News from the IPL
UPCOMING WEBINARS
Urban Leadership & Innovation During Times of Crisis
Dec. 3, 2020, 1-2pm
Urban leaders are the frontlines of crisis response, from the COVID-19 the pandemic and its associated economic, social and fiscal challenges to the growing protests over racial and economic justice and the looming reality of climate change. This session highlights the way urban leaders can best respond to build more inclusive, just and resilient cities and generate the policy innovations that can shape enduring change.
Richard Florida: University Professor at University of Toronto’s School of Cities and Rotman School of Management, Distinguished Fellow at NYU and FIU, and Co-Founder and Senior Editor, The Atlantic City Lab
Anita McGahan: University Professor and George E. Connell Chair in Organizations and Society, Rotman School of Management and Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy
Shauna Brail: Associate Professor, Institute for Management & Innovation, University of Toronto Mississauga and Senior Associate, Innovation Policy Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy
Supriya Dwivedi (Moderator) Host of The Morning Show on Global News Radio 640 Toronto
Inclusive Innovation: COVID and After
December 10, 2020, 10-11am
Canada is neither as innovative as it needs to be, nor as egalitarian as it aspires to be. Are the two related? Accumulating evidence suggests that countries with lower inequality tend to be more innovative, while greater innovation generates growth that can be more widely distributed. But how exactly can more inclusive innovation economies be brought about and what are the barriers we face in doing so? In this webinar, panelists from the Innovation Policy Lab, Case Western Reserve University, and YWCA Canada will discuss the importance of inclusive innovation; policies needed to bring it about; opportunities and prospects for doing so in the era of COVID-19; and new initiatives for measuring and tracking progress – including GDP 2.0 and the Innovation Policy Lab’s Inclusive Innovation Monitor.
Dan Breznitz: Co-Director, Innovation Policy Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy; Co-Director, Program on Innovation, Equity and the Future of Prosperity, CIFAR
Susan Helper: Carlton Professor of Economics at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University; Co-Director, Program on Innovation, Equity and the Future of Prosperity, CIFAR
Daniel Munro: Senior Fellow, Innovation Policy Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy; Research Advisor, Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship
Anjum Sultana: National Director of Policy Policy and Communications, YWCA Canada
Editor's Pick
The Work of the Future: Shaping Technology and Institutions
David Autor, David Mindell, Elisabeth Reynolds, MIT Work of the Future
This report from MIT’s Task Force on the Work of the Future explores various questions about the impact of technology on the future of work in an effort to outline a framework for the Task Force’s efforts over the next year. The author’s explore how can we move beyond unhelpful prognostications about the supposed end of work and toward insights that will enable policymakers, businesses, and people to better navigate the disruptions that are coming and underway? What lessons should we take from previous epochs of rapid technological change? How is it different this time? And how can we strengthen institutions, make investments, and forge policies to ensure that the labor market of the 21st century enables workers to contribute and succeed?
Cities, Clusters & Regions
Chloe Billing, Philip McCann, Raquel Ortega-Argilés & Deniz Sevinc, Regional Studies
This paper explores the perspectives of expert analysts and policy-makers on the implications of Brexit for different parts of the UK economy. For local and regional areas, the need for such expert voices to be heard is urgent, given the fact that UK subnational and substate governance authorities have been effectively blocked out of all Brexit-related negotiations, and as such, are wholly unprepared for the post-Brexit realities. The issues discussed in this paper reflect the key themes that came out of four regional stakeholder participatory symposia organized by The UK in a Changing Europe (UKICE), which were held in Leeds, Birmingham, London and Edinburgh, and that focused on the Brexit-related economic and governance challenges for the different parts of the UK. These issues are examined in the light of the recent ‘levelling-up’ agenda prioritized by the UK government.
Statistics
U.S. Falls to 10th in R&D Investment Intensity, Remains First in Overall R&D Spending
SSTI
This post summarizes a recent report by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) titled A Snapshot of U.S. R&D Competitiveness: 2020 Update. The report analyzes the role R&D investment plays within the U.S. while also examining research and development trends globally. It notes that while U.S. spending remains high, China’s R&D spending has “seen staggering increases over the past two decades, and remains an undeniable leadership rival to the U.S.” The United States is currently ranked tenth in research and development intensity (a measure of R&D investment as a percent of a nation’s Gross Domestic Product) but has continued to lead the pack in total research and development spending. When measuring R&D intensity, AAAS found that the U.S. ranked tenth when combining public and private R&D investment, but is ranked 14th when only factoring in public spending towards R&D.
