show their ability to build interdisciplinary networks, create links with the private sector and abroad, and generally enhance a country’s overall research capacity.
REIs allow for greater flexibility than other forms of funding, notably in terms of managing resources and hiring researchers. CoEs’ freedom for managing research funds is seen as crucial. They usually have faster and more flexible recruitment processes. In some cases, they offer professorships and tenure track positions with attractive packages in terms of research facilities. This may enhance their ability to attract talented researchers. However, strict financial rules, such as those that prohibit carrying funds over from year to year, may lead to inefficient use of the available resources.
Researcher mobility (both within national boundaries and abroad) is essential for scientific discovery and increasing productivity.REIs make it easier for CoEs to attract top scientists and foreign talent who in turn gain status and further career opportunities from their association with the CoE. The intake of foreign researchers also ultimately helps to form the long-run international linkages that foster innovation and knowledge creation at the international level.
An increasingly skilled workforce is fundamental for economic growth and is likely to have lasting effects on society. REI funding allows CoEs to enhance post-doctoral and doctoral programs and training, thereby attracting and training future generations of leading scientists.
REIs concentrate exceptional researchers in well-equipped working environments to open up new lines of research, establish new patterns of interdisciplinary research, strengthen human capital, and generally enhance research capacities. However, fostering competition and structural change can create frictions. Competitive research funding and concentration of resources can mean that some groups are disadvantaged in the short term while others reinforce their position. Competition for scarce financial resources therefore requires a sound and transparent selection process, usually involving international panels of experts to judge the quality of applications. This can also counter political influence on the selection of research lines.
REIs raise the international reputation of domestic research institutions. Hosting a CoE increases an institution’s visibility and helps it attract students, researchers and additional funding (further REIs, third-party, institutional funds). However, it also involves considerable administrative and overhead costs. The strong links that REI-funded CoEs generally establish with their host institution may lead to the integration of the CoEs into the host structures when the REI program ends. This may present financial challenges for the host.
The activities of CoEs can spill over and create positive externalities that positively affect those of other departments in the host institution both directly, through the establishment of new networks and co-operative ties, and indirectly, through the overall reputational gains of the host institution. There is however some potential for CoEs to create divisions within university departments or research institutions.
The effects of concentrating research in excellent and large institutions deserve close inspection. Highly concentrated funding may undermine the competitive element of REIs in the long run by providing additional funds to well-established institutions. Funding centres rather than institutions may mitigate concentration. Ministries must also decide on selectivity: whether funding distributed through REIs should go to a small number of centres or be spread over a wider number.
Third-party funding is important to the success of many REIs. The increased visibility afforded by hosting a CoE can lead to a virtuous funding circle: hosts can integrate CoEs within their structures and CoEs can raise additional funds to extend their research activities. Important sources of external funding include competitive project funding and private investment.
Responsible public funding bodies, CoEs and hosts view REIs positively. The objectives of these programs are largely reported to have been achieved. New lines of research have opened up, new co-operative patterns of interdisciplinary research have been established, development of human capital has been strengthened, and concentration processes have generally led to enhanced research capacities. However, systematic impact assessments to quantify these positives effects on research systems, society and welfare are so far lacking.
Events
Cities Consortium – Comptitiveness, Liveability and Creative Economy of Cities Conference
Toronto, 18-19 April, 2014
The conference is a forum for young faculty, emerging students and scholars who are engaged in research related to the competitiveness, liveability and creative economy of cities in India. The conference brings together individuals from around the world to share and discuss their research. In particular, the small and focused setting provides participants with the opportunity to present their work, receive feedback, refine and develop research methods and joing an ongoing network of collaboration and exchange.
Budget 2014: Re-balancing Innovation Support Programs
Ottawa, 22-23 April, 2014
The 13th annual RE$EARCH MONEY conference continues our examination of the implications of recent federal budgets for business innovation support. This year, we will look at how Budget 2014 builds on the last two budgets, in particular the extent to which the government is changing the balance between indirect and direct support of firms and the balance between supporting basic and applied research in academia and academic-industrial research collaboration. We’ll also look at implications of the anticipated update to the federal government’s science and technology strategy, should it be released with the 2014 budget or before, and examine progress being made with the federal government’s new VC fund and its support for accelerators and other innovation intermediaries. In smaller breakout sessions we’ll dig deeper into specific opportunities being pursued in Canada in the digital economy, new industries based on genomics and quantum computing and new sources of funding such as crowdfunding, impact investing.
Smart to Future Cities 2014
London, 29-30 April, 2014
At Smart to Future Cities 2013, the emphasis was on how the market is at an inflection point between talking about what “smart city” means and understanding how to implement it. The evidence of the shift was in the increasing maturity of the demand side, the development of standards, and the arrival of investment in the form of stimulus funding from government, sovereign wealth funds, and venture capital. In 2014 we will be looking at the move of Smart Cities into the mainstream as we see governments commit finance and policy to smart city development, deployments of smart city protocols and operating platforms and acceptance of smart technologies as the norm in transport, energy, development, assisted living and security in cities.
GCIF Global Cities Summit
Toronto, 15-16 May, 2014
The GCIF Global Cities Summit will take place May 15th and 16th, 2014 in Toronto, Canada. Leaders from GCIF’s network of cities, business leaders, senior government officials, scholars, and planning & design professionals will participate in this global event.
