News from the IPL
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Ontario Investing Up to $25 Million to Help Successful Start Ups Grow
Government of Ontario
The government is partnering with private investors and business leaders to create Scale Up Ventures, a new venture capital fund designed to support Ontario’s most promising start-ups through a unique combination of investment and mentorship. As part of the 2015 Budget, the government is contributing up to $25 million to establish the venture capital fund. A further $25 million in matching funds will be provided by private investors. Scale Up Ventures will invest the resulting $50 million in Ontario start-ups that have shown initial market success and that demonstrate strong growth potential, but require new investment and mentorship to expand their operations. That mentorship will come from the new Scale Up Leadership Council, which will be led by Nadir Mohamed, former CEO of Rogers Communications. The council will be made up of approximately 30 senior business leaders and successful entrepreneurs.
HTX REACH to Improve the Ontario Healthcare System’s Ability to Procure and Adopt Innovative Medical Technologies
Government of Ontario
In March, HTX.ca – The Health Technology Exchange and the Ontario Ministry of Government and Consumer Services (MGCS), established the new, HTX-led “REACH” program (Resources for Evaluating, Adopting andCapitalizing on Innovative Healthcare Technology). REACH, a 3.5 year, healthcare provider-driven initiative, seeks to demonstrate new ways to evaluate, procure and adopt beneficial medical technologies addressing high-priority health system problems – a process known internationally as Innovation Procurement. Projects will focus on later-stage medical technologies for which there is good evidence of value, and potential to reduce existing barriers by streamlining the procurement process. Technologies may range from those new to the world to those new to Ontario, from either Ontario or global suppliers. REACH will provide healthcare project leaders with matching grant funding ranging from $300,000 to $1,000,000, for each of the anticipated 10-12 projects.
Ciena Puts Down Deep Ottawa Roots with New Kanata North Campus
Ottawa Citizen
Ciena Corp. is taking over the former Blackberry Ltd. building in Kanata North and will create a new campus that will more than double the size of the facility near March Road and Terry Fox Drive. Ciena, which makes networking technology used by a majority of the world’s Internet providers, announced the project at a recent press conference attended by Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and other elected officials, including Mayor Jim Watson and Pierre Poilievre, federal minister of employment and social development. According to chief executive Gary Smith, the move makes sense for Ciena Corp., which has had a major presence in Ottawa since picking up Nortel Networks Inc.’s carrier ethernet and optical networking division for $773.8 million U.S. in 2010. Aside from giving the company key technology that has helped fuel its business over the past five years, that acquisition — plus earlier acquisitions of Ottawa startups Catena Networks and Akara Inc. — have allowed Ciena to taste the talent pool available in the nation’s capital.
U.S Federal Grants Aim to Boost Advanced Manufacturing
Manufacturing.net
Obama administration officials recently announced the recipients of funding from a second round of competition for advanced manufacturing grants. The National Institute of Standards and Technology — part of the Commerce Department — approved 16 advanced manufacturing projects for $7.8 million. The grants will range from $413,000 to $500,000 and support more than 40 organizations in developing research plans for “high-priority technology challenges” over a two-year period. Thirteen of the awards will launch new research consortia.
Editor's Pick
Some Assembly Required: STEM Skills and Canada’s Economic Productivity
Council of Canadian Academies – The Expert Panel on STEM Skills for the Future
It is generally understood that skills make critical contributions to Canada’s prosperity. However, there is uncertainty about precisely which skills are needed to thrive in tomorrow’s economy, how skills directly contribute to innovation and productivity, whether some skills are more connected to these goals than others, and whether there is an optimal combination of skills that fosters growth. In a complex and uncertain global economy, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills are in the spotlight, as countries aim to maximize their economic competitiveness and productivity. As a result, governments, policy-makers, educators, and business leaders are particularly concerned about how well equipped Canada is with the STEM skills needed to fulfill labour market demands and promote innovation.
Innovation Policy
Borges’ Map: Navigating a World of Digital Disruption
Philip Evans and Patrick Forth, Boston Consulting Group
Three distinct waves of digital disruption have transformed information economics—and are challenging traditional notions of economies of scale. The new strategies this shift enables have the power to break the compromise between efficiency and innovation and to reshape entire industries.
Accelerating Data Innovation: A Legislative Agenda for Congress
Daniel Castro and Joshua New, Center for Data Innovation
Data is increasingly vital to both growing the economy and solving important social problems, and Congress has many opportunities to pave the way for more use of data in the public and private sectors. This report lays out twelve concrete steps Congress can take in 2015 to accelerate data innovation in the United States.
