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
Canada Reveals Updated S&T Strategy, $1.5B Fund to Spur Academic R&D
SSTI Weekly Digest
The Canadian government recently released their national Science and Technology (S&T) Strategy – Seizing Canada’s Moment: Moving Forward in Science, Technology and Innovation 2014. An update to the original report released in 2007, the S&T strategy identifies five priority research areas for federal support over the next seven years: environment and agriculture; health and life sciences; natural resources and energy; information and communications technology; and, advanced manufacturing. Among the proposals included in the S&T strategy, the government launched a seven-year, $1.5 billion CD (approximately $1.3 billion USD) Canada First Research Excellence Fund. Each year, Canadian universities and research institutions will compete for $350 million CD (approximately $304.9 million USD) in funding to support projects that increase the research and development (R&D) capacity and innovation infrastructure of their institutions. The fund will support a broad array of activities including talent attraction, funding for research, R&D infrastructure projects and large-scale multi-institutional initiatives.
The White House
President Obama recently announced nearly $400 million to help improve the competitiveness of American businesses and workers by spurring new manufacturing innovations and giving America workers additional opportunities to improve and expand their skill sets for middleclass jobs. The announcement dedicated more than $290 million in public-private investment for two new Manufacturing Innovation Hub Competitions. This commitment fulfills the President’s 2014 State of the Union pledge to launch four new institutes this year, for a total of eight institutes launched so far, and puts the Administration past the halfway mark on the President’s original goal of creating 15 manufacturing innovation institutes supported through executive action. In addition, the President announced $100 million to expand apprenticeships for American workers.
Editor's Pick
Measuring the Digital Economy: A New Perspective
OECD
The growing role of the digital economy in daily life has heightened demand for new data and measurement tools. Internationally comparable and timely statistics combined with robust cross-country analyses are crucial to strengthen the evidence base for digital economy policy making, particularly in a context of rapid change. This report presents indicators traditionally used to monitor the information society and complements them with experimental indicators that provide insight into areas of policy interest. The key objectives of this publication are to highlight measurement gaps and propose actions to advance the measurement agenda.
Innovation Policy
Innovation Policy for Knowledge Production and R&D: The Investment Portfolio Approach
Susan Borras and Charles Edquist, CIRCLE Lund University
Who produces scientific and technical knowledge these days? What type of knowledge is being produced and for what purposes? Why are firms and governments funding research and development? This chapter studies the role of knowledge production (especially R&D activities) in the innovation process from an innovation system perspective. It examines how governments and public agencies in different countries and at different times have actually approached the issue of building, maintaining and using knowledge production in their innovation systems. It also examines the critical and most important issues at stake from the point of view of innovation policy, looking in particular at the unresolved tensions and systemic unbalances related to knowledge production and last but not least, it elaborates a set of overall criteria for the selection and design of relevant policy instruments and addresses those tensions and unbalances. This paper suggests that innovation policy develops a portfolio approach to the public investment in R&D and knowledge production.
Paul A. David, UNU-MERIT
In most modern economies scientific and technological research activities are conducted in two distinct organizational modes: commercially oriented R&D based upon proprietary information, and noncommercial “open science.” When taken together and kept in proper balance, these form a complementary pair of institutionally differentiated sub-systems. Each can work to amplify and augment the productivity of the other, thereby spurring long-term economic growth and improvements of social welfare in knowledge-driven societies. This paper considers the difference between historical origins of open science and its modern, critically important role in the allocation of research resources. The institutional structure of ‘The Republic of Open Science’ generally is less well understood and has less robust self-sustaining foundations than the familiar non-cooperative market mechanisms associated with proprietary R&D. Although they are better suited for the conduct of exploratory science, they also remain more vulnerable to damages from collateral effects of shifts in government policies, particularly those that impact their fiscal support and regulatory environments. After reviewing the several challenges that such policy actions during the 20th century’s closing decades had posed for continued effective collective explorations at the frontiers of scientific knowledge, the discussion examines the responses that those developments elicited from academic research communities.
Cities, Clusters & Regions
The Rustbelt Roars Back from the Dead
Joel Kotkin, The Daily Beast
The rustbelt could well be on the verge of a major resurgence, one that should be welcomed not only locally but by the rest of the country. Two factors drive this change. One is the steady revival of America as a productive manufacturing country, driven in large part by new technology, rising wages abroad (notably in China), and the development of low-cost, abundant domestic energy, much of it now produced in states such as Ohio and in the western reaches of Pennsylvania. The second, and perhaps more surprising, is the wealth of human capital already existent in the region. After decades of decline, this is now expanding as younger educated workers move to the area in part to escape the soaring cost of living, high taxes, and regulations that now weigh so heavily on the super-star cities.
