The IPL newsletter: Volume 24, Issue 502

March 15, 2024

News from the IPL

EVENTS

Rapid Indoor Air Quality Monitoring at Large Scale Events

Online & in-person, April 4, 2024 | 4:00PM - 6:00PM
This event explores how the 2021 environmental study of the UK government’s Events Research Programme helped UK society reopen following a year of lockdowns. This talk will describe the “Environmental Study” of the ERP, a rapid evaluation of Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) and airborne transmission risk conducted at ten large venues around the UK during live events between April and July 2021. The study, which developed a significant evidence base on environmental risk factors at events, was designed to respond to the policy related questions, and to develop high level guidance for event operators and venue managers on environmental standards and safety at events. Following the programme, the UK government allowed the return of live events in July 2021. The talk will describe the approach taken to collect evidence at scale, and how the cycle of rapid reporting and evaluation was carried out. The talk will also describe the legal, logistical and reputational challenges to the research teams of working in this space and discuss the need for further work on indoor environments, in the context of climate change, the energy crisis and an aging population.

About the speaker: Liora Malki-Epshtein is an Associate Professor in Urban Fluid Mechanics and Air Quality, in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering at University College London, and director of the Controlled Active Ventilation Environment Laboratory (CAVE). During the Covid-19 pandemic since April 2020, she worked with Transport for London (TfL) and Veolia on protection measures for bus drivers and waste collection crews, and on reducing risks to passengers on the London transport network. She was the Field studies lead on project AIRBODS, which was set up as a rapid response Covid project to understand disease transmission mechanisms in buildings. In April-July 2021, Liora led the largest Environmental Study of its kind worldwide for the UK Government’s Covid-19 Events Research Programme, a study of air quality and transmission risks that enabled the UK to finally re-open events in culture, music and sports industries following a year-long closure, while improving safety for staff and spectators. These studies have provided quantitative evidence of the state of indoor air quality in the UK in a wide range of real-world settings, to enable evidence-based decision by policy makers and to develop appropriate ventilation and operations guidelines for different sectors. This work is now being explored further in CAVE, a world-first large scale experimental facility dedicated to research air quality and other challenges of indoor environments and building design with particular emphasis on safety, health and wellbeing for building occupants.

NEWS

How Canada can improve its ‘C’ grade in innovation

Daina Lawrence, The Globe and Mail
IPL Co-Director Dan Breznitz is quoted in this article, which discusses the Conference Board of Canada’s forthcoming 2024 Innovation Report Card (IRC). The report, which is to be released in the coming weeks, gives Canada a “C” for innovation, ranking 15th among 20 peer nations. The board is an independent non-profit think tank that researches and analyzes economic trends, organizational performance and public policy issues. Dan Breznitz notes that in order to reach its full economic potential, Canada needs to recognize and foster regional strengths.

Editor's Pick

Biden-Harris Administration Announces $750 Million to Support America’s Growing Hydrogen Industry as Part of Investing in America Agenda

US Department of Energy
This press release from the U.S. Department of Energy summarizes the recent announcement of $750 million for 52 projects across 24 states to dramatically reduce the cost of clean hydrogen and "reinforce America's global leadership in the growing clean hydrogen industry." These projects advance electrolysis technologies and improve manufacturing and recycling capabilities for clean hydrogen systems and components, directly supporting more than 1,500 new jobs. Managed by DOE’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office, these projects represent the first phase of implementation of two provisions of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which authorizes $1 billion for research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D) activities to reduce the cost of clean hydrogen produced via electrolysis and $500 million for research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) of improved processes and technologies for manufacturing and recycling clean hydrogen systems and materials. The announcement "reinforces the Biden-Harris Administration’s whole-of-government approach to accelerating the deployment of clean hydrogen—as laid out in the U.S. National Clean Hydrogen Strategy and Roadmap and coordinated by the Hydrogen Interagency Task Force."

Cities & Regions

Massachusetts Governor proposes over $2 billion for major initiatives in life sciences, climatetech, and AI

Laura Lacy Graham, SSTI
This SSTI post summarizes the recent announcement by Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey on her administration’s anticipated economic development measure, AN Act Relative to Strengthening Massachusetts’ Economic Leadership, or the Mass Leads Act. The measure seeks to reauthorize the state’s life sciences investments at $1 billion for the next decade, launch a separate $1 billion, 10-year climatetech initiative, and build on the momentum of the state's CHIPS + Science wins by proposing targeted investments in advanced manufacturing and robotics. It also includes $100 million to create an Applied AI Hub in Massachusetts.

