News from the IPL
NEWS
Julie Crljen, Medicine by Design
Medicine by Design, a strategic hub for regenerative medicine research at the University of Toronto (U of T) and its affiliated hospitals, has invested nearly $1 million into six projects aimed at exploring new ideas and possibilities in the field of regernerative medicine. The project 'establishing an international innovation community' led by Shiri Breznitz, IPL affiliated faculty, director of research and professor at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, U of T will address the need for policy frameworks supporting the commercialization of regenerative medicine (e.g. cell and gene) therapies. The project will analyze relationships and assess the significance of social networks in the creation of innovation ecosystems, specifically focusing on Medicine by Design-funded projects and researchers. The ultimate objective is establishing an intentional innovation framework for regenerative medicine. The resulting economic and social network will be mapped and presented to government, university, hospitals and commercialization agencies to provide insights that can enhance collaboration, strengthen network connections among funded partners and promote continued research, discovery and commercialization in the field.
RESEARCH
Too much support? Entrepreneurial ecosystems and firm growth
Qiantao Zhang, Shiri M. Breznitz & Steven Denney,The Journal of Technology Transfer
Although the concept of an entrepreneurial ecosystem has become appealing to both academics and policy makers, few studies have measured the impact of entrepreneurial ecosystems on firm growth. Using quantitative data, this paper analyzes a local innovation ecosystem to identify the contribution of a regional ecosystem to firm growth. The results indicate that firms that intensively rely on ecosystem intermediary organizations tend to experience less growth. In other words, when it comes to supporting firm growth, ‘the more the merrier’ does not apply.
Shauna Brail, Journal of Planning Education and Research
This article examines the redevelopment of Toronto’s Regent Park, a neighborhood formerly comprised exclusively of public housing. Since 2006, it has been undergoing a transformation into a mixed income neighborhood. Through interviews and document analysis, the paper traces the complex and changing development agreements as redevelopment progresses, highlighting the state’s entrepreneurial efforts and the dynamic nature of urban planning and policy. We find that practices of financializing public land are highly fluid, and that efforts to derive public value from public housing redevelopment are tied to shifting community expectations regarding the return of benefits to residents.
Tijs Creutzberg, Darius Ornston, & David A. Wolfe, Innovation Policy Lab Working Paper
This paper uses three cities from the same Canadian province, Toronto, Ottawa, and Waterloo, to examine how regions compete in high-technology markets. We find that regions use civic capital to leverage new, technological windows of opportunity, but they do so in very different ways. Tracing Toronto’s evolution from a marketing hub for foreign multinationals into a center for entrepreneurship, we illustrate how weak ties and cross-sectoral buzz created a “super connector,” scaling high-technology firms in a wide variety of areas. In Ottawa, task-specific cooperation in R&D, education, and specialized infrastructure enabled the region to overcome the disadvantages of its small size as a “specialist” in a single, capital-intensive niche, telecommunications equipment. Finally, entrepreneurs in Waterloo eschewed task-specific cooperation for peer-to-peer mentoring. By diffusing generic knowledge about how to circumvent the liabilities of smallness, mentoring networks enabled this “scrapper” city to support smaller startups in a broad range of niches.
OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE)
This paper analyses Memorial University’s contribution to the economic development of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada, specifically focusing on the university’s contributions to the provincial ocean economy. It analyses the university’s public engagement, entrepreneurship, and collaboration strategies, programs, and relationships to understand Memorial’s regional impact. IPL Affiliated Faculty Shiri Breznitz provided substantive input as a member of the expert panel and IPL Postdoctoral Fellow Scott Mcknight prepared the background report and provided inputs and comments.
Dan Breznitz, Guilio Buciuni & Michael Murphree, Regional Studies
The rise of globally fragmented production since the 1980s encouraged economic regions to specialise in narrow slices of the value chain, making the benefits from local agglomeration no longer certain. Nonetheless, locally integrated production districts continue to thrive. Locally integrated industrial districts have proven sustainable in times of both increasing and decreasing fragmentation of production. Drawing upon insights from three schools – the Markusian logic of multiple district models, strategic coupling and the production of semi-public goods – this article uses a two-staged case-study design to explore the conditions under which locally integrated production districts continue to thrive in the global economy.