The Future Postponed: Why Declining Investment in Basic Research Threatens a U.S. Innovation Deficit
MIT Committee to Evaluate the Innovation Deficit
This report examines how research cutbacks will affect the future of scientific research in the U.S. It highlights opportunities in basic research that could help shape and maintain U.S. economic power and benefit society. While U.S. competitors are increasing their investment in basic research — leading to notable achievements such as the European Space Agency successfully landing the first spacecraft on a comet, China developing the world’s fastest supercomputer, and research in plant biology uncovering new ways to meet global food demand — the percentage of the U.S. federal budget devoted to research and development has fallen from just under 10 percent in 1968 to less than 4 percent in 2015. MIT faculty members provide examples of critical fields in which investment is required, highlighting potential opportunities and areas where U.S. government support is needed. The authors also highlight the importance of expanding university-based research into new types of antibiotics to tackle the growing health threat posed by the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, an area where commercial incentives to invest are lacking.
Cities, Clusters & Regions
Open for Business: Strategies to Improve Ontario’s Business Attractiveness
The Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity
Inspired by the announcement of the Jobs and Prosperity Fund (JPF), the Institute for Competitiveness & Prosperity conducted extensive research comparing Ontario to regional competitors to assess the areas where the government should act to improve business attractiveness. This working paper aims to advise the government on how to get the best return on investment for the Fund, while improving long-term business conditions in the province. There are many factors behind a firm’s location choice, and Ontario falls short in some key areas. First, Ontario’s access to markets is poor compared to geographically close regions, and this is amplified by the lack of transportation infrastructure. Second, labour cost per unit of output in Ontario is among the highest relative to regions in the Northeast of North America. Lastly, although the province has low overall taxation, the corporate tax structure, as well as corporate tax burden relative to public services, might be hampering its capacity to attract businesses. This report outlines ten recommendations to help the province improve its capacity to attract new businesses. Without bringing Ontario’s fundamental economic characteristics up to speed with those of other regions, programs such as the JPF will only grant the province short-term gains. To be successful, the Fund will need costly monitoring and evaluation, and even so assessing its costs and benefits could be impractical. Yet, by addressing the fundamental aspects of business attractiveness, the province can improve the odds of the Fund being successful, while not having to depend on the fund as the sole tool used to attract incremental business activity.
Statistics & Indicators
Revisiting the STEM Workforce: A Companion to Science and Engineering Indicators 2014
National Science Board (NSB)
The condition of the U.S. science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce figures prominently in discussions of national competitiveness, education policy, innovation, and even immigration. But the relevant analyses and conversations are hindered by differing understandings of the composition and character of the STEM workforce and the varied, dynamic career pathways enabled by STEM knowledge and skills. The National Science Board examined recent STEM workforce studies and debates, consulted numerous experts, and explored data in our 2014 Science and Engineering Indicators (Indicators) report to develop insights that could facilitate more constructive discussions about the STEM workforce and inform decision makers.
Policy Digest
America’s Knowledge Economy: A State-by-State Review
The Council of State Governments (CSG)
Research and development is a critical contributor to innovation and long-term economic growth, and the United States has a long history of being a global leader. As the United States’ economy gains momentum, everyone— from legislators and regional planners to corporations and everyday workers—is focused on answering a few key questions. How can the U.S. sustain that momentum? Where should states and institutions place their bets and invest their resources to create long-term pathways to prosperity? This report explores the comparative research strengths of states. CSG hopes this report will spur and inform discussions about higher education research funding and prioritization, and how the policy goals of states align with the goals and expertise of its research institutions.
Research Focus
In order to identify the fields in which a state has a comparative advantage in research, this report looks at two indicators—relative volume and relative impact—along two dimensions. First, a state’s performance in a given research field was compared to its own performance in other research fields. For example, how does Colorado’s research in environmental science compare to its research in medicine? Second, a state’s performance in a given research field was compared to other states’ performances in the same research field. For instance, how is Colorado’s research in environmental science relative to Maryland’s research in environmental science? From 2004–2013, 28.7 percent of the country’s total research output—or about 1.4 million publications— was in medicine. Engineering and biochemistry, and genetics & molecular biology were the two fields with the next highest levels of research output at 17.4 percent and 15.4 percent, respectively. Within medicine, the top 3 states in terms of relative volume were Minnesota, Rhode Island and North Carolina. Within engineering, the top 3 states in terms of relative volume were New Mexico, Idaho and Virginia. Within biochemistry, genetics & molecular biology, the top 3 states in terms of relative volume were Maryland, North Carolina and Nebraska.
