News from the IPL
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Biden Announces New Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation in Detroit
SSTI Weekly Digest
The Vice President recently announced the creation of an Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IAMCI) location in Detroit, aimed at creating better composite materials for wind turbines, compressed gas storage, and in particular, the automotive industry. Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, Michigan State University will serve as the primary academic partner for the IAMCI consortium, which consists of 122 members across six states: Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee. The IACMI’s open-access pilot manufacturing test facility and technology development and demonstration programs will be driven by major industry participation. The institute will be co-located at the Institute for Lightweight Innovations for Tomorrow (LIFT) facility in Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood. LIFT, which was announced in early 2014 as part of the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI) initiative, focuses on coordinating public and private investment around emerging advanced manufacturing technologies. Led by the University of Michigan, along with Ohio State University and the Columbus, Ohio-based manufacturing technology Edison Welding Institute, LIFT will be funded with a $70 million, five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Defense and $78 million from a consortium of 70-plus universities, businesses and organizations.
Obama Administration Announces New “Smart Cities” Initiative to Help Communities Tackle Local Challenges and Improve City Services
The White House
The Obama Administration recently unveiled a new “Smart Cities” Initiative that will invest over $160 million in federal research and leverage more than 25 new technology collaborations to help local communities tackle key challenges such as reducing traffic congestion, fighting crime, fostering economic growth, managing the effects of a changing climate, and improving the delivery of city services. The new initiative is part of this Administration’s overall commitment to target federal resources to meet local needs and support community-led solutions. Over the past six years, the Administration has pursued a place-based approach to working with communities as they tackle a wide range of challenges, from investing in infrastructure and filling open technology jobs to bolstering community policing. Advances in science and technology have the potential to accelerate these efforts. An emerging community of civic leaders, data scientists, technologists, and companies are joining forces to build “Smart Cities” – communities that are building an infrastructure to continuously improve the collection, aggregation, and use of data to improve the life of their residents – by harnessing the growing data revolution, low-cost sensors, and research collaborations, and doing so securely to protect safety and privacy.
Editor's Pick
Newcastle City Futures 2065: Anchoring Universities in Cities Through Urban Foresight
Mark Tewdwr-Jones and John Goddard
This Project has taken a broad and overarching look at the long-term future of cities over the next 50 years using Newcastle upon Tyne as a pilot. It demonstrates that there is a strong case to develop a much more strategic and synoptic approach using futures methods and city-wide participatory processes to think about city futures. Universities can work more proactively with and for the cities in which they are located, and use both creative techniques and their expertise to foster civic engagement. This report shows that a reappraisal is vital to help address cities’ major challenges ahead – for example, relating to demographic shifts, economic growth, social and environmental change, transport and infrastructure needs, and the integration of public health and urban environments. The challenge is to meet the rising expectations within and across cities that will come over time; and to deliver a wider range of sustainable benefits based on the unique place assets evident in cities. At a time when citizens in cities can often feel remote from policy-making, there is a particular need for more coherent and consistent approaches to generating engagement and participation processes across entire urban areas relating to change, by remembering the past, being confident about the present, and looking forward to the future.
Innovation Policy
Growth and Shared Prosperity
Karen G. Mills, Harvard Business School
In June 2015, 73 chief executives, mayors, governors, university presidents, economists, and thought leaders from across the political spectrum gathered at Harvard Business School to work on a question of deep and growing concern in the United States: How can the nation continue to grow while also providing a path to prosperity for more Americans? This briefing shares the highlights of the group’s deliberations.
Making Open Innovation Ecosystems Work: Case Studies in Healthcare
Donald E. Wynn et al. IBM Center for the Business of Government
In the context of tightening budgets, many government agencies are being asked to deliver innovative solutions to operational and strategic problems. One way to address this dilemma is to participate in open innovation. This report addresses two key components of open innovation: Adopting external ideas from private firms, universities, and individuals into the agency’s innovation practices; Pushing innovations developed internally to the public by reaching out to external channels.This report examines both strategies by studying two cases of government-sponsored participation in technological ecosystems in the health care industry.
Comparing American and European Innovation Cultures
Stephen Ezell, ITIF
The evolution of the political economy of innovation has differed between the United States and Europe. This chapter examine the regions’ differing attitudes toward entrepreneurship, innovation, and creative destruction and find that a substantial share of European innovation happens within well-established corporations―notably the so-called “hidden champions” of the industrial, export-oriented Mittelstand companies of Austria, Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland―whereas brash young start-ups and entrepreneurial ventures are more celebrated (and relied upon as drivers of innovation) in the American innovation culture and system. The chapter concludes by explaining how each region can better leverage the distinct strengths of their innovation cultures, and offers policy recommendations to improve framework environments for innovation in both.