The Effect of Robots on Firm Performance and Employment
Jay Dixon, Statistics Canada
This article examines the impact of robot investment on firm performance and employment at the enterprise level. The analysis is based on a data set on robot purchases derived from data on imports, combined with data from National Accounts Longitudinal Microdata File (NALMF) and from the Workplace and Employee Survey (WES). Investments in robots have been concentrated in the manufacturing sector, with the automotive industry making particularly large investments prior to the year 2008. Recent investments have been in robots with a broader range of capabilities performing tasks in a broader range of industries. Robots raise firms’ productivity, but they are associated with the firm hiring more, rather than fewer workers. Robots appear to change the types of human skills firms require, however.
Innovation Policy
President-Elect Biden’s Agenda on Technology and Innovation Policy
ITIF
This report compiles information from the president-elect’s campaign website and policy documents, from the Democratic Party platform, and from media accounts of statements he has made. The report begins with an overview of the general philosophy the president-elect has articulated on tech and innovation policy, and then examines his policy positions and likely initiatives across 10 issue areas: Innovation and Research and Development, Digital Economy, Broadband, Education and Skills, Taxes, Regulation, Trade, Advanced Manufacturing, Life Sciences, and Clean Energy Innovation.
An International Intellectual Property and Digital Trade Strategy for Canada
Jeremy de Beer, CIGI
To remain competitive on a global scale, Canada needs to enhance its domestic intellectual property (IP) and digital trade strategies with an international approach that can respond to constantly changing global economic conditions. Although Canada launched its Intellectual Property Strategy in 2018 — focusing on IP awareness, strategic tools and legislation — its data initiative, known as the Digital Charter, remains a work in progress. Both policies would benefit from an outward-looking, interconnected, international strategic vision. As a member of various international trade agreements, Canada has framed its IP laws to align with these agreements and its trade partners. Canada should expand its trade relationships with Africa before other countries, such as China, take advantage of the continent’s rapidly growing economies and trade opportunities. Building strategic alliances with the right global partners, combined with the use of hard and soft laws to promote Canadian interests, will help Canada strengthen its international IP and digital trade strategy.
Policy Digest
Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (European Commission)
The goal of the European Innovation Council (EIC), enshrined in the Horizon Europe 2021–2027 programme, is to position Europe firmly at the forefront of the next wave of breakthrough innovation. This sets out the need for the introduction of proactive management of EIC funding and programme managers (PMs). Written by a panel of international innovation policy experts, this report harnesses the collective experience of the ARPA model and of innovation policy agencies around the world to articulate best practices for the innovation agency EIC Pathfinder, focused on supporting advanced research on new and emerging technologies and the critical role of PMs. The authors assert that the EIC should become a hands-on innovation agency. The main components are centred on the creation of challenge- and thematic-driven programmes, active portfolio management of funded projects, transition activities that bring new solutions to the market and EIC PMs who bind all of this together into complementary practices.
Recommendations
PROGRAMME CREATION
- Empower and support excellent PMs. The EIC should empower excellent PMs to create, assemble and actively manage (i.e. in a hands-on way) portfolios of projects to achieve ambitious goals with high socioeconomic impact. This calls for flexibility, delegation, acceptance of risk and the occasional failure, and a mission-driven culture by the EIC. To deliver the active management required, the EIC should ensure that each PM has access to the necessary support resources, which could include a dedicated team and/or shared resources. PMs should report directly to the EIC Agency Director.
- Create programmes in a process that balances the vision of the PM and diverse insights from across Europe. Funding for specific challenges should balance the vision of the PM with the diverse external insights from national initiatives, stakeholders in Europe’s innovation ecosystems and research communities.
- Ensure that programmes articulate a clear strategy beyond the confines of the laboratory. Programmes should articulate a clear and ambitious vision, a set of possible novel paths to achieve this vision, a strategy for making a difference beyond the narrow confines of the laboratory, and measurable milestones and deliverables to determine progress and success.