Research and Development Inputs
According to the National Science Foundation’s Higher Education Research and Development Survey, U.S. higher education institutions spent $67 billion on research and development in 2013. When adjusted for inflation and accounting for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, increases in R&D expenditures have slowed in the most recent years, and the percentage of expenditures from federal funding agencies actually has declined. Moreover, as the National Institutes of Health’s Data Book details, the average success rate for National Institutes of Health grants continues to fall. The top five states in terms of growth in R&D expenditures were Rhode Island (6.90 percent), South Dakota (5.42 percent), North Carolina (4.53 percent), Washington (3.71 percent) and Delaware (3.61 percent). The distribution of the sources of a state’s R&D funding is another important consideration, affecting how exposed or insulated that state’s research ecosystem is to federal or state funding pressures. For the U.S. in 2013, about 58.9 percent of total research and development expenditures came from federal funding agencies. The top five states in terms of federal funding as a percentage of their total R&D expenditures were Wyoming (82.4 percent), Maryland (79.0 percent), Colorado (74.5 percent), New Hampshire (73.8 percent) and Vermont (73.6 percent).
Knowledge Transfer and Collaboration
Although universities produce the majority of research output, the larger research ecosystem spans government labs, corporations, hospitals, not-for-profit think tanks and other institutions. When researchers and knowledge workers can easily collaborate with and move across different sectors, all stakeholders benefit from the exchange of ideas and talent. It is therefore important to understand the distribution of a state’s research output across different sectors. For example, about 8.5 percent of all published U.S. research is conducted by corporate institutions, but this percentage varies significantly across states. From 2004 to 2013, 20.8 percent of New Jersey’s total output (33,504 publications) was from corporate researchers, the highest among all states in the country and more than twice the rate of the entire country. The states with the next highest relative levels of corporate output were Delaware (13.9 percent), California (13.2 percent) and New York (10.9 percent). In addition to understanding where a state’s research is produced, there is increasing interest in creating more and better indicators of the commercialization of research to assess how results of research are transferred from the academic sector to the corporate or government sectors. Academic patent citations provide one way of understanding corporate usage of academic research, and they can be used as a proxy for measuring how much academic research contributes to innovation. These are defined as formal citations of academic publications in industry patents. From 2004 to 2013, 959,172 patents were granted to U.S. inventors. California, with 25.1 percent of all patents granted to U.S. inventors, had a national patent share more than three times the level of the next closest state, Texas (7.1 percent). The rest of the top five states in terms of patents granted were New York (6.4 percent), Massachusetts (4.5 percent) and Washington (4.2 percent).
Events
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.
WEBINAR: Innovation Agencies and Paradigmatic Structural Change: Strategic Logic and the Political Economy of Success
Toronto, 21 May, 2015
Historically, Schumpeterian developmental agencies at the periphery of the public sector have facilitated rapid restructuring by engaging in continuous, radical policy experimentation. During this presentation, Dr. Breznitz will argue that these development agencies are less likely to emerge in an increasing politicized environment. Endowing agencies with the authority and resources to administer cutting edge programs enables them to positively influence public and private sector routines, but reduces the likelihood that they develop transformative new initiatives. By contrast, reducing an agency’s profile and resources to the point where it has the flexibility to develop radically new ideas risks marginalizing it within national policy debates. After briefly reviewing the history of the Finnish National Fund for Research and Development and the Israeli Office of the Chief Scientist, Dr. Breznitz will focus on the performance of three newly established innovation agencies, Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), the Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovative Systems (VINNOVA) and Ireland’s Policy Advisory Board for Enterprise and Science (Forfás).
Tech Leadership Conference: What Worked Yesterday is Obsolete Tomorrow
Kitchener, 28 May, 2015
Tech and society change quickly. The best business ideas can be outdated in months. To stay on top today takes visioneering: the process of building a dream into a workable application. Communitech’s Tech Leadership Conference is the largest annual all-day gathering of tech decision makers in Waterloo Region. It’s about creating market expectations and establishing the region as the best place on the planet for tech companies to start, grow and succeed. On May 28, gain insights from renowned keynotes and take part in sessions led by industry experts.