Cities, Clusters & Regions
Canadian Cluster Data Project
Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity
Since 2001, the Institute has collaborated with Harvard’s Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness to measure clusters in Canada, in a manner consistent with the U.S. clusters. The project provides open data on Canadian regional clusters and economies to support Canadian businesses, economic development, and public policy. The interactive data includes indicators, such as employment, wages, and location quotients. The Institute hopes this project helps users to build up more of an understanding of clusters and regional business environments, improve regional development policies, and locate business partners across the country.
Pillars of Prosperity: Leveraging Regional Assets to Grow Minnesota’s Economy
Amy Liu and Richard Shearer, The Brookings Institution
Minnesota has always been rich with assets—a skilled labor force, good jobs in diverse industries, globally competitive companies, and abundant lakes and parks that provide a high quality of life for the people who call it home. However, to maintain its strong economy and quality of life, Minnesota must adapt to fast-changing trends in the global economy, trends that affect each of the state’s regions and communities differently. This report explores how the state of Minnesota—the governor’s administration together with the Minnesota Legislature—can partner with regional networks to foster economic growth and extend prosperity to greater numbers of Minnesotans.
Statistics & Indicators
NCESE InfoBrief: U.S. R&D Increased in 2013, Well Ahead of the Pace of GDP
Mark Boroush, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics
Research and development performed in the United States totaled $456.1 billion in 2013, according to new data from the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, National Science Foundation (NSF). This is compared to $435.3 billion in 2012 (revised downward from an earlier estimate) and $427.8 billion in 2011. In 2008—just before the onset of the main economic effects of the national and international financial crisis and the Great Recession—U.S. R&D totaled $407.0 billion.
Policy Digest
Summary of the “Smart Cities” Initiative and Funding
“Every community is different, with different needs and different approaches. But communities that are making the most progress on these issues have some things in common. They don’t look for a single silver bullet; instead they bring together local government and nonprofits and businesses and teachers and parents around a shared goal.” – President Barack Obama
Over the past six years, the Administration has pursued a place-based approach to working with communities as they tackle a wide range of challenges, from investing in infrastructure and filling open technology jobs to bolstering community policing. Advances in science and technology have the potential to accelerate these efforts. An emerging community of civic leaders, data scientists, technologists, and companies are joining forces to build “Smart Cities” – communities that are building an infrastructure to continuously improve the collection, aggregation, and use of data to improve the life of their residents – by harnessing the growing data revolution, low-cost sensors, and research collaborations, and doing so securely to protect safety and privacy.
As part of the initiative, the Administration is announcing:
- More than $35 million in new grants and over $10 million in proposed investments to build a research infrastructure for Smart Cities by the National Science Foundation and National Institute of Standards and Technology.
- Nearly $70 million in new spending and over $45 million in proposed investments to unlock new solutions in safety, energy, climate preparedness, transportation, health and more, by the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Transportation, Department of Energy, Department of Commerce, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
- More than 20 cities participating in major new multi-city collaborations that will help city leaders effectively collaborate with universities and industry.
Today, the Administration is also hosting a White House Smart Cities Forum, coinciding with Smart Cities Week hosted by the Smart Cities Council, to highlight new steps and brainstorm additional ways that science and technology can support municipal efforts.
The Administration’s Smart Cities Initiative will begin with a focus on key strategies:
- Creating test beds for “Internet of Things” applications and developing new multi-sector collaborative models: Technological advancements and the diminishing cost of IT infrastructure have created the potential for an “Internet of Things,” a ubiquitous network of connected devices, smart sensors, and big data analytics. The United States has the opportunity to be a global leader in this field, and cities represent strong potential test beds for development and deployment of Internet of Things applications. Successfully deploying these and other new approaches often depends on new regional collaborations among a diverse array of public and private actors, including industry, academia, and various public entities.
- Collaborating with the civic tech movement and forging intercity collaborations: There is a growing community of individuals, entrepreneurs, and nonprofits interested in harnessing IT to tackle local problems and work directly with city governments. These efforts can help cities leverage their data to develop new capabilities. Collaborations across communities are likewise indispensable for replicating what works in new places.
- Leveraging existing Federal activity: From research on sensor networks and cybersecurity to investments in broadband infrastructure and intelligent transportation systems, the Federal government has an existing portfolio of activities that can provide a strong foundation for a Smart Cities effort.
- Pursuing international collaboration: Fifty-four percent of the world’s population live in urban areas. Continued population growth and urbanization will add 2.5 billion people to the world’s urban population by 2050. The associated climate and resource challenges demand innovative approaches. Products and services associated with this market present a significant export opportunity for the U.S., since almost 90 percent of this increase will occur in Africa and Asia.
Events
CityAge: Build the Future
Toronto, 8-9 October, 2015
North America is a continent of cities, and millions more will move into them in the decades ahead. It means cities are poised to play a vital role in shaping our prosperity and society. Cities are where we must implement the ideas and partnerships that build an innovation economy: new ideas in transportation, energy management, economic development, and resilient infrastructure that will build the future. As one North America’s fastest growing metropolitan regions — and given its importance in the national economy — Greater Toronto, Hamilton, The Waterloo Region, and their surrounding cities have the tools to create an economic supercluster that is a magnet for investment and talent, and that serves as a platform for next-generation productivity, research and innovation. On October 8 & 9, CityAge will host Build the Future, a summit exploring the future of Canada’s economic powerhouse.
