News from the IPL
UPCOMING WEBINARS
Canada’s Innovation Imperative
November 9, 2020, 3pm-4pm
Innovation contributes to regional and national prosperity and is a well-established economic concept. To succeed in building capacity and strength in this technical realm, government policies must be deliberate, systematic and rooted in expertise. Data shows that Canada missed the shift from the tangible to intangible economy. Moving forward, how can we make sure Canada builds competitive advantage through policy that leverages innovation for tomorrow’s economy?
Speakers:
Jim Balsillie
Retired Chairman and Co-CEO of RIM, Chair of the Council of Canadian Innovators
Dan Breznitz
Professor, Munk Chair of Innovation Studies, Co-Director of the Innovation Policy Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy
Meagan Simpson
Moderator
Associate Editor for BetaKit
November 12, 2020
Bank of Canada Senior Deputy Governor Carolyn A. Wilkins outlines how the COVID-19 crisis has damaged economic potential and discusses what will be needed to thrive in the post-pandemic world.
Michael Sabia,
Welcome remarks
Director, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy
Shauna Brail,
Moderator
Associate Professor, Institute for Management & Innovation, University of Toronto Mississauga & Senior Associate, Innovation Policy Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy
Urban Leadership & Innovation During Times of Crisis
Dec. 3, 2020
Speakers: Richard Florida, Carole Saab, Anita McGahan, Shauna Brail, & Supriya Dwivendi
Inclusive Innovation: COVID and After
December 10, 2020
Speakers: Suzan Helper, Dan Breznitz, Anjum Sultana, & Daniel Munro
RESEARCH
Mobility and Proximity in Canada During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Gabriel Cavalli1, Brennan Lake, Anita M. McGahan1, Emanuele Pepe
The purpose of this report is to describe changes in behavior for the Canadian public, policymakers, and leaders focused on the immediate and lasting impact of COVID social-distancing restrictions on Canadian life. The analysis is the result of a six-month study led by researchers from the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management and Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy working in tandem with partners from the ISI Foundation and from the Data for Good Program at Cuebiq. Under its Data for Good Program, Cuebiq donated smartphone activity data for this project. The data, which is described more fully in the body of the report, is collected through an opt-in protocol and is anonymized and privacy-enhanced so that no individual’s movements are identifiable. The study focuses on describing estimates of the mobility and proximity of Canadians across the country and in major cities.
Editor's Pick
Growing Their Own Way: High-growth Women Entrepreneurs in Canada
Kim de Laat & Meghan Hellstern, Brookfield Institute
In partnership with the Women Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub (WEKH), the Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship (BII+E) conducted in-depth interviews with 30 high-growth entrepreneurs across Canada. The report, Growing Their Own Way: High-growth women entrepreneurs in Canada, explores the experiences of women founders as they scale their companies, revealing divergent pathways to growth, persistent systemic barriers, and funding challenges. Most importantly, the report presents opportunities and recommendations for government, policymakers, financial institutions, other funders, business support organizations and stakeholders in the entrepreneurial ecosystem who are seeking to champion the success of high-growth women entrepreneurs.
Cities, Clusters & Regions
Multinational Enterprises, Industrial Relatedness and Employment in European Regions
Nicola Cortinovis, Riccardo Crescenzi, Frank van Oort, Journal of Economic Geography
This article investigates the link between multinational enterprises (MNEs) and employment in their host regions by cross-fertilizing the literature on MNE externalities with the emerging body of research on industrial relatedness. The link between employment and MNE presence in the same and related industries is tested for European regions. The results suggest that cross-sectoral MNE spillovers are mediated through industrial relatedness and that they are positively and significantly associated with higher employment levels, independently of input–output relations. Our results indicate that regions characterized by lower factor prices are likely to benefit the most from the presence of multinationals in terms of employment, but these benefits are concentrated in high knowledge-intensive sectors, potentially fostering inequalities within less-developed economies.
Statistics
Canada Research and Development Classification System 2020, Ver. 1.0
Statistics Canada
The Canadian Research and Development Classification (CRDC) was developed conjointly by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), and Statistics Canada which is the custodian. This shared standard classification, inspired by the Frascati Model 2015 of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), will be used by the federal granting agencies and Statistics Canada to collect and disseminate data related to research and development in Canada. The CRDC first official version is the 2020 version 1.0 and it is composed of 3 main pieces: the type of activity or TOA (with 3 categories), the field of research or FOR (with 1663 fields at the lowest level) and socioeconomic objective or SEO (with 85 main groups at the lowest level).
