The IPL newsletter: Volume 2, Issue 24

Canada’s top firms boost research and development spending in 2000

Research and development (R&D) investments rose by 27.8 per cent to $11.9 billion in 2000 over the previous year by Canada’s top 330 corporate R&D spenders, according to a report by Research Infosource Inc [Silicon Valley North]

PROFIT unveils 50 fastest growing companies

PROFIT, Canada’s magazine for entrepreneurs, released its second annual list of the nation’s 50 fastest growing young companies on Monday, and Ontario emerged as the clear leader with 35 entrants on the list. [Silicon Valley North]

Magee Reiter Automotive Systems to open major plant in London, Ontario

Pennsylvania based Magee Reiter Automotive Systems and the London Economic Development Corporation announce the opening of a new manufacturing plant in London, Ontario which is expected to employ approximately 125 people.

California launches US$350 million nano technology research institute

The California NanoSystems Institute, a $350 million research institute taking shape in southern California at the universities of California at Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, is the state’s attempt to capitalize on the research and resulting economic growth of this potentially revolutionary field. Bringing together industry researchers, teachers, students and scientists, the institute will facilitate the development of the science and engineering of integrated, macroscopic systems characterized by emergent behavior originating from the structure and organization of nanoscale components. [SSTI Weekly Digest]

Virtual Causeway finds Canada’s Technology Triangle as the Perfect Place to Start a Business

Virtual Causeway, a new high-tech sales and marketing company in Waterloo, thinks Canada’s Technology Triangle is the perfect place to start a business.  After examining several American and Canadian locations, the company decided to launch its operations in the area due to its many advantages.

Science and Technology Excellence in the Public Service

This report, prepared by the Council of Science and Technology Advisors, lays out a framework for achieving excellence in Federally performed science and technology.  The study is based on a series of reports that explore how selected countries measure and ensure excellence in their national S&T organizations and identifies practices that could be usefully applied within Canadian federal S&T facilities.  Three principles – alignment, linkages, and excellence – are considered fundamental to the conduct of all federally performed S&T, the adoption of which is deemed essential to ensuring that the government remains a credible contributor to the national innovation system.

Human Development Report 2001: Making new technologies work for human development

This report provides a substantive and up-to-date overview of new technology and innovation and its role in economic development.  Included are sections on national strategies that deal with encouraging technological innovation, changing education systems and creating innovative partnerships and new incentives for research and development.  Chapter 2 includes an index of technological achievement designed to estimate the ability of countries to participate in the network age.  Out of 72 countries, Canada placed eighth.

The New Economy: Beyond the Hype

A follow-on to last years OECD report, “A New Economy?”, this report explores the causes of economic growth disparities in the OECD area, with a focus on the acceleration of trend growth in the United States and a few other OECD economies over the past decade. It looks beyond the business cycle and asks what structural shifts, if any, have taken place in growth patterns in OECD economies in recent years. It also examines the implications of those shifts for policymakers.  This is the final report of the OECD’s two-year study on growth performance disparities among member countries.

State and Regional Impacts of Federal R&D

Here is a series of state profiles on the impact of federal R&D prepared by the AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program.  Each state profile covers major agency sponsors of federal R&D in the state, major performers of R&D, data on the flow of federal R&D dollars to the state, top university performers of federal R&D in the state, top agency sponsors of university R&D, and highlights of R&D in the state.

European innovation scoreboard

The European Commission has prepared a series of indicators capturing the main inputs and outputs of a knowledge-driven economy for each of its member countries. Indicators are grouped into four areas of innovation: “Human resources in S&T”, “Knowledge creation”, “Transmission and application of knowledge”, and “Innovation finance, output and markets”.

Technology Review patent scorecard 2001

MIT’s Technology Review magazine has published its corporate patent ranking of 150 of the world’s top firms in key industry sectors including aerospace, automotive and biotechnology/pharmaceuticals.  Companies are ranked on the basis of the number of patents, a ‘current impact’ index, science linkages and technology cycle time.  Lockheed Martin placed first followed by United Technologies and Boeing.