The Competitiveness of Global Port-Cities
OECD
Ports and cities are historically strongly linked, but the link between port and city growth has become weaker. This book examines how ports can regain their role as drivers of urban economic growth and how negative port impacts can be mitigated.
Statistics & Indicators
State Technology and Science Index 2014
Kevin Klowden, Kristen Keough and Jason Barrett, Miliken Institute
Massachusetts is first – once again – in the Milken Institute’s State Technology and Science Index 2014. The index tracks and evaluates every state’s tech and science capabilities – and their success at converting those assets into companies and high-paying jobs. Conducted every two years for more than a decade, the index has found Massachusetts performing in first place in every edition since 2004. Across the country, technology and science are paving the way to economic success. Competition at the very top has increased significantly, making it more difficult to break into the top 10. Indeed, the states in the top 10 are the same as those in 2010 and 2012, with only a few changes in rank. The State Technology and Science Index is made up of five composites that can be applied across all 50 states for comparison and analysis, with 78 unique indicators. The composites are: research and development inputs, risk capital and entrepreneurial infrastructure, human capital investment, technology and science work force, and technology concentration and dynamism.
Policy Digest
Seizing Canada’s Moment in Science, Technology and Innovation 2014
Industry Canada
Canada is well positioned in today’s global knowledge-based economy, while the pace of scientific discovery and technological innovation continues to accelerate. In Canada and around the world, businesses, research institutions and governments are challenged to adjust their strategies to keep up with change. The 2014 Strategy continues and builds upon the 2007 Strategy. It will be guided by the same core principles as the original: Promoting World-Leading Excellence, Focusing on Priorities, Fostering Partnerships and Enhancing Accountability. In addition to maintaining these core principles, the 2014 Strategy retains the People and Knowledge pillars from the earlier framework, but enhances and broadens the Entrepreneurial pillar to encompass Innovation.The 2014 Strategy also updates the research priorities by adding a fifth priority, advanced manufacturing, to the previously established priorities of natural resources and energy, health and life sciences, information and communications technologies and by augmenting the environment priority to include agriculture.
The 2014 Strategy is based on the principle that at the heart of great science, technology and innovation are the researchers, developers and innovators – the men and women who drive change. As such, the Strategy aims to strengthen the skills and capacity that keep Canada at the forefront of research and innovation. This includes promoting an interest in science in our youth, encouraging innovative entrepreneurs to bring their ideas to life and supporting the researchers who are making ground-breaking discoveries and pushing the frontiers of knowledge. It centres on public support for universities, colleges and polytechnics so they can develop, attract and retain tomorrow’s leaders and experts. It also underscores the importance of international connections – both at the personal and institutional levels – that help Canada tap into the strengths of other countries.
Knowledge Pillar: The 2014 Strategy builds on an existing emphasis on supporting research and scientific capacity in universities, colleges and polytechnics. As stated in Economic Action Plan 2014, Canada will become a world leader in targeted research areas to create long-term economic advantages. The government will strengthen support for excellence in discovery-driven and applied research and will ensure that Canada has the infrastructure needed to foster world-class science, technology and innovation. Under the Strategy, research will become more open, accessible and transparent to the public and end users. Canada will continue to be a world-leader in discovery research. The Strategy also highlights the importance of support for the critical research performed in federal laboratories.
Innovation Pillar: Building on the development of highly-skilled Canadians and world-class research, the 2014 Strategy puts innovation front and centre – in fostering business innovation, in building synergies with Canada’s research capacities and in using its skilled and innovative workforce. It emphasizes the need for business of all sizes to define and implement for themselves the science, technology and innovation they require to compete nationally and internationally. The Strategy builds upon Digital Canada 150, the Government’s recently announced plan to guide Canada’s digital future. It will also seek to close the persistent innovation gap that has hindered the transfer of ideas from the laboratory to the factory floor and the store shelf. The Strategy will also encourage businesses to work with partners in the innovation system, including by making Canada’s world-class research infrastructure, expertise and researchers available to them. It will encourage scaling up successful programs and consolidating program offerings to improve access and increase impact. The Strategy also emphasizes the need for Canadians to protect their intellectual property and enhances Canada’s access to global markets.