Pandemic Speeding Automation; Impact On Jobs Could Worsen Inequality
SSTI
This post summarizes the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Future of Jobs Report 2020. The report forecasts an 85 million global loss in jobs by the year 2025 due to pandemic-induced increase in technology adoption. While social distancing measures such as remote work have already brought many white collar workers into the “future of work,” the quickened pace of technology adoption and automation across all sectors will create greater employment challenges for lower paid and lower skilled workers. The report also indicates that the jobs created to work with these new technologies could reach 97 million by 2025. However, business leaders and the public sector must take action to promote equitable workforce development and prepare all workers for the jobs of the future.
The State of Talent: Layoffs & Unemployment in the Innovation Economy
Prospect & BDC
Using the survey data collected by Prospect and Feminuity, this report seeks to reveal important details about who was most impacted by unemployment during the COVID-19 crisis in Canada’s tech startup community.
ITIF’s State New Economy Index Issues 2020 State Ranks
SSTI
This post summarizes the Information Technology and Information Foundation’s (ITIF) State New Economy Index. The index measures states’ structural capacity for successfully navigating a global economy that is increasingly driven by technological innovation. ITIF’s recent release of the updated 2020 index and state rankings provides a long-term picture of how several states have been strengthening their economies for the future. Utah and Maryland have climbed the ranks and moved into third and fourth place behind two long-standing leaders.
Innovation Policy
Council of Canadian Innovators
This open letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau from Canadian technology companies asserts the need for a “champion in government” to catalyze nation-building projects in partnership with industry. Specifically, the letter notes that “today, nation-building means creating the digital infrastructure that enables Canadians to succeed in the global economy driven by IP and data. It must be paired with the digital policy infrastructure that leaders use to govern and support creation of new private and public wealth in the 21st century knowledge-based economy.”
Manufacturing a New Future For Australia
Australian Government Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources
This post summarizes the Budget 2020–21 announcement regarding Australia’s $1.5 billion Modern Manufacturing Strategy. The Strategy will help Australian manufacturers to scale-up, improve competitiveness, and build more resilient supply chains. The strategy is part of the Government’s JobMaker plan. A key policy will be the Modern Manufacturing Initiative (MMI), which will invest $1.3 billion in large transformative projects. It will “encourage private investment and build the scale, connections and capabilities of local manufacturers, allowing them to shift up the value chain and grow.”
Policy Digest
National Security Strategy for Critical and Emerging Technologies
The White House
This White House document outlines how the United States will stay competitive in fields such as artificial intelligence, energy, quantum information science, communication and networking technologies, semiconductors, military, and space technologies. The strategy “establishes priority actions to protect our national security innovation base and secure our technology advantage by strengthening rules where gaps exist, insisting that agreements be enforced, and working with like-minded allies and partners to promote, advance, and ensure the success of our common principles. “The strategy outlines two main pillars that are needed for the United States to “lead in the highest-priority C&ET areas, be a contributing peer with allies and partners in high-priority areas, and manage risk in the remaining areas.”
Pillar I - Promote the National Security Innovation Base:
- Develop the highest-quality science and technology (S&T) workforce in the world
- Attract and retain inventors and innovators
- Leverage private capital and expertise to build and innovate
- Rapidly field inventions and innovations
- Reduce burdensome regulations, policies, and bureaucratic processes that inhibit innovation and industry growth
- Lead the development of worldwide technology norms, standards, and governance models that reflect democratic values and interests
- Support the development of a robust National Security Innovation Base (NSIB), to include academic institutions, laboratories, supporting infrastructure, venture funding, supporting businesses, and industry
- Increase priority of research and development (R&D) in developing United States Government budgets
- Develop and adopt advanced technology applications within government and improve the desirability of the government as a customer of the private sector
- Encourage public-private partnerships
- Build strong and lasting technology partnerships with like-minded allies and partners and promote democratic values and principles
- With the private sector, create positive messaging to increase public acceptance of critical and emerging technologies (C&ET)
- Encourage state and local governments to adopt similar actions
Pillar II - Protect Technology Advantage:
- Ensure that competitors do not use illicit means to acquire United States intellectual property, research, development, or technologies
- Require security design early in the technology development stages, and work with allies and partners to take similar action
- Protect the integrity of the R&D enterprise by fostering research security in academic institutions, laboratories, and industry, while balancing the valuable contributions of foreign researchers
- Ensure appropriate aspects of C&ET are adequately controlled under export laws and regulations, as well as multilateral export regimes
- Engage allies and partners to develop their own processes similar to those executed by CFIUS
- Engage with the private sector to benefit from its understanding of C&ET as well as future strategic vulnerabilities related to C&ET
- Assess worldwide S&T policies, capabilities, and trends, and how they are likely to influence, or undermine, American strategies and programs
- Ensure secure supply chains, and encourage allies and partners to do the same
- Message to key stakeholders the importance of protecting technology advantage and offer practical assistance whenever possible
Links to recent IPL webinars
Policymaking Under Uncertainty
This is a recording of the Oct. 14th, 2020 event focused on Policymaking Under Uncertainty. Policymaking is a challenging endeavour under the best of times, as politicians and bureaucrats seek to juggle the need for rapid and innovative interventions on the one hand with democratic accountability on the other. Speakers: Uri Gabai, Darius Ornston, Sylvia Schwaag Serger, and Dan Breznitz
This is a recording of the Jul 16th, 2020 event focused on exploring the short and long term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystems. Panelists included Catherine Beaudry, Ben Spigel, Tara Vinodrai, and David Wolfe.
