News from the IPL
INTRODUCTION
This newsletter is published by The Innovation Policy Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto, and sponsored by the Ministry of Research and Innovation. The views and ideas expressed in this newsletter do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Ontario Government.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
New Technology Guide Identifies 290 Tech Companies in Waterloo region
The Triangle 2002 Industry Guide identifies 290 high tech companies in Waterloo Region, indicating potential markets and desired alliances as well as traditional business contact information. The Guide, produced in partnership with InBusiness Media, Canada’s Technology Triangle, Communitech Technology Association and Pricewaterhouse Coopers, will serve as a comprehensive source of information for the area and an invaluable resource to those wishing to know more about the technology industry in Canada’s Technology Triangle. The Tech Guide for the Waterloo region follows the well-received production of guides for Toronto, Ottawa and Alberta in 2001.
BEA. Alaska and Louisiana were the only states in which gross state product declined in 2000.
Editor's Pick
Why Cities Matter: Policy Research Perspectives for Canada
N. Bradford, University of Western Ontario
This paper, produced for Canadian Policy Research Networks, outlines the reasons why cities matter so much at this time in our history. It reviews the previous periods in the 20th century when urban issues rose to the top of the policy agenda, and it explores the similarities and differences among four distinct streams of research thought – economic clusters, social inclusion, community development, and environmental sustainability. The author emphasizes that the policy and government challenges are both vertical and horizontal; vertical because city-regions are strongly influenced by municipal, provincial, and federal governments as well as international institutions; and horizontal because it is of key importance to link city-region networks from inner city to suburbs to rural hinterland, and to harmonize choices being made on social, economic, and environmental issues.
Follow the Leaders: Canadian Innovation in Biotechnology
Follow the Leaders tells the stories of some of Canada’s most innovative and successful scientists and business leaders. It profiles 21 researchers and firms from across Canada, each of whom has played a key role in expanding the boundaries of human knowledge and strengthening Canada’s biotechnology sector.
Innovation Policy
Innovation Analysis Bulletin – Vol. 4, No. 2
Statistics Canada
This May issue features the results from the first Knowledge Management Practices Survey, an OECD initiative that was conducted in 2001 by Statistics Canada. According to the survey,Canadian firms are well aware of the benefits of using knowledge management practices and most of them incorporate some aspects of KM in their management toolkit. Almost nine out of 10 firms reported that the most effective result of using knowledge management practices was improving worker skills and knowledge. The second most effective result was increased worker efficiency and/or productivity. The bulleting also includes a summary of federal science activities for 2001-2002, expenditures for which increased by 8%.
Innovation Is a Social Process
J. Maxwell, Canadian Policy Research Networks
For all that it contributes to new technological and scientific advancement, this presentation by CPRN’s president argues that innovation should not be thought of as something limited to the laboratory or on the factory floor but rather as the product of social interaction in the workplace. The presentation goes on to discuss the characteristics of “place” that foster this kind of social learning, and their implications for policies designed to enhance innovation. The author argues that policies to boost innovation cannot ignore the need for social investment to counter exclusion and social distress adding that social investment has a long “payback period”, as much as 10-15 years, but that the wait is worth it. The greatest threat to achieving that payback, she says, is an innovation debate restricted to talk of R&D, lower taxes and less government.
A Comparison of Business Costs in North America, Europe, and Japan: G7 – 2002 Edition
Here is a summary presentation of KPMG’s Competitive Alternative study, the objectives of which were to compare business costs among the G-7 countries plus Austria and the Netherlands. The study finds that Canada is the most cost-competitive location in which to establish an ICT business among the 9 countries studied, with an after-tax cost advantage over the US extending to R&D, software, corporate services, and electronic equipment manufacturing & assembly. Compare these results with last year’s opinion poll of 100 top US managers, sponsored by the Federal Government, which singled out the perception of ‘crushing taxes’ to be a major factor for why US firms do not locate in Canada.
Innovation in America: Federal Lab R&D Roundtable
Office Of Technology Policy
Here is the transcript of the second roundtable in the series Innovation in America, a series that brings together national experts in R&D and innovation to explore the changing innovation landscape. This roundtable, conducted on April 2, 2002, focused on emerging trends in federal lab R&D and their impact on the American innovation system and provides some interesting details into the workings of programs such as CRADA and ATP. The panel was comprised primarily of senior R&D officers of federal labs, and also included representatives of the university, industry and venture capital communities, as well as federal policymakers.
Regional Innovation & Clusters
The BHI State Competitiveness Index 2001
J. Haughton et al, Beacon Hill Institute, Suffolk University
This report ranks 50 US states for their competitiveness as assessed by an index of 9 factors including Government and fiscal policy, infrastructure, institutions and security, technology finance, openness and environmental policy. Delaware followed by Massachusetts and Wyoming rank as the top three. The report then compares this ranking with a second index of perceived competitiveness, as determined by a survey of opinion leaders. This second survey placed Virginia as the state which is thought to be most competitive, followed by Texas and North Carolina.
Preparing for the Next Silicon Valley: Opportunities and Choices
Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network
A new wave of technological innovation based on the convergence of bio-, info-, and nano-technologies could produce significant strategic and economic opportunities for Silicon Valley and surrounding region in the coming decade, according to this second paper on the future of Silicon Valley. Though the region has some 100 regional companies and twelve research institutions currently involved in integrating two or all three of these technologies the area’s continued leadership at the epicenter of innovation is not guaranteed due to stiff competition from other regions including Boston and Denver.