The Chicago Forum on Global Cities
Chicago, 27-29 May, 2015
Global cities rise above the rest. They have the scope, ambition, and clout to shape not just the world’s economy but its ideas, its culture, its policies, and its future. They set the standards and make the rules. Big and connected, they transcend national frontiers and disrupt international agendas. They are magnets for business, people, money, and innovation. And yet global pathologies—terrorism, inequality, climate change—hit global cities first and hardest. Powerful and resourceful, global cities are the key actors in driving political, social, and economic policies and solving critical world challenges. This conference will bring together global city leaders of the four pillars vital to urban life—business, education, arts and culture, civics—for a multidisciplinary discussion on how they can collaborate to make their cities more economically vital, socially inclusive, and environmentally livable. The future of global cities will be defined by the mayors and maestros, the scholars and CEOs, who will attend and participate in this unique global forum in a unique global city.
Intelligent Community Forum Summit 2015
Toronto, 8-12 June, 2015
The ICF Summit is an international gathering of mayors, chief administrative officers, chief information officers and economic development officers from cities, states and regions around the world. It is a unique opportunity to learn from the world’s most dynamic communities how to use information and communications technology to build prosperous, inclusive and sustainable communities. The 2015 Summit will take place in Toronto, one of the world’s top cities not only for business investment and economic competitiveness but for livability as well – and ICF’s 2014 Intelligent Community of the Year. Attendees will benefit from an expanded program that explores the projects, strategies and institutions of this major metropolitan area as well the cities and technology centers that surround it.
DRUID 15 – The Relevance of Innovation
Rome, Italy, 15-17 June, 2015
Since 1995 DRUID has become one of the world’s premier academic conferences on innovation and the dynamics of structural and geographic change. Presenting distinguished plenary speakers, a range of parallel paper sessions, and a highly attractive social program, the conference aims at mapping theoretical, empirical and methodological advances, and contributing novel insights.
ZEW/MaCCI Conference on the Economics of Innovation and Patenting
Mannheim, Germany, 2-3 July, 2015
This conference aims at stimulating discussion between international researchers conducting related empirical, and theoretical analysis. In addition, the conference will focus on policy implications of recent research. Theoretical, empirical and policy-oriented contributions from all areas of the economics of innovation and patenting are welcome. The conference is sponsored by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation.
Divergent Cities: Why Do Cities Differ in Growth and Performance?
Cambridge, UK, 16-17 July, 2015
For the first time in human history, more than half of the world’s population now lives in cities. Geographers and economists alike point to the increasing concentration of economic activity and wealth creation in cities, especially large and capital cities, many of which are also the key nodes that articulate and shape the global economy. However, not all cities have experienced success: both in Europe and the United States, economic growth rates have varied significantly across cities, and some cities have shrunk rather than expanded economically. This divergent experience raises questions as to what determines city growth. Why do some cities lead while others fall behind? Such issues pose a challenge to both theory and policy. There would seem much to learn from experience around the world. This one and half day workshop will bring together academics, policy makers and other individuals who have a direct interest in the growth and success of cities. Presentations will include those drawing on new research from the Centre for Cities, the World Bank and the UK Governments Foresight Future of Cities project.
11th Regional Policy Conference of the Technopolicy Network – Internationalization of Technology Clusters
Moscow, Russia, 7-9 September, 2015
The 7th of September will be spent well to get to know the surrounding of Zelenograd, and the participants of the conference through a social tour to the Technounity cluster of the city. Zelenograd was built in 1958 as a reflection of the California Silicon Valley and is also known as Soviet/Russian Silicon Valley. It was already one of the most influential centres of electronics, microelectronics and computer industry in the Soviet Union and still plays a similar role in modern Russia. Nowadays the city is the headquarters of its microelectronic solutions department. On the 8th and 9th of September, participants will have two days of activating sessions, with a focus on cluster management and regional development policies. Also, the conference will introduce a keynote speakers who will be leading experts on the subjects of internationalization, technology clusters, and innovation.
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.
4th European Colloquium on Culture, Creativity and Economy
Florence, Italy, 8-10 October, 2015
During the past decades myriad links between culture, creativity and economic practice have become major topics of interdisciplinary study. This colloquium aims to bring together leading edge scholars from across the social sciences to critically examine the intersections between these spheres and symbolic and culturally embedded values in particular, and how they are pervaded by and pervade the global economy. Our aim is to create a space for vibrant critical discussion about how ‘creativity’, cultural meanings, cultural phenomena, cultural workers and organizations are not only valuable to the market but increasingly drivers and framers of the systems of value and taste that economic actors attempt to capture and trade upon. Though culture and creativity have always been central to human civilization there is increasingly a need to understand culture and creativity as central agencies and motifs in the current stage of globalized capitalism, in the digital and knowledge economy, and in the development of human values, communities, regions and cities.
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This newsletter is prepared by Jen Nelles.
Project manager is David A. Wolfe.