US venture capital statistics

Statistics on total venture capital investments along with the number of companies receiving venture capital investments have been made available for each state for 1991-2000.

Governing Knowledge-Processes

Copenhagen, 7-8 September 2001

This workshop, organized by the “Learning, Incentives, and Knowledge” (LINK) program at the Copenhagen Business School, will focus on understanding the governance of knowledge-creation, sharing and exploitation.  The organizers currently seek papers in one of three areas: the governance of knowledge creation, the governance of knowledge sharing, and the possible trade-offs between governance of knowledge creation and knowledge exploitation.

Nanotechnology & Photonics: Waves of the Future 

Pittsburgh, September 19, 2001

This pre-conference workshop, conducted in partnership with the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, will explain what nanotechnology and photonics are, their current state of development, their potential impact on the economy and our lives, and what the US federal government is doing to support the development of these two revolutionary fields.

Creating Opportunity: Tools for Building Tech-Based Economies

Pittsburgh, September 20, 2001

Sponsored by the State Science & Technology Institute, this conference gives extensive coverage to all aspects of technology based economic development.  In addition to 12 sessions on policies and practices for tech-based economic development, two separate tracks of inter-related sessions have been included: “Universities in today’s tech-based economy”, and “Resources for building tech-based economies”.

The Future of Innovation Studies

Eindhoven, September 20-23, 2001

The Center for Innovation Studies (ECIS) at Eindhoven University has organized a conference on ‘The Future of Innovation Studies’, which will host a number of plenary sessions featuring some of the key contributors to the field of innovation studies. Invited speakers include Giovanni Dosi, Ranjay Gulati and Bengt-Åke Lundvall.  The conference will include topics in all areas of the social sciences perspective on the innovation process. Special emphasis will be placed on contributions in the area of the economics of technological change, innovation management, and sociology of innovation processes.

CITO’s Knowledge Network Conference

Ottawa, October 10-11, 2001

This year’s Knowledge Network Conference brings together academic and industrial researchers, technology leaders and CITO’s top electrical engineering and computer science graduates to share research and technology ideas and develop future research strategies in the fields of communications, IT and digital media. The two-day conference explores the issues affecting long-term planning for communications, information technology and digital media technologies – and provides a forum to chart the course for the development of future research strategies.

Innovations for an e-Society- Challenges for Technology Assessment

Berlin, October 17-20, 2001

This conference, organized by the Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis at the Research Centre Karlsruhe, is concerned with all aspects of society making better and increased use of information and communication technologies, with special emphasis on the roles of knowledge and information. There will be sessions on the following topics: e-Commerce, New Media and Culture, Electronic Governance, e-Health Services and New Approaches of Technology Assessment and Forecasting.

CASCON 2001

Toronto, November 5-8, 2001

The 2001 IBM Centre for Advanced Studies Conference invites researchers and developers from IBM, universities, government agencies, and their industry partners to present their latest technological undertakings.  One of the key components of CASCON is the technology showcase where CASCON provides an interactive forum for researchers and developers to meet and interact in a friendly atmosphere.  The deadline for registering posters and demos for CASCON 2001 is Monday, October 1, 2001.

2001 Innovation Conference: Investing In Innovation

Montreal, November 19-20, 2001

This Conference Board of Canada event focuses on the critical necessity to increase investment for innovation, presenting helpful tools and lessons learned from practitioners, and discussing what it means for the country, organizations and individuals. The conference will help executives, managers and entrepreneurs in any organization to create the kind of culture that encourages the constant effort to find and invest in new answers, new ideas and new products. Stakeholders for this event include the business community, the financial community, the education system and all levels of government.

5th Annual ‘European Network on Industrial Policy’ (EUNIP) Conference

Vienna, November 29th – December 1st, 2001

This EUNIP Conference will focus on the cutting edge topics in industrial and structural policy, including policies promoting growth, competitiveness and employment. Topics include industrial economics and policy, innovation policy and theory and, regulatory issues in network industries.  A special session will focus on industrial policy in a knowledge-based economy.