News from the IPL
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Dan Breznitz awarded Balsillie Prize for Public Policy
IPL Co-director and University of Toronto University Professor Dan Breznitz has been awarded the Balsille Prize for Public Policy by the Writers’ Trust of Canada for his latest book, Innovation in Real Places: Strategies for Prosperity in an Unforgiving World, published by Oxford University Press.
David Wolfe nominated to the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Council of Canadian Academies
IPL Co-director David Wolfe was recently nominated to serve on the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Council of Canadian Academies. The role of the Scientific Advisory Committee is to advise the CCA’s Board on assessment topics, expert panel composition, and peer review.
UPCOMING EVENTS
The transition to a post-carbon energy and economic paradigm is a stated priority for all the signatories to the Paris Accord, including Canada. Success in achieving this objective will depend on a complex mix of policy experimentation and coalition building in support of that objective, cutting across virtually every sector of the economy. This panel will explore some of the dimensions of that process and the prospects for success in achieving that objective. Register here for the Zoom link.
RECENT EVENTS
National Governments & Innovation Policy: Where – and What – Is Utopia?
This is a recording of a January 10 panel focused on national governments and Innovation policy. Canada, the Nordics, Taiwan? In this webinar, panelists examined the diverse roles played by national governments in setting the stage for innovation, as well as the key elements that ought to be considered in formulation of innovation policy in Canada and elsewhere.
Speakers:
- Susana Borras, Professor, Department of Organization, Copenhagen Business School, Copenhagen Denmark
- Dan Breznitz, University Professor and Munk Chair of Innovation Studies; Co-Director, Innovation Policy Lab, Munk School; Clifford Clark Visiting Economist, Department of Finance, Government of Canada
- Darius Ornston, Associate Professor, Munk School
- Joseph Wong, Vice-President, International, University of Toronto; Roz and Ralph Halbert Professor of Innovation, Munk School; Professor, Department of Political Science
Moderator:
- Rana Foroohar, Global Business Columnist and Associate Editor, Financial Times, and Global Economic Analyst, CNN
RESEARCH
The Role of Experimentation in Driving Transformational Innovation in Real Places
Alex Glennie, Dan Breznitz, Greeta Nathan, Transformative Innovation Policy Consortium
This panel featuring IPL Co-Director Dan Breznitz discussed the critical importance of creating transformative innovation strategies and policies that are evidence-driven, rooted in the capabilities and resources of communities, and that acknowledge and take advantage of where a country, region, or local area is situated along the entire process of innovation. Prevailing approaches to innovation policymaking have been heavily influenced by the Silicon Valley model of growth creation, which prioritizes technological innovation. Some cities or regions have benefited from this approach, but it is neither feasible or desirable in every context, and it is unlikely to lead to a step change in terms of directing innovation activities towards achieving transformative societal goals. A culture of exploration and experimentation is required, to develop and continually adapt innovation policies that are fit for purpose, and fit for context.
Nathan Lemphers, Steven Bernstein, Matthew Hoffmann, & David A. Wolfe, Energy Research & Social Science
In the media, Norway, California, and Québec are widely acknowledged as innovative leaders in transportation electrification. Yet, what does leadership mean and how did these jurisdictions achieve it? We contend that leadership reflects both intentional forethought through early, experimental and innovative policy to promote electric vehicles and the on-the-ground successful outcomes of these policies. All three jurisdictions have embarked on different leadership paths. We argue that these differences are a function of how electromobility policy entrepreneurs engaged unique pre-existing local assets and activated similar political mechanisms of normalization, coalition building and capacity building. When policy actors harness mutually reinforcing political and industrial dynamics, electric vehicle policies can scale up. Eventually, these dynamics may lead to new industrial path development and the decarbonization of the transportation sector.
Into the Scale-up-verse: Exploring the landscape of Canada’s high-performing firms
Innovation Policy Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy and The Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship
Scale-ups, or high-growth firms, are responsible for the vast majority of productivity growth in Canada, making them an immensely powerful tool in the pursuit of Canada’s long-term economic stability and prosperity. However, only 1 in 100 young firms reach scale-up status within their first ten years. How can we harness, support, and amplify the power of scale-ups and their contributions to the Canadian economy? A collaboration between the Innovation Policy Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy and The Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship, this new study, Into the Scale-up-verse, takes the first step toward better equipping policymakers to support the success of Canadian firms by unpacking the complexity and nuance in Canada’s diverse scale-up universe. The research was initiated and funded by Delvinia in partnership with Mitacs and the IPL, and conducted jointly with BII&E. The report analyzes the most recent and detailed data set concerning Canadian business dynamics to provide a novel and comprehensive guide for those in a position—such as academic researchers, industry players, and government policymakers—to design supportive economic policy and facilitate productive conversations about Canada’s scale-ups.