Statistics

Research and development personnel, 2021

Statistics Canada
Canada has a dynamic workforce engaged in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Underpinning its success are diverse and highly skilled employees engaged in research and development positions across both the public and private sectors. These employees generally hold high qualifications and extensive education, and help to enhance the competitiveness of the Canadian economy. The number of full-time equivalent R&D personnel rose for the fifth consecutive year in 2021, reaching 298,850 FTEs (+16,500 FTEs +5.8%), after a 6.9% increase in 2020 (+18,300 FTEs).

Survey of Innovation and Business Strategy, 2020-2022

Statistics Canada
The 2020-to-2022 period was marked by the pandemic, which introduced major challenges and disruptions to the global economy. According to findings from the 2022 Survey of Innovation and Business Strategy (SIBS), covering the pandemic period (2020 to 2022), the innovation rate (71.9%), which is the proportion of businesses that introduced product or business process innovations, declined compared with the previous reference period (79.8% in 2017-to-2019). The innovation rate dropped for both product and process innovations. From the 2017-to-2019 period to the 2020-to-2022 period, the product innovation rate declined just over 6 percentage to 46.6%, and the business process innovation rate decreased almost 10 percentage points to 63.0%.

Innovation Policy

Artificial Intelligence Act: MEPs adopt landmark law

European Parliament
This press release from the European Parliament announces the recent approval of the Artificial Intelligence Act. The Act aims to protect fundamental rights, democracy, the rule of law and environmental sustainability from high-risk AI, while boosting innovation and establishing Europe as a leader in the field. The regulation establishes obligations for AI based on its potential risks and level of impact. The Act includes safeguards on general purpose artificial intelligence, limits on the use of biometric identification systems by law enforcement, bans on social scoring and AI used to manipulate or exploit user vulnerabilities, and the right of consumers to launch complaints and receive meaningful explanations.

Transforming titans: The role of policy mixes in business model adaptation strategies for sustainability transitions

Mina Rezaeian, Jonatan Pinkse, John Rigby, Energy Research & Social Science
In recent years, research on government policies in sustainability transition studies has proliferated, largely focusing on their role to drive transformational change through technological innovation. This strand of research faces two main challenges. First, the research has remained largely fragmented due to the breadth of concepts it encompasses. Second, despite the acknowledged importance of business models in sustainability transitions, there is a lack of understanding about how policies influence firms' strategies for adapting their business models towards sustainability. This paper addresses these gaps by conducting a two-step systematic literature review. It organises the research strands related to transition policies and highlights their impact on business model adaptation strategies of incumbent firms. Incumbents are chosen as the unit of analysis because they have greater capacity and potential to induce systemic transformations compared to niche firms. The results lead to a conceptual framework that elucidates how transition policy mixes affect incumbents' business model adaptation strategies by influencing their willingness and capability to transition. The findings emphasise the importance of incumbents' business models in transition programmes, cautioning against a narrow focus on technological innovation. A systemic perspective considering business models helps policymakers to better understand factors which influence incumbents' business model adaptation strategies, identify sources of inertia, address barriers to appropriate measures, and utilise incumbents' capabilities and resources to bring about transformational change for sustainability.

Social innovation, transformation, and public policy: towards a conceptualization and critical appraisal

Jakob Edler, Katrin Ostertag, Johanna Schuler, Science and Public Policy
This article conceptualizes the role of social innovation (SI) in transformational innovation policy, identifies policy options, and points out potential risks of mobilizing SI for transformations. The authors illustrate their conceptual claims based on selected policy examples and propose a set of distinctions about the basic role of policy for SI in the context of transformation. They distinguish the importance of SI for the two policy approaches: transformative innovation policy and mission-oriented innovation policy. It follows that politics must differentiate between the various types of SI and their different significance for missions and transformations. To decide whether and how policy intervenes, ex ante and ex post analyses of the transformational effects of SI and the policies that act on them must be developed and applied. It is crucial to accompany and promote the diversity of SIs politically in such a way that they can constructively unfold their transformation potential.