Will COVID-19 Bring Us Together or Blow Us Apart? The Global Security Implications of the Pandemic
This is a recording of the July 7th, 2020 event focused on the national and international security implications of the COVID-19 pandemic. Janice Stein discusses the historical security lessons of previous pandemics and depressions, Jon Lindsay considers emerging military and strategic dangers exacerbated by COVID-19, and Ron Deibert discusses the cybersecurity and surveillance threats associated with the unprecedented relocation of life online.
This is a recording of the June 11, 2020 event focused on how will COVID-19 shape the future of our cities. Join experts Anita McGahan, Shauna Brail (School of Cities), and Nathalie des Rosiers (Massey College), Richard Florida (School of Cities Professor) as they discuss cities after COVID with Marcia Young, host of CBC’s World Report.
This is a recording of the June 11, 2020 event focused on the impact of COVID-19 on higher education. Speakers: Shiri Breznitz, Heike Mayer, Donald Siegel and Elvira Uyarra.
The Future of (Decent?) Work After COVID-19
This is a recording of the May 26, 2020 Munk School / Innovation Policy Lab / CIFAR event focused on the future of work after COVID-19. Speakers: Dan Breznitz, Zabeen Hirji and Peter Warrian.
This is a recording of the May 11th 2020 event focused on “what will the world look like in the wake of COVID-19?” Speakers: Shauna Brail, Anita McGahan, Tara Vinodrai and Shiri Breznitz.
COVID-19 and the World’s Grand Challenges
This is a recording of the May 8th 2020 event focused on “what impact will COVID-19 have on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?” Speakers: Anita McGahan, Joseph Wong and Karlee Silver.
How is COVID-19 affecting global supply chains?
This is a recording of the April 29th 2020 event focused on “how is COVID-19 affecting supply chains in Canada and around the globe?” Speakers: Dan Breznitz, Shauna Brail and Steven Denney.
Events
Canadian Science Policy Virtual Conference
16-20 November, 2020
The program of the 12th Canadian Science Policy Conference is now available. CSPC features exciting panel sessions and programs, with panels from Australia and Asia to countries in Africa, South and Central America, Europe and the U.S., and of course, from coast to coast to coast of Canada. The conference theme is CSPC 2020: New Decade, New Realities: Hindsight, Insight, Foresight, where CSPC decodes the new dimensions of our world and how science and innovation play a role in shaping it.
WICK#8 PhD workshop organized by YSI and Collegio Carlo Alberto
10-11 December, 2020, Turin
The Vilfredo Pareto Doctoral Program in Economics – University of Turin and the Complexity Economics Working Group – YSI (Young Scholars Initiative) are pleased to announce the 8th International PhD Workshop in Economics of Innovation, Complexity and Knowledge (WICK#8), sponsored by BRICK and Collegio Carlo Alberto. The aim of the workshop is to bring together young researchers from different disciplines and provide them an opportunity of discussion of both full and early works
Regional Innovation Policies Conference
Aalborg, Denmark, 25-26 March 2021
Due to the COVID-19 outbreak the conference has been postponed to March 25 and 26, 2021 in Aalborg, Denmark. The conference will focus on regions in transformation – as well as transformations in regional innovation policy and new developments in methods for defining and analyzing regions. Submission deadline: 30th November 2020.
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This newsletter is prepared by Travis Southin.
Project manager is David A. Wolfe