Inve$table City: 2015 Canadian Urban Forum – Charting a Course for Canada’s Urban Agenda
Toronto, 8 October, 2015
Join the conference to help build momentum for positive change in Canada’s urban policy framework. The opening plenary features an address by the Hon. Glenn Murray (MPP, Ontario’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change). Four interactive sessions address: Creating Investment-Ready Conditions; Getting to Effective Public Policy; Building Economically Resilient Infrastructure; and Integrating Investment and Public Policy.
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.
Defining the Realm of the Possible: Opportunities and Challenges for Toronto
Toronto, 14 October, 2015
As Canada’s largest city and its sixth largest government, how is the City of Toronto rising to meet the growing expectations of its residents? In his first public address since taking office in July, Toronto City Manager Peter Wallace will share his perspectives on the City’s finances, and on the opportunities and challenges to achieving key social, economic, city-building, environmental, and governance objectives. With over 30 years of experience in the public service, Peter Wallace became City Manager for the City of Toronto in July 2015. He is responsible for over 30,000 staff, a $12 billion operating budget, and a $32 billion 10-year capital plan.
World Future Cities Summit
Toronto, 13-15 October, 2015
The technology driven transformation of cities into Smart and Intelligent Cities is a one trillion dollar business with Smart City conferences and exhibitions springing up all around the world to discuss opportunities. The Greater Toronto Region is a world leader in smart urban transformation but it has no permanent globally recognized conference. On October 13-15, 2015 the Metro Toronto Convention Centre will host the World Future Cities Summit and will inaugurate the annual Greater Toronto conference. The Summit will feature the Mayors’ Summit and ten universities participating in six future city technology conferences all running in parallel. Mayors’ Summit speakers from Europe, the US, the UK, Abu Dhabi, Dubai and India will join Canadian Mayors, civic and government leaders and leaders from industry, academic and research institutions.
SSTI 2015 Annual Conference – Cultivating Prosperity: Partners, Ideas, Solutions
Oklahoma City, 26-28 October, 2015
Innovation is driven by the cross-pollination of ideas. New ideas in manufacturing can spur a pharmaceutical revolution. Lean business models can enable a new generation of software entrepreneurs. Advancements in consumer design can help a computing device company take off. Behavioral psychology can shape our understanding of Big Data. Universities provide an ideal environment for fostering new ideas in a range of disciplines. Why, then, are university commercialization models so centered on engineering, medicine and business research? At the 2015 Annual Conference hear from practitioners on the front lines who are working to bring new ideas from all parts of the university to market.
RSA Winter Conference: Great Transformations – Recasting Regional Policy
London, UK, 19-20 November, 2015
This conference provides a platform for scholars across the globe to address great transformations taking place across our economic, political, and social spheres amidst heightened uneven development and inequality in a post-crisis era of ongoing market liberalisation, financialisation, global competition and changing patterns of regulation and governance. The world has continued to witness highly differentiated shifts in socio-economic relations in the recovery from the global financial crisis (GFC), with some places benefiting, while others have seen a worsening of problems. The inter-related processes of industrialization, urbanization, and regional and local development are now becoming increasingly complex and pose a major challenge, firstly for our conceptualization’s of regional and urban development and, secondly, for specifying appropriate policy-fixes to ‘hold down’ the global and provide the atmosphere for sustained economic growth.
DRUID Academy Conference 2016
Bordeaux, France, 13-15 January, 2016
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.
Regional Studies Association Annual Conference 2016 – Building Bridges: Cities and Regions in a Transnational World
Graz, Austria, 3-6 April, 2016
Throughout history, cities and regions have been cornerstones of economic, social and cultural institution building and centres of communication and trade across borders of empires and nations. In a globalized world dominated by multi-level governance and declining economic and political significance of the nation-state, cities and regions are becoming ever more so important in building bridges across nations, supra-national unions, and even continents. These challenges surpass the usual aspects of integration: it is not sufficient to reduce barriers for the mobility of labour, goods, services and capital, to create a homogenous competitive environment, and a solid monetary system. What is needed in addition are more elements of a new regionalism, which is based on non-hierarchical relationships, on self-government, and on the creation of flexible alliances leading to interregional transnational cooperation. The development of a region is affected by its competitive and complementary relationships with other increasingly distant regions. These relationships have to be embedded in an overall structure of relations which encompass the purely economic ones and have strong social, cultural, legal and political dimensions. The objective of the conference is to initiate an interdisciplinary dialogue about the future of a transnational world of urban and regional cooperation. We welcome submissions from researchers, policy makers and practitioners working in all areas of regional analysis.
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This newsletter is prepared by Jen Nelles.
Project manager is David A. Wolfe.