Policy Digest

Roadmapping for green transition through the whole-of-government approach - Mutual learning exercise on the whole-of-government: fourth thematic report

Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (European Commission)
This report provides the basis for discussion about green transition and the implementation of industrial technology roadmaps through the whole-of-government approach. This thematic report is the fourth of the Mutual Learning Exercise (MLE) on the application of a Whole-of-Government Approach (WGA) to the design and implementation of national research and innovation (R&I) strategies and plans that foster the transformation of key European socio-economic systems towards sustainability. Within the framework of the Horizon Europe Policy Support Facility (PSF) the European Commission in close collaboration with European Research Area and Innovation Committee (ERAC) delegates launched a MLE on the application of a whole-of-government approach (WGA) in the design and implementation of national research and innovation (R&I) strategies. The previous three reports in the series can be accessed here.

Bulgaria, Finland, Malta, Romania and Slovakia have committed to participate in this MLE. This report focuses on green transition and the implementation of industrial technology roadmaps through the WGA and builds on the findings from the MLE visit in Helsinki (Finland) on 25-26 September 2023. The objective is to develop a set of guidelines for policymakers that covers the entire policy system at different levels of governance hierarchy that influence the introduction of WGA for R&I:

• Political leadership conducive to WGA;
• Policy reform to underpin WGA;
• Joined up strategy development (R&I and other policy domains);
• Coordination at the ministry/agency level and by multi-level governance mechanisms;
• Transformative policy instruments.

The report is structured as follows:

Section 2 introduces the concepts and practices of roadmapping for transitions in connection with the whole-of-government approach.

Section 3 delves into the governance of green transition and the role of decarbonisation strategies and roadmaps at the European and national levels as well as the development and implementation of sectoral roadmaps.

Section 4 considers the practices and diverse sources for evidence-base and forward-looks in the WGA, especially in the realm of green transition.

Section 5 broadens the scope of roadmapping to trigger the system change in the context of circular economy and discusses industrial ecosystem orchestration to align diverse interests and actions, thus moving further from the WGA towards the whole-of-society approach.

Events

EVENTS

The 23rd Annual Research Money Conference: Creating the future we want for Canada in 15 years
April 24-25, 2024, National Arts Centre, Ottawa
The primary objective of the 23rd annual R$ conference is to identify where Canada envisions itself in the next 15 years and craft how to reach that future. We’ll analyze the federal budget, assess past attempts to galvanize the country around innovation, hear from other countries how they did it and how they view Canada, learn from Canadian successes in specific sectors and regions, and address challenges that have been hindering us.

Participants will be able to record their ideas and commentary about the sessions in real time. The conference will include an interactive session during which participants identify priorities for future action.

ISS2024

June 9-11, 2024, Gothenburg, Sweden
ISS2024 is the 20th biennial conference of The International Joseph A. Schumpeter Society. The conference takes place in Gothenburg, Sweden, between Sunday 9th June and Tuesday 11th June, 2024. The ISS2024 conference theme is "Transformation: Creative Accumulation and Creative Destruction in the Economy". The Deadline for submitting abstracts is Jan. 15th 2024.

2024 RSA Annual Conference: Global Challenges, Regional Collaboration and the Role of Places

11-14 June 2024, Florence, Italy
The Regional Studies Association’s Annual Conference 2024 #RSA24 is being held in partnership with the Department of Economics and Business Sciences and Department of Architecture, University of Florence, Italy. This four-day conference brings together academics and policymakers to exchange news, views and research findings from the fields of regional studies and science, regional and economic development, policy and planning.

2024 Industry Studies Association Annual Conference

June 13-15, 2024, Sacramento, CA, USA
This year's ISA conference is titled Empowering Community Wellbeing: Clean Energy, Sustainability and Industrial Strategy and will be held at California State University, Sacramento. In the heart of the world’s largest subnational economy, California, the Industry Studies Association proudly presents its annual conference with a theme that resonates with the future of our planet and communities. The conference will explore the dynamic interplay between California's pioneering efforts in clean energy and sustainability and their profound impacts on industrial strategy and community wellbeing around the world. Call for Paper and Panel Submissions

Technology Transfer Society Annual Meeting 2024

September 11-13, 2024, Brussels, Belgium
The conference theme is 'Blurring Boundaries and Ambiguous Roles: Universities and the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem.' The deadline for abstract submissions is February 15, 2024.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Ikerbasque Research Fellows 2024

The Basque Foundation for Science is launching a new international call for 20 positions for promising young postdoctoral researchers to strengthen scientific research in the Basque Country. 5-YEAR POSITION: During the last year the researcher can be assessed to obtain a permanent position. PHD DEGREE: Between Jan 2013-Dec 2021. APPLICATIONS FROM WOMEN Are especially welcome.

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This newsletter is prepared by Travis Southin.
Project manager is David A. Wolfe