Editor's Pick
The Foundation For Science and Technology
In June 2021, the UK Prime Minister announced the creation of a new National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), to “provide strategic direction on the use of science and technology as the tools to tackle great societal challenges, level up across the country and boost prosperity around the world.” He also announced the creation of a new Office for Science and Technology Strategy (OSTS), to be based in the Cabinet Office, which would “drive forward the strategy of Whitehall’s science and technology priorities from the centre”. The OSTS would be headed up by a National Technology Adviser, and Sir Patrick Vallance was appointed to that position. In this event, speakers discussed the setting up of the NSTC and OSTS, and their emerging priorities. They also discussed how these bodies will work with other structures within the UK’s science, technology and innovation ecosystem, including UKRI and the Government Office for Science, and how they will engage with UK industry. See also: Joanna Chataway’s blog post summarizing and contextualizing the discussion.
Cities & Regions
Jason Deegan, Tom Broeke, & Rune Dahl Fitjar, Economic Geography
This article examines which economic domains regional policy makers aim to develop in regional innovation strategies, focusing in particular on the complexity of those economic domains and their relatedness to other economic domains in the region. The authors build on the economic geography literature that advises policy makers to target related and complex economic domains, and assess the extent to which regions actually do this. The article draws on data from the smart specialization strategies of 128 NUTS-2 regions across Europe. While regions are more likely to select complex economic domains related to their current economic domain portfolio, complexity and relatedness figure independently, rather than in combination, in choosing priorities. The authors also find that regions in the same country tend to select the same priorities, contrary to the idea of a division of labour across regions that smart specialization implies. Overall, these findings suggest that smart specialization may be considerably less place based in practice than it is in theory. There is a need to develop better tools to inform regions’ priority choices, given the importance of priority selection in smart specialization strategies and regional innovation policy more broadly.
Levelling Up the United Kingdom
UK Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
This policy paper notes that “levelling up is a moral, social and economic program for the whole of government.” The Levelling Up White Paper is “a flagship document that sets out how we will spread opportunity more equally across the UK” and comprises “a bold program of systems change, including 12 UK-wide missions to anchor the agenda to 2030, alongside specific policy interventions that build on the 2021 Spending Review to deliver change now.”
Statistics
European Venture Report: 2021 Annual
Pitchbook
This report tracks 2021 investment trends in the European venture capital (VC) ecosystem. The report finds that 2021 culminated with deal value reaching a new record. The increase in late-stage VC activity has proven fundamental to the maturation of the European VC ecosystem, and a glut of out-sized rounds for highly valued businesses occurred in 2021. The broad software umbrella dominated VC deal value, and cloud-based businesses thrived in 2021. Despite uncertainty stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, first-time deal value increased, and local ecosystems matured in Europe in 2021.
Innovation Policy
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada
This report by Canada’s Federal innovation department details information on the department’s planned results and resources for each of its core responsibilities. It also contains information on key risks related to achieving those results. This Financial Post/The Logic report analyzes the Plan and highlights that the department spent $1.17 billion less than it was authorized in the 2020–21 fiscal year. Much of the shortfall was due to the flagship Strategic Innovation Fund paying out only $581.44 million of the $1.30 billion for which it had received approval.
Study of Competition Issues in Data–Driven Markets in Canada
Vass Bednar, Ana Qarri, & Robin Shaban, Vivic Research
The Ministry of Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada commissioned this study of Competition Issues in Data-Driven Markets in Canada in the fall of 2021. This independent expert report takes a case study approach, exploring nine business behaviours that occur in a digital context and testing how they may or may not be currently contemplated under the Competition Act. It concludes with a cross-cutting policy approach that will aid in preserving and encouraging competition in data-driven markets. The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Government of Canada.
Policy Digest
University Research Commercialisation Action Plan
Australian Government, Department of Education, Skills and Employment
On 1 February 2022, the Prime Minister of Australia announced the University Research Commercialisation Action Plan, a $2.2 billion investment to “place university innovation and industry collaboration front and centre of Australia’s economic recovery.” Complete details on the University Research Commercialisation Plan are elaborated on the website of the Department of Education, Skills and Employment. The main components of the Plan include the following:
The Action Plan will drive reforms in four areas:
- placing national manufacturing priorities at the core of Australian Government-funded research, which include: resources tech and critical minerals processing, food and beverage, medical products, recycling and clean energy, defence and space.
- priority-driven schemes to ramp up commercialisation activity
- university research funding reform to strengthen incentives for genuine collaboration with industry, and
- investing in people who are skilled in university–industry collaboration.
The mechanisms to drive these reforms are:
- $243 million over five years for the Trailblazer Universities program to boost prioritised R&D and drive commercialisation outcomes with industry partners
- $1.6 billion over 10 years for Australia’s Economic Accelerator – a new stage-gated competitive funding program to help university projects bridge the so called ‘valley of death’ on the road to commercialisation. More information is available here and here.
- $150 million capital injection to expand the CSIRO Main Sequence Ventures program, which backs start-up companies and helps create commercial opportunities from Australian research
- $296 million to be invested in 1800 industry PhDs and over 800 in fellows over 10 years, and
- the creation of a new IP Framework for universities to support greater university-industry collaboration and the uptake of research outputs.