Regulating the Platform Giants: Building and Governing China’s Online Economy
Scott McKnight, Martin Kenney & Dan Breznitz, Policy & Internet
The online platform economy in China has grown to become one of the largest in the world. Its growth has contributed to China's economic development and played an important role in its innovation path. We present a three-stage structured explanation of China's governance approaches toward its homegrown platform firms. Using Chinese government documents and secondary sources to conduct a historical process tracing analysis, we argue that the growth of China's main platform firms and the government's governance of them was co-evolutionary, guided by the party-state's goals of maintaining social-political stability, economic growth and strengthening technological self-sufficiency. By so doing this paper addresses the fundamental question of how a “strong” and “capable” state such as China's has responded as platform firms went from providing various online services to becoming core infrastructure in the economy and society to the point of threatening core government objectives.
Editor's Pick
The IRA and the US Battery Supply Chain: Background and Key Drivers
Ahmed Mehdi & Tom Moerenhout, Columbia Center on Global Energy Policy
The passage of the IRA has reshuffled the economics and geopolitics of the lithium-ion battery value chain. This commentary, the first in a two-part series, addresses the economics of the battery supply chain, who controls its key components, and, most importantly, how the IRA changes the position of the US in the global battery market. It will show that the IRA was necessary from a security-of-supply perspective, and allows the US to diversify critical supply chains, as evidenced by strong levels of investment in those supply chains both in the US and among its strategic partners since the enactment of the industrial policy.
Cities & Regions
Regional Energy and Resource Tables – British Columbia
Natural Resources Canada
The British Columbia Regional Energy and Resource Table was launched in June 2022. Through this Regional Table, the Government of Canada, the Government of British Columbia, and the First Nations Leadership Council (FNLC) are committed to an inclusive dialogue to develop a shared understanding among governments and First Nations in British Columbia on regional growth opportunities and potential actions to advance them. Together, partners have agreed to accelerate progress in Critical minerals, Electrification, Clean fuels/hydrogen, Forest sector, Carbon management technology and systems, and Regulatory efficiency. Focused areas for collaboration in the short term in each opportunity area are outlined in the British Columbia Regional Energy and Resource Table Framework for Collaboration on the Path to Net-Zero, which was released on June 27, 2023. Partners will engage more broadly across these opportunity areas, mobilizing key stakeholders and securing additional opportunities, and will provide an update on progress within one year.
Jen Nelles & Tim Vorley, Innovation Caucus
This article discusses the following reports: Place Based Innovation Policy Synthesis Report and the accompanying Place Based Innovation in the UK: Case Studies.From the Innovation Strategy to the Levelling Up White Paper, place is at the heart of Government policy. The Government’s new Geospatial Strategy 2030 is the most recent publication outlining the role of the private and public sectors in cementing the UK’s position as a global science and technology superpower and delivering economic growth. These strategies recognise that the future competitive advantage of the UK is contingent on empowering the growth of towns, cities, and regions. This in turn has led to a strong focus on clusters and place-based innovation strategies.
Statistics
Introducing the Canadian Zev Supply Chain Interactive Map
Accelerate
Accelerate, Trillium Network for Advanced Manufacturing, NGen Canada, and Electric Autonomy partner in the development of an interactive map to highlight activity across Canada’s emerging zero emission vehicle supply chain. The interactive map showcases the key players, geographic distribution, and the rapid expansion of the Canadian ZEV supply chain. Accelerate is Canada’s industrial alliance of key actors from mining, batteries, fuel cells, R&D, the public sector, Indigenous interests, labour, vehicle manufacturing and infrastructure.
Quantifying industrial strategies across nine OECD countries
OECD
Industrial policy has resurfaced prominently in academic and policy discussions in the wake of major shocks and long-term trends. However, quantifying industrial strategies across countries remains difficult. The ‘Quantifying Industrial Strategies’ (QuIS) project measures industrial policy expenditures by gathering and harmonising publicly available data, based on a new methodology. This report summarises the composition of industrial strategies in the first nine participating countries in terms of expenditures, priorities, and policy instruments for the period 2019-21. The report finds that industrial policies are sizeable, with 1.5% of GDP in grants and tax expenditures, and with an important heterogeneity across countries in terms of strategic priorities; industrial strategies mainly rely on sectoral instruments, representing on average 29% of grants and tax expenditures; and green instruments are important and rose significantly in six out of nine countries between 2019 and 2021.
OECD
Semiconductors are a critical input into a wide range of downstream industries, including the wider information communications technology industry, electronics and motor vehicles. Semiconductor shortages can have large adverse effects on output in these industries, with ripple effects on the broader economy, as highlighted by recent supply chain disruptions. This paper maps cross-country and cross-sectoral dependencies in the semiconductor value chain based on new OECD Inter-Country Input-Output data that allow to analyse the semiconductor industry separately from the wider computer and electronics value chain. It further discusses policy options to reduce the economic consequences of shocks to the semiconductor value chain while preserving the benefits of global sourcing.
