The IPL newsletter: Volume 19, Issue 391

Next Generation Manufacturing Supercluster Kicks into High Gear

Government of Canada
The Government of Canada is committed to growing the economy, creating good jobs and keeping Canada competitive. That is why the Government is bringing together small, medium-sized and large companies, academic institutions and not-for-profit organizations to generate bold ideas under the Innovation Superclusters Initiative. Recently, the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, announced the signing of an agreement to invest up to nearly $230 million, matched dollar for dollar by the private sector, in the Ontario-based Next Generation Manufacturing Supercluster (NGen), a group of businesses, post-secondary institutions and non-profits working together to make Canada a world leader in advanced manufacturing. The funding agreement means NGen can move forward with activities to build up next-generation manufacturing capabilities, such as advanced robotics and 3D printing, while ensuring “Made in Canada” will symbolize excellence in innovative manufacturing worldwide. It is projected that this supercluster will create more than 13,500 jobs and add more than $13.5 billion to Canada’s economy over 10 years.

U.S. Department of Energy Launches Manufacturing Innovator Challenge

via SSTI Weekly Digest
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced two new manufacturing prizes as part of the Manufacturing Innovator Challenge, an effort to crowdsource solutions for next generation manufacturing, to increase energy productivity and strengthen America’s industrial base. Both prizes focus on additive manufacturing: Additive Manufacturing for Disaster Response and Solid State Lighting Manufacturing. Participants will be asked to share designs that represent an innovation in each respective application of additive manufacturing.

AI Momentum, Maturity, and Models for Success

Accenture/SAS
For quite some time, AI has had an allure to improve processes, raise productivity and make both top-line and bottom-line impacts for organizations. Advances in data and analytics have enabled early adopters of AI across industries globally to grow beyond experiments and quick hits and provide examples for paths to success with AI. SAS, Intel and Accenture, working with Forbes Insights, surveyed business leaders and interviewed thought leaders around the world to identify those early adopters and uncover their emerging best practices for AI. Valuable takeaways from the study include insights on ethics, oversight, process implications and likely needs to shift education and training to prepare for realizing the full potential of AI.

What’s Holding Back UK Productivity? Lessons from Decades of Measurement

National Institute of Economic and Social Research
UK labour productivity is significantly lower than that of many other similarly advanced economies and has been so for decades, with negative implications for UK living standards. To make matters worse, during the last ten years labour productivity growth has stalled in most industrialized countries, and particularly in the UK. This has led to a renewed policy focus on productivity growth, as evidenced by successive government productivity plans and efforts to re-invigorate industrial strategy. This paper for the National Institute Economic Review surveys the evidence on UK productivity performance, identifying what we know about the causes of its weakness, what we do not know and what this means for policy.

Useful Stats: Business R&D Intensity by State (2011-2016)

SSTI Weekly Digest
Since 2011, more than half of the nation’s new investment in business research and development has come from California companies, and more than three-quarters has come from the top five states, according to an SSTI analysis of recently released NSF data. For the second time this year, the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) has updated the data for the Business R&D and Innovation Survey (BRDIS),  a primary source of information on domestic and global business research and development expenditures. In 2016, companies reported nearly $317.7 billion in self-funded and self-performed domestic R&D, a $20 billion (7.0 percent) increase from the previous year, according to the updated data. This type of business R&D represented 4.0 percent of the gross state product in California and Washington in 2016, the most of any states. Using NSF data, this article focuses only on domestic R&D that is paid for and performed by a company. The interactive map below includes data on self-funded business R&D by state, the intensity of this R&D, and how this changed over the five-year period from 2011 to 2016. For additional information, an Excel spreadsheet is downloadable at the bottom of this page.

The State of U.S. Venture Capital in 15 Charts

Pitchbook
There was $27.9 billion worth of venture capital invested throughout the US during 3Q 2018, pushing year-to-date deal value to more than $84 billion. That’s already a decade-high record, and there’s a quarter remaining. One major reason for the bounty of capital is the rise of big deals: Rounds totaling more than $50 million are becoming increasingly prevalent. The 3Q 2018 PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor, created in partnership with Silicon Valley Bank, Perkins Coie and Solium, provides a look at the current VC landscape by examining data on fundraising, exits, corporate venture capital and more. This is an overview of the report with a collection of charts.

Please forward this newsletter to anyone you think will find it of value. We look forward to collaborating with you on this initiative. If you would like to comment on, or contribute to, the content, subscribe or unsubscribe, please contact us at ipl.munkschool@utoronto.ca.

This newsletter is prepared by Jen Nelles.
Project manager is David A. Wolfe