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
Innovate Calgary’s Kinetica Ventures will Accelerate Energy Technologies
Innovate Calgary is introducing a new initiative – Kinetica Ventures – focused on accelerating world-class energy technologies to help industry address key challenges and increase competitive advantages. This creation of Kinetica follows a recent announcement by the Government of Canada to provide $3 million in funding over the next five years to Innovate Calgary to develop an energy technology accelerator program. This funding is part of the Canada Accelerator and Incubator Program (CAIP), which is also providing funding support for TEC Edmonton’s health accelerator initiative. Kinetica will bridge the gap between the energy industry and technology innovators. It will be a uniquely industry-driven program, working closely with key partners in the energy sector to identify their most pressing challenges in four areas: hydrocarbon recovery; energy transport; carbon capture, re-use and disposal; and renewable energy.
Shiri Breznitz -The Fountain of Knowledge: The Role of Universities in Economic Development
Toronto, Munk School for Global Affairs, 2 Februrary, 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.
Editor's Pick
Milken Institute
The most dynamic U.S. metros hold the secrets to economic success: the crucial factors that help them thrive, grow, and prosper. The annual Best-Performing Cities report delivers a fact-based, comprehensive evaluation system across metropolitan areas that relies upon job, wage, and technology trends shaping current and prospective pathways. In the 2014 index, technology and shale energy remain the two overarching factors driving the performance of top metros. However, these cities also possess a variety of other positive traits that help explain their success. Several metros with dense urban areas, for example, have the innovation advantage: They are able to offset high costs, an unfavorable tax structure, and a burdensome regulatory environment thanks to the clustering of talent and technology in an entrepreneurial ecosystem. Silicon Valley (SAN JOSE-SUNNYVALE-SANTA CLARA, CA), SAN FRANCISCO-SAN MATEO-REDWOOD CITY, CA, and SEATTLE-BELLEVUE-EVERETT, WA, epitomize these research and innovation milieus. Meanwhile, another category of metros are technology centers that may not have the same concentration of such assets, but they strive to enhance them while providing a less onerous cost and regulatory burden. AUSTIN-ROUND ROCK-SAN MARCOS, TX, PROVO-OREM, UT, and BOULDER, CO, are prime examples. These tech centers benefit from an employment multiplier of close to 5 (meaning one tech position generates four other jobs), among the highest of all sectors.
Innovation Policy
The Rise of the UK Incubator and Accelerator Ecosystem
Telefonica
The UK accelerator and incubator ecosystem has experienced extraordinary growth over the past five years. While a great deal has been written about the rise, few concerted efforts have been made to quantify the exact size of the UK ecosystem or the rate of its growth. This report, commissioned by Telefonica UK, aims to chart the rise and impact of accelerator and incubator programs on startups in 2014.
Cities, Clusters & Regions
5 Features of Successful Metro Export Efforts
Amy LIu and Benjamin Sio, The Brookings Institution
As the third year of the Global Cities Initiative draws to a close, it is time to take stock of what has been learned from the 12 metropolitan areas that have adopted metro export initiatives and another eight that will soon release their plans. These efforts grew out of strong local desire to create good jobs in the recession’s wake. With U.S. consumer demand sluggish and global middle class consumption rising, it made common sense to help firms and regional economies expand through exports and trade even though the concept was quite novel as an economic development strategy. Better yet, these jobs pay more, with firms that export paying at least 17 percent more in wages than local-serving firms. The top features of a good export plan are: (1) that it is regional in scope; (2) It is focused on threshold firms; (3) It is anchored in globally-relevant industry clusters; (4) It is customized with innovative programs and interventions; and (5) that it is linked to broader regional economic development.
Breaking Through Barriers to Innovation in Local Government
Ben Hecht, Governing
Across the country and the world, local governments are striving to break through obsolete ways of working to address the challenges of the 21st century, especially on issues facing low-income residents. In the United States, economic opportunity in cities remains elusive for many — a fact made all the more significant as the nation heads towards a future in which a majority of its residents are people of color. Around the world, cities are growing at astonishing rates, bringing with that growth new challenges in terms of environmental sustainability, economic opportunity and quality of life. In a time of such rapid change, our local government colleagues are eager to adapt how they do business in order to produce materially different results. Approaching this change of the status quo requires fundamental shifts to the culture of government itself. Bureaucracy has its own center of gravity, and well-conceived policies can skew the way they are implemented instead of focusing on their intended beneficiaries. Government culture may also promote policies that are considered “sure proof”, but do not produce maximum impact for residents, and avoid ideas that are out of the box, even if they can produce great rewards. Balancing between sweeping change and inaction can leave little room for experimentation.
Statistics & Indicators
Business Research and Development and Innovation: 2011
NSF
The results of the survey are used to assess trends in the performance and funding of R&D. Government agencies, corporations, and research organizations use the data to investigate productivity, formulate tax policy, and compare individual company performance with industry averages. Individual researchers in industry and academia use the data to investigate a variety of topics and to prepare professional papers, dissertations, and books. Total R&D expenditure statistics are used by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis for inclusion in their System of National Accounts and Foreign Direct Investment programs. U.S. companies performed over $294 billion in research and development (R&D) in 2011. Companies funded an overwhelming majority of the industrial R&D conducted in the U.S. (81.2 percent, approximately $238.8 billion). Approximately $55.3 million of industrial R&D (18.8 percent) was funded by other sources, predominately from the federal government ($31.3 billion). U.S. industrial R&D spending accounted for approximately 81 percent of worldwide R&D performance: $363.3 billion in total industrial R&D in 2011.
Policy Digest
Will return in the Feb 1 issue.
Events
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.
Geography of Innovation Conference
Utrecht, 23-25 Janurary, 2015
The Geography of Innovation Conference provides a forum for discussion to scholars and practitioners interested in scientific, policy and strategic issues concerning the spatial dimension of innovation activities. Plenary sessions, presentations and workshops will gather together some of the world’s leading thinkers working on innovation and related dynamics of technological, institutional and geographical change.
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.
Toronto, 21 April, 2015
Global connectivity is the fundamental challenge of our generation. Gain insight into the future made possible through digital infrastructure. Speakers include: Kristina Verner is the director of intelligent communities for Waterfront Toronto, where she is responsible for a variety of strategic initiatives for one of the world’s pre-eminent intelligent communities. John Helliker is the director of strategic partnerships and the Screen Industries Research and Training Centre at Sheridan College. Glenn Smith, P.Eng., draws on over 20 years of experience in broad business, technology development and commercialization with leadership roles in two University of Waterloo spinoff companies as well as Centres of Excellence in commercialization. Campbell Patterson is the founding partner of CP Communications (CPC). Campbell’s extensive career has seen him as a vice president of J. Walter Thompson Advertising and McDonald’s Restaurants licensee. Anita Simpsonis a superintendent of education for program and innovation with the Simcoe County District School Board. She is also the Canadian Cluster lead for New Pedagogies for Deep Learning (NPDL), an international learning lab involving 10 countries and 1,000 schools from around the world.
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.