The IPL newsletter: Volume 21, Issue 425

Study: Innovation in Immigrant-owned Firms in Canada

Statistics Canada
A new study has found that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) owned by immigrants were more likely than similar enterprises owned by Canadian-born individuals to implement a product or process innovation. Data from the 2011, 2014 and 2017 versions of the Survey on Financing and Growth of Small and Medium Enterprises were used to determine whether the immigration status of a firm’s owner affected the likelihood of the firm implementing an innovation or holding intellectual property. The results, adjusted for differences in the characteristics of firms owned by immigrants and Canadian-born individuals, showed that immigrant-owned firms were 8.6% more likely to implement a product innovation (goods and services) and 20.1% more likely to implement a process innovation (production processes or methods). Immigrant ownership also had a positive effect on the incidence of marketing innovations (new ways of selling).

The subsidiarity principle in innovation policy for societal challenges

Iris Wanzenböck & Koen Frenken, Global Transitions

While national governments are the main actors in innovation policy, we witness a proliferation of challenge-oriented innovation policies both at the subnational and the supranational level. This begs the question about subsidiarity: what innovation policies for societal challenges should be organized at subnational, national and supranational levels? We provide arguments that innovation policies aimed to solve societal challenges, such as climate change or aging, are best pursued at subnational levels given the contested nature of problem identification and the contextual nature of problem-solving. Regional innovation policy, then, should formulate concrete societal goals tailored to the local context, while the transnational context promotes inter-regional learning and provides the complementary policies in the realms of basic research, regulation and taxation. In addition, the supranational level can set overall goals that are made more concrete and operational at the subnational level.

MEP Generating Substantial Economic and Financial Returns, Study Finds

SSTI
A recent economic-impact study by Summit Consulting and the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research analyzed the overall effect of projects undertaken by the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) on the U.S. economy in FY 2019 and found that the investment of federal dollars into the MEP Centers yields, in the most conservative model, a return on investment of 13.4:1 (from the $140 million federal investment). The study also found that total employment in the U.S. was nearly 217,000 higher because of MEP Center projects.

Vision 2030

National Science Board

This recent report by the U.S. National Science Board (NSB) articulates a vision for securing US leadership in science and engineering (S&E) for the next decade. It identifies the primary challenges to U.S. S&E leadership and lays out a roadmap of policy responses.

The following challenges were identified as comprising ‘a case for urgency’:

• Globalization of S&E: Global S&E is growing faster, causing the U.S. share of discovery to decline, with China becoming the world leader in total R&D investment in 2019. NSB projects that China will invest over $200 billion a year more in R&D than the U.S. by 2030. However, the U.S. has maintained its lead in fundamental research. Key question: “how can America keep its lead in fundamental research?”
• Growth of Knowledge and Technology-intensive Industries: The share of basic R&D funded by the federal government has  declined from 58% in 2000 to 42% in 2017. This research has been the foundation for the growth of many knowledge and technology-intensive businesses. Key question: “how can American discoveries continue to empower U.S. businesses and entrepreneurs to succeed globally?”
• Demand for Talent: By 2026, S&E jobs are predicted to grow by 13% compared with 7% growth in the overall U.S. workforce. This challenge is compounded by heightened global competition for skilled STEM workers.  Key question: “how can the U.S. increase STEM skills and opportunities for all Americans?”

The NSB’s lays out the following Roadmap to respond to these issues:

Delivering benefits from research

• Build on past progress: “Evaluate how NSF’s broader impacts merit review criterion could better meet societal needs; undertake an organizational review with NSF and offer recommendations on changes to directorate structure, funding models, or programmatic offerings, including for convergent research and questions inspired by societal problems; advance discovery and innovation by ensuring NSF continues, completes, and implements an agency-wide partnerships strategy that includes industry and federal mission agencies.”
• Coordination: “Use initiatives like the “Big Ideas” to focus awareness and funding of national priorities and emerging opportunities; Ensure NSF’s budgetary strategy fosters discovery, complements investments in fundamental research made by industry and other federal agencies, and reflects national research needs, including critical technologies; Identify and make strategic recommendations on emerging areas of S&E research where the U.S. must be preeminent and government actions are required”
• Translation: “Encourage the exchange of people, and with that the exchange of ideas and expertise, among federal agencies, universities, and industry, including through programs like the Industry –University Cooperative Research Centers and Convergence Accelerators; Convene university, industry, and state partners to identify best practices and barriers (regulatory, structural, administrative) to partnerships and translation of NSF-funded basic research; As part of a review of NSF, develop options for structures and processes that would magnify translation of discoveries, including consideration of a new NSF directorate focused on translation”

Developing STEM talent for America

• Domestic Talent: “Support NSF strategies to further the broad adoption and use of NSF-funded STEM education research, including research on teaching critical thinking, problem-solving, creativity and digital literacy, and on STEM pedagogy and practices for diversity and inclusion; Advocate for more science and engineering teaching in K-12 education, — the U.S. must make education a federal, state, and local priority and hold itself accountable with reliable, up-to-date data; Advocate for new investment to NSF talent programs; Ensure that NSF improves the attractiveness, equity, and inclusivity of research careers, including attracting and retaining women and other underrepresented groups; Develop recommendations aimed at increasing the attractiveness of conducting academic research in the U.S. and the retention and productivity of researchers”
• International Talent: “Encourage Congress and the Administration to ensure that the U.S. is welcoming to the best science and engineering talent from around the globe. This includes having clear and consistent visa policies and sustaining efforts to retain U.S.-educated scientists and engineers; Work with NCSES to improve data on talent migration, including U.S.-born citizens, into and out of the U.S.”

Expanding the geography of innovation

• Conduct a review of NSF strategies to expand S&E capacity in all states; Advocate for including communities potentially impacted by NSF-funded grants in research design considerations and encourage public participation in research, including through “citizen science”; Communicate to Congress and the Administration the benefits of a new federal program for public post-secondary education institutions that would prepare STEM-capable Americans in every state and encourage partnerships between state and local governments, educational institutions, and industries; Continue to advocate for state-level reinvestment in public higher education, using Science & Engineering Indicators data to document the impact of disinvestment.”

Fostering a global S&E community

• NSB Actions with NSF: “Continue to champion the merits of openness and the highest ethical standards in science and engineering and foster them through synergistic engagements with a global community of like-minded partners; Ensure NSF’s participation as a reliable partner in international research collaborations to address global challenges and opportunities and build, operate, and maintain large-scale infrastructure.•Enhance the NSF Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE), including the MULTIPLIERs program, to ensure it is well positioned to maintain awareness of the global S&E landscape and contribute to NSF’s strategic planning; Develop and expand NSF’s strategies and partnerships to grow international collaborations, attract global talent, and create international education and training opportunities; Work with NCSES to improve data collection on international collaborations, beyond publications”