- Utilise the EIC programme questions. Programme design and approval should be guided by questions inspired by the Heilmeier questions used by DARPA and ARPA-E to provide a blueprint for thinking about the validity and structure of a research and development problem, anticipating the structure of the programme that will address said problem.
- Have a nimble programme approval process. The authority to approve programmes should be delegated to the EIC Agency Director, with advice provided by the EIC Board and consultation with the EIC Programme Committee.
- Intimately involve the PMs in proposal evaluation and selection. PMs should be intimately involved in proposal evaluation and selection to integrate the evaluation criteria of ‘portfolio consistency’ and depart from the rack-and-stack approach, which may lead to the discounting of the most innovative projects.
ACTIVE PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
- Integrate contracting into active portfolio management. The EIC Pathfinder should integrate the negotiation of milestones and deliverables into the contracting process. A dedicated EIC Pathfinder contracting team, working for all programmes, should be created to facilitate efficient contract timing and allow for the integration of the learning outcomes of the Pathfinder journey, such as ‘top-up’ capability, the reorientation of deliverables, termination, etc.
- Ensure PMs have direct and active relationships with the projects. The PIs should submit quarterly written updates on their progress on technology, transition and budget to the PMs and the EIC agency. The PMs should review progress and milestones on a periodic basis, no less than once per quarter.
- Accelerate, reorient and/or terminate all projects and programmes according to their ability to achieve the negotiated milestones. Active programme management should apply to all projects from the different programmes. Ultimately, if a project cannot meet its performance criteria or those criteria become obsolete, the PM can recommend that it be terminated.
- Allow for top-up funding for programmes. EIC Pathfinder implementation should plan for budget reserves to allow budget flexibility to EIC areas of priority and programmes that are increasingly promising. Funds remaining from a terminated project should be made available to other projects within the programme’s portfolio and duration.
TRANSITION ACTIVITIES
- Develop a transition strategy at the programme level. The PM should be in charge of developing, at the programme level, a transition strategy with discrete objectives and measurable milestones during the programme creation phase. These documents should be reviewed and updated at least annually. Systemic gaps identified in the transition strategy, such as regulatory barriers or a lack of appropriate pilot facilities across the EU, should be addressed by the PM and the EIC.
- Establish a transition plan at the project level and allocate 5–10 % of the total grant to transition activities. All projects should establish a transition plan and incorporate milestones related to that plan into their overall project plan at the start of the project. The funding to deliver on the transition plan/milestones should be included as part of the overall project budget plan, with a target allocation of 5–10 % of the total grant.
- Create a tech-to-market team and establish EIC fellowships. To facilitate technology commercialization, the EIC agency ahould create a tech-to-market (T2M) team with limited term assignments to deliver key elements of transition planning such as building programme-level ecosystem engagement plans, managing transition working groups and working with project teams on their individual transition plans. Finally, EIC fellowships should be created to engage post-graduates to work with both the PM and the T2M team on techno-economic analyses, supply chain maps, and market/customer understanding.
- Create an innovation ecosystem engagement plan and transition working groups. Transition working groups should be formed at the programme level, made up of committed individuals from different stakeholders in Europe’s innovation ecosystems, to give advice on the transition to the market of the programme portfolio and its projects. An innovation ecosystem engagement plan, forming an integral part of the transition strategy, should be developed by the PM and the T2M team.
- Create an EIC deep-tech training programme and a dynamic customer relationship management system. The above recommendations on planning and executing transition activities at both the programme and the project levels require robust tools and tailored training. A well-designed, easy-to-use and dynamic customer relationship management (CRM) system should be developed by the EIC that addresses the needs of the PM, PI and EIC. We also recommend that an EIC deep-tech training programme be created to support a new generation of deep-tech entrepreneurs in Europe.
Links to recent IPL webinars
Canada’s Innovation Imperative
This is a recording of the November 9, 2020 event. 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, Dan Breznitz, Meagan Simpson (moderator).
This is a recording of the November 12, 2020 event. 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. Speakers: Carolyn Wilkins, Michael Sabia, Shauna Brail (moderator).
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.
Subscriptions and Comments
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 Travis Southin.
Project manager is David A. Wolfe