The IPL newsletter: Volume 26, Issue 524

April 1, 2025

News from the IPL

RESEARCH

A role for economic geographers in the entrepreneurial ecosystem framework: Global pipelines and the mobility challenge

Jan Jacob Vogelaar & Shiri Breznitz, Progress in Economic Geography
Entrepreneurial ecosystems have emerged as an influential framework for understanding the spatial dimensions of entrepreneurship. Beyond offering an analytical lens, the framework’s promise lies in its potential as an ‘actionable framework’ to guide regional actors in strengthening ecosystems. This short paper argues that the framework suffers from two key shortcomings that must be addressed to realize this potential. First, ecosystem actors must overcome regional constraints by building global pipelines to access resources beyond their immediate sphere of influence. Second, they need to address the challenge of retaining key actors, such as graduates and high-growth firms, which may relocate. These shortcomings present opportunities for economic geographers to contribute empirical and theoretical insights that enhance the framework’s actionability. The article concludes that, despite these challenges, ecosystem actors have a reason for optimism. The growing recognition that different entrepreneurial ecosystem configurations support various types of entrepreneurships offers regional actors new perspectives.

Exploring pathways for a green transition to a bioeconomy

John Zysman, David Zilberman & Dan Breznitz, CEPS
The bioeconomy will utilise renewable natural resources with advanced technologies, life science, digitisation, AI and prevision systems to produce food and fibre, and to recycle and reduce waste. The bioeconomy will unfold in any case – but the major challenge will be who will take the lead and how places and governments maintain prosperity and societal wellbeing whilst supporting the development of a sustainable bioeconomy. This CEPS Explainer, specially prepared in advance of a wider discussion at the 2025 CEPS Ideas Lab, aims to offer some answers to this conundrum and does so by first discussing the bioeconomy in a historical context. It addresses the techno-economic and political challenges in the transition to the bioeconomy. By analysing case studies from diverse countries such as Denmark, Israel and Japan, it provides insights into how local communities can leverage their unique capabilities to build a successful bioeconomy.

Editor's Pick

OECD Agenda for Transformative Science, Technology and Innovation Policies

OECD
Multiple crises are triggering turbulence, instability and insecurity in contemporary societies, with impacts on economies, the environment, politics, and global affairs. An effective response will require governments to be more ambitious and act with greater urgency in their science, technology and innovation (STI) policies to meet global challenges. Sustained investments and greater directionality in research and innovation activities are needed, and these should coincide with a reappraisal of STI systems and STI policies to ensure they are “fit-for-purpose” to contribute to transformative change agendas. This policy paper provides a framework to support governments in making these assessments. It identifies six STI policy orientations for transformative change that should guide these assessments. It applies these orientations across multiple areas of STI policy, including R&D funding, the research and innovation workforce, and international R&D co-operation, and outlines a series of concrete policy actions STI policymakers can take to accelerate transformative change.

Cities & Regions

Shaping opportunity spaces: the role of narratives in place leadership

Max Roessler, Markus Grillitsch & Johan Miörner, Daniel Schiller, Regional Studies
This paper aims to identify micro-level processes shaping the narratives surrounding regional opportunity spaces. A process perspective is applied to examine how place leaders engage in shaping narratives to influence the perception of opportunity spaces. The empirical research is based on a comparative case study of four peripheral regions in Germany, comprising 92 interviews with regional stakeholders and two cross-regional focus groups. The findings emphasise the central role of place leadership in shaping the perception of regional opportunity spaces, illustrate the various pathways of changing dominant narratives (e.g., endogenous or exogenous) and provide a multiple-phase framework for their analysis.

Statistics

Seeding success? Evaluating the effectiveness of public support for high-potential businesses

Maria Brackin, James Phipps, Rob Fuller, Innovation Growth Lab
This blog post discusses a current IGL research project about the effectiveness of past government support for SMEs, particularly programmes targeting firms with high-growth potential. Using experimental and quasi-experimental statistical approaches, the authors evaluate the long-term impacts of support, the distribution of these impacts over time and region, the accuracy of different measurement approaches, and the ability of programmes to identify and reach their intended beneficiaries.

The state of AI jobs in Canada: What 12 million job postings reveal about hiring trends

OECD
The demand for AI professionals in Canada has been evolving, with demand shifting across industries and skill sets. Using data from 12 million online job postings (2018–2023), this blog explores the demand for AI professionals, which industries require AI the most and what AI jobs and skills are most sought after. The demand for AI professionals in Canada experienced a steady increase from 2018 to 2021, with AI-related job postings reaching their peak in Q4 2021, with a slowdown in the demand of these postings from Q1 2022 onwards.