Conclusion
The 2014 Strategy sets out a path for the next few years, while looking to Canada’s 150th anniversary and beyond. It places in context the initiatives to support business innovation introduced in Economic Action Plan 2012 and 2013 and the significant investments made in Economic Action Plan 2014. Above all this, it is a call to action for the players in the Canadian innovation system – whether they be in the research community, the business community, or different levels of government – to work together to achieve the goal of making Canada a scientifically and technologically innovative nation capable of leading the world.
Events
Shiri Breznitz -The Fountain of Knowledge: The Role of Universities in Economic Development 
Toronto, Munk School for Global Affairs, 19 January, 2015
Today, universities around the world find themselves going beyond the traditional roles of research and teaching to drive the development of local economies through collaborations with industry. At a time when regions with universities are seeking best practices among their peers, Shiri M. Breznitz argues against the notion that one university’s successful technology transfer model can be easily transported to another. Rather, the impact that a university can have on its local economy must be understood in terms of its idiosyncratic internal mechanisms, as well as the state and regional markets within which it operates. To illustrate her argument, Breznitz undertakes a comparative analysis of two universities, Yale and Cambridge, and the different outcomes of their attempts at technology commercialization in biotech. By contrasting these two universities—their unique policies, organizational structure, institutional culture, and location within distinct national polities—she makes a powerful case for the idea that technology transfer is dependent on highly variable historical and environmental factors. Breznitz highlights key features to weigh and engage in developing future university and economic development policies that are tailor-made for their contexts.
Aalborg, Denmark, 21-23 January, 2015
The conference is open for all PhD students working within the broad field of economics and management of innovation, entrepreneurship and organizations. 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 encourage all PhD students to submit their research to the conference. Do not hesitate to apply even if you have not been in contact with DRUID previously.
2nd Doctoral Workshop in Econiomics of Innovation, Complexity and Knowledge
Turin, Italy, 29-30 January, 2015
The aim of the workshop is to bring together PhD students from all over the world working in the broad field of Economics of Innovation and Complexity. The workshop will provide participants with a great opporunity to network with peers researching on similar topics and to receive feedback from both junior and senior scholars. We invite PhD students in their 2nd and 3rd years to submit their extended abstracts.
CFP: Challenges for the New Cohesion Policy in 2014-2020: An Academic and Policy Debate
Riga, Latvia, 4-6 February, 2015
In 2013, the budgetary and regulatory reform of Cohesion policy for 2014-20 was finally concluded following the most extensive process of reflection, consultation and analysis in the history of the policy. The cornerstones of the reformed policy are a more strategic use of the renamed European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF), concentration of spending on the objectives of Europe 2020, improved performance and achievement of results, better governance, and more attention to urban and local development. However, as the recently published Sixth Cohesion Report makes clear, the new ESIF programmes face a difficult task, with increasing regional and urban disparities and cuts in government spending. Against this background, the Second EU Cohesion Policy Conference organised by the RSA and DG Regio, together with the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, aims to take stock of the challenges and opportunities for Cohesion policy in 2014-20. It will bring together a limited number of participants from academia, the European institutions and Member State authorities to debate where Cohesion policy is going and how its contribution to growth and jobs can be maximized.
CFP: The Global City, Past and Present
St. Andrews, Scotland, 14-15 May, 2015
This first Call for Papers invites submissions from scholars of all humanities and social science disciplines working on the issue of “Space” in the early modern colonial city and its modern descendants. At the intersection of empires, cultures, and economies, urban spaces and structures were, and continue to be, shaped by the cities’ global connections. Through an exploration of all aspects of the urban built environment, the workshop will start a conversation between scholars working on the spatial characteristics of those cities that first rose to prominence in the early modern imperial world.
Atlanta Conference on Science and Innovation Policy
Atlanta, Georgia, 17-19 September, 2015
The Atlanta Conference on Science and Innovation Policy provides a showcase for the highest quality scholarship addressing the multidimensional challenges and interrelated characteristics of science and innovation policy and processes. The conference attracts over 300 researchers from more than 35 countries and includes a series of plenary talks; parallel paper sessions to discuss ongoing research; and a young researcher poster competition. Next year’s session will explore the research front addressing the broad range of issues central to the structure, function, performance and outcomes of the science and innovation enterprises.
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This newsletter is prepared by Jen Nelles.
Project manager is David A. Wolfe.