CFP – The Organization, Economics and Policy of Scientific Research
Torino, Italy, 19-20 May, 2014
The aim of the workshop is to bring together a small group of scholars interested in the analysis of the production and diffusion of scientific research from an economics, historical, organizational, and policy perspective. As in previous years, we aim to attract contributions from both junior and senior scholars; a minimum number of slots are reserved for junior researchers (PhD students or postdoc scholars who obtained their PhD in 2011 or later). The workshop aims at including papers form various streams of research developed in recent years in and around the area of public and private scientific research.
CFP – Second International ZEW Conference on the Dynamics of Entrepreneurship (CoDE II)
Mannheim, Germany, 22-23 May, 2014
The formation, growth and exit of firms are crucial for innovation, employment and structural change in modern economies. The aim of this conference is to discuss recent scientific contributions on the interdependencies between finance, human capital, innovation activities and investment activities of young firms. Papers introducing recent theoretical, econometric and policy-oriented studies from all areas of the entrepreneurship research management are invited.
Industry Studies Association Annual Conference
Portland, Oregon, 27-30 May, 2014
The Industry Studies Annual Conference draws scholars from a wide range of disciplines who present findings from research at the cutting edge of the academic literature in their areas of specialization. Research presented at the conferences very often focuses on issues of immediate interest to industry and public policy.
Photonics North 2014
Montreal, 28-30 May, 2014
This year’s conference sessions include: Green photonics, energy and related technologies; Optical communications; Optoelectronics and integrated optics; Photonic materials; Nonlinear optics, nanophotonics and quantum optics; Photonic sensors and biomedical optics and more.
CFP – Mapping Culture: Communities, Sites and Stories
Cimbra, Portugal, 28-30 May, 2014
The Centre for Social Studies (Centro de Estudos Sociais – CES), a State Associate Laboratory at the University of Coimbra in Portugal, is calling for the submission of papers and panel/workshop proposals from academics, researchers, public administrators, architects, planners and artists for an international conference and symposium. The CES is committed to questions of public interest, including those involving relationships between scientific knowledge and citizens’ participation.
Business Innovation Summit 2014: Accelerating Corporate Innovation and Commercialization
Toronto, 28-29 May, 2014
The objective of this conference is to help companies of all sizes across Canada harness the power of innovation, and accelerate their innovation and commercialization results. The Summit is exploring the real-life challenges and opportunities of innovation within firms, and is featuring tangible solutions that work. We are assembling an outstanding lineup of Canadian and international speakers to share best practices and unique insights on how to implement effective processes and build innovative organizations for the 21st century.
RSA Workshop on the Evaluations of EU Cohesion Policy in 2014+
Prague, 10 June, 2014
In recent years, we have witnessed a significant increase in the use of rigorous research methods in the evaluations of the EU Cohesion Policy. The main objective is to identify the actual impacts and how to increase policy efficiency. The rationale behind a workshop on evaluations is the need to assemble academics investigating the issues’ effectiveness, impacts and added value of EU Cohesion Policy as well as practitioners working with this policy. The goal of the workshop is to improve knowledge and the application of evaluation results in practice. It will achieve this objective through the sharing of experience with evaluations, methods and the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods as well as the application of theory-based evaluations. At the beginning of the new policy cycle 2014-2020, many questions arise regarding the reformed Cohesion Policy. This workshop, hosted jointly by the University of Economics and the Czech Evaluation Society at the Charles University and organized in collaboration with the partner institutions of the RSA Research Network on EU Cohesion Policy, will provide a forum for debating some of the most salient and burning of those questions.
Creative City Summit 2014: Love Your City – Transforming Communities Through Culture
Hamilton, Ontario, 11-13 June, 2014
Through interactive sessions, case studies and keynote addresses, experts will share real world projects that are transforming cities across the country. The 2014 Summit theme focuses on communities that are creating conditions in which culture can thrive. Presenters will explore how leadership, innovative thinking, partnership building, and simply doing things differently can lead to a creative community. Delegates will gain insight into integrating culture within other local planning initiatives; encouraging and stimulating “eventful” cities; planning community wide participatory events; initiating creative placemaking projects; and creating cultural hubs in their community.
DRUID Society Conference 2014: Entrepreneurship-Organization-Innovation
Copenhagen, Denmark, 16-18 June. 2014
he conference will include a number of distinguished plenary presenters and intends to map theoretical, empirical and methodological advances, contribute with novel insights, clarify and develop intellectual positions and help identify common grounds and lines of division in selected current scientific controversies within the field. In 2014, the DRUID Special Flavor will be on Food Innovation. During the last decade, the food industry has seen notable innovation and entrepreneurship throughout its value chain, including, for example, search for original raw materials, adaption of advanced process technologies, exploration of new cooking methods and development of unique restaurant models. DRUID2014 will feature scientific as well as social activities reflecting Food Innovation, including paper sessions on innovation and entrepreneurship in the food industry, talks by leading chefs, and samples of innovative food and drink. With its New Nordic Cuisine, a burst of new Michelin-starred restaurants, and capturing the World’s Best Restaurant as well as Bocuse d’Or awards for several consecutive years, Copenhagen has established itself at the heart of food innovation. In addition, there is a broader movement around the notions of regional and modernist cuisine. The DRUID Society will of course take advantage of its local connections to present conference participants with samples of just how innovative the local food scene can be.
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This newsletter is prepared by Jen Nelles.
Project manager is David A. Wolfe.