Innovation Policy

What Canadian Innovators Need to Scale

Council of Canadian Innovators
This document presents policy strategies for economic security and lasting prosperity for every generation from the leaders of Canada’s fastest-growing companies. The Council of Canadian Innovators, representing over 150 of Canada’s fastest-growing technology companies "urges all political parties to adopt a strong, results-driven vision for Canada’s digital economy. The reccomendations are as follows: Protect Canadian prosperity by making our tax system competitive with leading global jurisdictions; Strengthen Canada's security and resilience through dual-use strategic defence investments; Lead nationally on owning Canadian ideas and turning them into valuable economic assets. Reform out-of-date government incentive programs that aren’t performing. Seize the moment on AI, deep tech and technologies that will power future growth; Establish new governance tools to power innovation and wealth creation in Canada; Protect Canada’s interests with a strategic approach to trade; Leverage government as an innovation driver through the power of strategic procurement.

Canada at Trade War

Dan Curiak
This article notes that Canada’s strategy to respond to US tariffs must be to focus on resilient defense, exploiting the various margins of adjustment that are open to it to offset the reduction of trade with the United States. This includes in international trade such as pursuing the establishment of a new North Atlantic Free Trade Area to give Canada geopolitical leverage in countering the economic coercion of US expansionism or unilateral free trade (“Singapore on the St. Lawrence” anyone?); deepening internal trade; upgrading Canada’s internal transportation infrastructure to reduce transit times and bring the country closer together; military modernization with a focus on dual use to also grow the economy while providing for urgent expansion of defense capabilities; urban renewal to rebuild Canada’s urban infrastructure for the 21st Century economy; and reforms to Canada’s innovation system. More generally, Canada needs to prepare to throw out the policy playbook developed for rules-based order (RIP). This may entail the active use of Crown Corporations to fill gaps to the extent that private investment is deterred by the uncertainty generated by the trade war and to preserve Canada’s productive assets through turbulent times; and the deployment of extraordinary measures to shore up the Canadian dollar and create monetary policy space in Canada. Inevitably it also means strengthening Canada’s social safety net (a necessity for the age of artificial intelligence in any event).

Proactive portfolio management in mission-oriented innovation policy

OECD
Mission portfolio management is a critical ingredient in the success of mission-oriented innovation policies. This practice aims at ensuring that a consistent and tailor-made set of diverse projects and activities contribute together to the realisation of the mission objectives. It is essential for generating the systemic impacts that missions aim to deliver. However, many missions currently lack the necessary skills, resources, and tools to implement portfolio management effectively. Traditional innovation portfolio management practices offer limited applicability to missions. Moreover, mission portfolio management requires flexible and adaptive processes to ensure its effectiveness, which often conflict with the rigid structures and practices typical of public administration. This paper introduces actionable guidance for the development, management, and monitoring of mission portfolios. It also provides targeted recommendations for adopting mission portfolio management in a purposive and dynamic manner.

AI, Innovation and the Public Good: A New Policy Playbook

Burcu Kilic, CIGI
When Chinese start-up DeepSeek released R1 in January 2025, the groundbreaking open-source artificial intelligence (AI) model rocked the tech industry as a more cost-effective alternative to models running on more advanced chips. The launch coincided with industrial policy gaining popularity as a strategic tool for governments aiming to build AI capacity and competitiveness. Once dismissed under neoliberal economic frameworks, industrial policy is making a strong comeback with more governments worldwide embracing it to build digital public infrastructure and foster local AI ecosystems. This paper examines how the national innovation system framework can guide AI industrial policy to foster innovation and reduce reliance on dominant tech companies.

Policy Digest

A Clean Industrial Deal for competitiveness and decarbonisation in the EU

The European Commission
The Commission recently unveiled the Clean Industrial Deal, "a bold business plan to support the competitiveness and resilience of our industry. The Deal will accelerate decarbonisation, while securing the future of manufacturing in Europe."

The Deal focuses mainly on two closely linked sectors:

i) Energy-intensive industries as they require urgent support to decarbonise and electrify. The sector faces high energy costs, unfair global competition and complex regulations, harming its competitiveness.

ii) Clean Tech is at the heart of future competitiveness and growth as well as crucial for industrial transformation. Circularity is also a central element of the Deal, reflecting the need to maximise EU's limited resources and reduce overdependencies on third country suppliers for raw materials.

The Deal includes measures strengthening the entire value chain. It serves as a framework to tailor action in specific sectors. The Commission will present an Action Plan for the automotive industry in March and an Action Plan on steel and metals in Spring. Other tailored actions are planned for the chemical and clean tech industry.