The EU Commission recently released the 2023 edition of the European Innovation Scoreboard(EIS) and the bi-annual edition of the Regional Innovation Scoreboard(RIS).The EIS provides an extensive comparative analysis of innovation performance among EU Member States, as well as other European countries and regional neighbours, while the RIS allows for a closer examination of the innovation performance within European regions.
Innovation Policy
Transforming Germany: How Mission Agencies Can Pioneer Innovative Solutions for Grand Challenges
Ralf Lindner, Florian Wittmann, Thomas Jackwerth-Rice, Stephanie Daimer, Jakob Edler, Daniel Posch
The growing urgency of transformative, mission-oriented policymaking brings forth a host of extensive requirements that pose challenges to the existing structures and practices of public officials. In many cases, established institutional settings, organizational routines and administrative cultures fall short of meeting the rigorous requirements associated with the evolving paradigm of mission-orientation. The case of Germany, where various structural factors undermine the effectiveness of transformative policymaking, serves as a vivid and compelling illustration of these issues. The authors of this paper advocate for the creation of a specialized mission agency to effectively tackle the demanding governance requirements of transformative, mission-oriented policies in Germany. This agency, equipped with expertise in specific thematic areas, should possess the autonomy to operate within the scope of its competencies and assume a prominent role in the design and governance of individual missions that fall under the purview of the Federal Chancellery.
National Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee Releases First Report
NIST
The National Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee (NAIAC) has delivered its first report to the president, established a Law Enforcement Subcommittee to address the use of AI technologies in the criminal justice system, and completed plans to realign its working groups to allow it to explore the impacts of AI on workforce, equity, society and more. The report recommends steps the U.S. government can take to maximize the benefits of AI technology, while reducing its harms. This includes new steps to bolster U.S. leadership in trustworthy AI, new R&D initiatives, increased international cooperation, and efforts to support the U.S. workforce in the era of AI. The report also identifies areas of focus for NAIAC for the next two years, including in rapidly developing areas of AI, such as generative AI.
Bill C-50
Parliament of Canada
Bill C-50 recently received first reading in the House of Commons. The Act "establishes an accountability, transparency and engagement framework to facilitate and promote economic growth, the creation of sustainable jobs and support for workers and communities in Canada in the shift to a net-zero economy." This includes the creation of Sustainable Jobs Partnership Council to "provide the Minister and the specified Ministers, through a process of social dialogue, with independent advice with respect to measures to foster the creation of sustainable jobs, measures to support workers, communities and regions in the shift to a net-zero economy and matters referred to it by the Minister." Finally, the Act creates an obligation for "the tabling of a Sustainable Jobs Action Plan in each House of Parliament every five years."
Policy Digest
Links to recent IPL webinars
Does Canada have an effective innovation policy?
March 16, 2023 |11:00AM - 12:00PM, Online via Zoom
Since 2000 Canada has witnessed a proliferation of Innovation Strategies, including the 2017 Innovation and Skills Plan. Yet our innovation performance continued to deteriorate throughout this period. The 2022 Federal Budget began with the admission, “Our third pillar for growth is a plan to tackle the Achilles’ heel of the Canadian economy: productivity and innovation.” What factors best explain Canada’s dismal innovation performance over the past two decades? Join us for an IPL webinar with two of the most insightful analysts of Canadian innovation policy.
Moderator: David A. Wolfe, Professor of Political Science and Co-Director, Innovation Policy Lab
Panelists:
Shirley Anne Scharf, Ph.D. Shirley Anne Scharf is Visiting Researcher with the CN-Paul M. Tellier Chair on Business and Public Policy, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Ottawa and has her Ph.D. in Public Administration, School of Political Studies at U of O. Her dissertation, “Canadian Innovation Policy: The Continuing Challenge” (2022) examines the key dimensions driving the gap between policy intent and impact, and the consequences for Canada’s innovation eco-system.
Travis Southin, Ph.D. Travis Southin is a postdoctoral fellow at Carleton University’s School of Public Policy and Administration working with the Transition Accelerator on net-zero industrial policy. He completed his PhD in Political Science from the University of Toronto in 2022. His dissertation, titled “Overcoming Barriers to Policy Change: The Politics of Canada’s Innovation Policy,” illuminates the political barriers constraining the Government of Canada’s ability to shift its innovation policy mix away from neutral/horizontal policy instruments towards more targeted innovation policy instruments.
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This newsletter is prepared by Travis Southin.
Project manager is David A. Wolfe