This article and this article contain context and critical evaluation of the Plan by InnovationAus, an “independent publication that reports on government policy as it affects technology-based innovation across the nation’s growth industries.” The article asserts that the Plan “ignores the issue of Australia fundamentally being a branch economy” and “provided little analysis of the issues on the industry side.” The author asserted that “partly this stems from the focus on equating research commercialisation with startups.”
Links to recent IPL webinars
From Science to Entrepreneurship
This is a recording of the Nov. 15th, 2021 webinar. There is a plethora of research on university commercialization and technology transfer. However, there is less of a discussion on the skillset and technical capabilities that allow a scientist to become an entrepreneur. In this webinar we will focus on these skills and programs that induce entrepreneurship. Moving from the scientist’s lab, to entrepreneurship courses, to forming a startup, to growing the firm within an incubator or accelerator.
Speakers:
- Fabiano Armellini, Associate Professor Department of Mathematics and Industrial Engineering, École Polytechnique de Montréal
- Shiri M. Breznitz, Director, Master of Global Affairs Program; Associate Professor, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto
- Elicia Maine, W.J. VanDusen Professor of Innovation & Entrepreneurship; Academic Director, Invention to Innovation (i2I); Special Advisor on Innovation to the VPRI, Simon Fraser University
- Sophie Veilleux, Professor, Department of Management of the Faculty of Business Administration at Université Laval
- Sarah Lubik (moderator), Director of Entrepreneurship; Co-Champion, Technology Entrepreneurship@SFU Lecturer, Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University
Canada’s Quantum Internet: Prospects and Perils
This is a recording of the April 20, 2021 webinar that together experts to discuss the political, economic, and scientific implications of quantum communications, for Canada and the world .Speakers: Francesco Bova, Associate Professor, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto; Anne Broadbent, Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Ottawa; Jon Lindsay, Assistant Professor, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy and Department of Political Science, University of Toronto; Christoph Simon, Professor and Associate Head, Research, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Calgary; & Dan Patterson (moderator), Technology Reporter, CBS News
Intellectual Property and Entrepreneurship in Canada
This is a recording of the March 23rd 2021 webinar focused on the importance of IP protection for entrepreneurship, the intellectual property environment in Canada, and existing support for firms. Panelists discussed issues relating to their firm’s ability to secure IP especially as it relates to IP education and the role of government in supporting IP protection. Speakers: Seray Çiçek, Ryan Hubbard, Graeme Moffat, Moderator: Shiri Breznitz
Events
The New Inventor: Artificial Intelligence (AI) and IP Rights
February 24, 2022, Online
As artificial intelligence (AI) gets increasingly sophisticated, it is challenging established standards in many areas of intellectual property (IP) law as well as the law generally. Among other things, AI is now generating creative works in the absence of traditional human authors and inventions in the absence of traditional human inventors. This, in turn, raises fascinating and important questions of whether this sort of activity ought to be protected by intellectual property rights. It also raises important questions with respect to deep fakes, and ethical uses of AI, and protections for AI training data. In this keynote lecture, Professor Abbott will discuss his Artificial Inventor Project seeking patent protection for AI-generated inventions, and will definitively answer every question anyone could have about AI or the meaning of life. Professor Ryan Abbott, MD, JD, MTOM, PhD is Professor of Law and Health Sciences at the University of Surrey School of Law and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
P4IE 2022 International Conference Measuring Metrics that Matter
May 9-11 2022, Ottawa and Online
How to best design innovation indicators for the future? You are invited to contribute to this challenging question during our second international conference on “Policies, Processes and Practices for Performance of Innovation Ecosystems” (P4IE). The hybrid conference will be held online and in-person at Ottawa. You can actively participate by submitting an academic, industry or public policy paper. Topics includes, but are not limited to: New/Real-time innovation indicators; Sustainable, Inclusive, Responsible (SIR) innovation indicators; Measuring the performance of innovation ecosystems; and Science-to-innovation SIR innovation indicators. Submissions of academic extended abstracts due by December 13, 2021 (acceptance notification by February 15). Submissions of policy papers due by January 14, 2022 (acceptance notification by February 14). Submissions of industrial papers due by February 14, 2022 (acceptance notification by March 14).
Global Conference on Economic Geography 2022
June 7-10, Dublin, Ireland
Under the umbrella topic “Territorial Development”, Trinity College Dublin & University College Dublin invites you to participate in the sixth Global Conference on Economic Geography 2022 to be held in Dublin, Ireland. The conference is organized into 13 session themes – see list below which also provides a link to the detailed theme description. All session theme leaders welcome submissions to their respective themes via the submission portal. In addition, there is also a long list of Special Sessions that are associated with these themes – see list further below which again provides a link for a detailed description for each of these. All Special Session organizers welcome submissions again via the submission portal.
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This newsletter is prepared by Travis Southin.
Project manager is David A. Wolfe