The Plan includes the following components:

Lower energy costs

Action Plan on Affordable Energy to lower energy bills for industries, businesses and households. The Act will speed up the roll-out of clean energy, accelerate electrification, complete our internal energy market with physical interconnections, and use energy more efficiently and cut dependence on imported fossil fuels.

Boosting demand for clean products

The Industrial Decarbonisation Accelerator Act will increase demand for EU-made clean products, by introducing sustainability, resilience, and made in Europe criteria in public and private procurements.

Financing the Clean Transition

Adopt a new Clean Industrial Deal State Aid Framework. It will allow for simplified and quicker approval of State aid measures for the roll-out of renewable energy, deploy industrial decarbonisation and ensure sufficient manufacturing capacity of clean tech.
Strengthen the Innovation Fund and propose an Industrial Decarbonisation Bank, aiming for €100 billion in funding, based on available funds in the Innovation Fund, additional revenues resulting from parts of the ETS as well as the revision of InvestEU.
Amend the InvestEU Regulation to increase InvestEU's risk bearing capacity. This will mobilise up to €50 billion in additional private and public investment, including in clean tech, clean mobility and waste reduction.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) Group will also launch a series of concrete new financing instruments to support the Clean Industrial Deal.

Circularity and access to materials

Set up a mechanism enabling European companies to come together and aggregate their demand for critical raw materials.
Create an EU Critical Raw Material Centre to jointly purchase raw materials on behalf of interested companies. Joint purchases create economies of scale and offer more leverage to negotiate better prices and conditions.
Adopt a Circular Economy Act in 2026 to have 24% of materials circular by 2030.

Acting on a global scale

In addition to ongoing and new trade agreements, the Commission will soon launch the first Clean Trade and Investment Partnerships

Events

OPPORTUNITIES

Call for application for a fellowship for the project “Science technology relationships in the development of AI in the health sector”

The application for this University of Torino position must be submitted exclusively online, using the form available here: https://forms.gle/NHKw4Nnhta7Mew4BA .Applicants are advised that once they receive the application registration form via email, they must complete the transmission by printing the said email, signing it and transmitting the scan to the following address: incarichi.cle@unito.it.

Duration: 18 months. The total amount of the grant is € 34,200.00 and is paid in monthly installments (€ 1,900.00 per month after tax). The research activity consists of:
- Research on the diffusion of AI and robotics technologies within hospitals.
- Creation and analysis of comparative data at regional and national levels.
- Production of two articles to be submitted to international scientific journals.

EVENTS

The 10th Atlanta Conference on Science and Innovation Policy

May 14-16, 2025, Georgia Institute of Technology
Hosted by Georgia Tech, the Atlanta Conference provides a forum to present and discuss high quality empirical research by about 300 scholars representing more than 30 countries that focus on the challenges and trends associated with science and innovation policy and processes. Abstracts Due: Nov. 17, 2024.

7th Global Conference on Economic Geography

June 4-8, 2025, Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts
The GCEG is the largest international conference dedicated to Economic Geography. Cutting-edge research concerning the sources and drivers of socio-economic change, and an assessment of the economic geography of places in a multi-scalar and multi-dimensional context.

DRUID25

Toronto, June 25-27, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto
Since 1996, DRUID has become one of the world's premier academic conferences on innovation and the dynamics of structural, institutional and geographic change. DRUID is proud to invite senior and junior scholars to participate and contribute with a paper to DRUID25, hosted by Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. Presenting distinguished plenary speakers, a range of parallel paper sessions, and an attractive social program, the conference aims at mapping theoretical, empirical and methodological advances, contributing novel insights, and help identifying scholarly positions, divisions, and common grounds in current scientific controversies within the field. Submission deadline: March 1

SASE 2025 Annual Conference

9-12 July 2025, Palais des Congrès, Montréal, Québec

The conference's theme is 'Inclusive Solidarities: Reimagining Boundaries in Divided Times.'

6^th International ZEW Conference on the Dynamics of Entrepreneurship (CoDE)

October 9-10, 2025, Mannheim
The aim of this conference is to discuss recent contributions to entrepreneurial research. It focusses on the formation, growth and exit of young firms linked to innovation, environmental sustainability, or entrepreneurial finance. The conference also addresses the challenges and opportunities of entrepreneurship policies. You are welcome to participate in the conference and contribute theoretical, empirical and/or policy-oriented papers on all areas of entrepreneurship research. Interested researchers are invited to submit a paper (or extended abstracts of at least 4,000 words are also welcome) to entrepreneurship2025@zew.de. Submission deadline: 31 May 2025

Twin Transition, Ecosystems, and Disruptive Innovation

October 23rd-24th 2025, Venice School of Management - Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, San Giobbe - Economic Campus.
The 19th edition of Regional Innovation Policies Conference will take place in Venice, Italy.

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