Universities & Knowledge
The University in the Learning Economy
Bengt-Åke Lundvall, University of Aalborg
This paper identifies some of the new challenges and associated responses for universities facing growing pressure to change as a result of new dynamics between the economy and the production of knowledge. One important conclusion is that traditional modes of organization, characterized by sharp and rigid borders between disciplines and isolation from the society at large are being challenged and alternatives have to be developed. Another conclusion is that strategies of alliance and networking have become a key factor behind the success of universities. A third conclusion is that the universities’ most significant contribution to society and the economy will remain well-educated graduates with critical minds and good learning skills.
Knowledge about knowledge since Nelson & Winter: a mixed record
K. Pavitt, SPRU
‘Mixed progress’ is the conclusion from this review of our understanding that has developed since Nelson and Winter’s original insights into the nature, sources and impact of knowledge, published in their 1982 path-breaking book An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change. While progress has been made when these concepts have been confronted by empirical material often from outside evolutionary economics, little has been made from within. The concepts of organizational routines, and of diversity though influential conceptually, have been unoperational and even misleading practically.
The Production of Knowledge in Canada: Consolidation and Diversification
B. Godin, et al. INRS/OST
This paper analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of each of the four main sectors in the Canadian innovation system – university, hospital, government and industry – in terms of its scientific production. Using bibliometric data on Canadian scientific publications, the authors analyze the interrelations between these sectors and show that universities have remained a dominant force in collaborative research despite recent policies and discourses prophesying their decline. The paper also finds that Canadian science is increasingly produced in international collaboration and that all sectors are collaborating increasingly with each other.
Events
The KANSAI´2002 Conference – Integrating Regional and Global Initiatives in the Learning Society
Kansai (Japan), 12-15 August, 2002
This 6th International Conference on Technology Policy and Innovation will focus on economic, political, technological, ethical, and social transformations associated with the emerging global issue of knowledge for development. Participants are encouraged to present original research and to share best practices. Conference topics will include: emerging issues in science and technology government policy, the management of knowledge socioeconomic development, the geography of innovation shared prosperity and sustainability, and the tools, methods and institutions regional and global systems of knowledge creation.
From Industry to Advanced Services – Perspectives of European Metropolitan Regions
Dortmund, 27-31 August, 2002
This year’s Congress of the European Regional Science Association focuses broadly on regional economic issues. Themed sessions include regional competitiveness, innovation and new technologies, regional and urban planning, sectoral changes and new markets, demographic trends and regional policy.
Charlottetown, 8 September 8, 2002
This four-day event, themed “Where Great Ideas are Born” will not only include IT focused industries, but will explore business possibilities in the Media/Film, Education/e-Learning, Health, and Aerospace/Energy and Food/Hospitality sectors, all sectors which are providing lots of opportunities for IT companies. Participants include buyers, sellers, and facilitators from over 30 countries.
Cities And Regions In The 21st Century
Newcastle upon Tyne, 17-18 September 2002
To mark their 25th year, the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies (CURDS) has organized this conference to critically examine current debates in urban and regional development studies and the prospects for cities and regions over the next quarter century. Issues to be discussed include: the way in which cities and regions shape – and are shaped by – the activities and experiences of their citizens; territorial differentiation of life chances and access to services within, and between, cities and regions; the application of theories of clusters, innovation systems and knowledge-based development to the understanding of regional dynamics and their translation into policy and the revived interest in cities as motors of their regional economies.
Europe’s Regions Shaping the Future – the Role of Foresight
Brussels, 24 – 25 September, 2002
Involving various Commission Services, European organizations, and policy makers and experts from Member States and Candidate Countries, the conference aims at contributing to the networking of regional decision-makers, as well as foresight practitioners, promoters and stakeholders throughout Europe’s regions. The first day is dedicated to inserting regional Foresight in a broader context and presenting concrete results already achieved in this field in different European regions. The second day will actively engage both promoters and sponsors of regional foresight and, practitioners and stakeholders to develop ideas for new activities to harness the potential of Foresight to contribute to the Lisbon goals.
Seventh International S&T Indicators Conference
Karlsruhe, 25-28 September 2002
This conference, organized by The Fraunhofer ISI and the University of Karlsruhe, will look at whether appropriate indicators can clarify the debate on knowledge societies and the broad, radical conversion of modes of knowledge production that are claimed to accompany the shift. The main themes to be addressed include: trends and challenges in the development of novel, advanced S&T Indicators; validity and adequacy of S&T indicators; indicators reflecting modes of knowledge production; combination and integration of quantitative and qualitative approaches; and S&T Indicators for the assessment of policy effects.
International Conference on Quality and Innovation
Waterloo, 22-23 October, 2002
Sponsored in part by the University of Waterloo and the American the Society for Quality, this conference brings together academic researchers, government and business leaders, and professionals to discuss and promote ideas in the areas of quality and innovation. Topics include innovation management, leadership for innovation, quality management and continuous improvement, quality culture and business ethics, creativity and e-business.
CITO’s Knowledge Network Conference – Where People in Technology Converge
Ottawa, 24 October, 2002
This conference aims to further CITO’s mandate of facilitating partnerships and knowledge exchange between industry and academic members. The conference is a forum for over 200 of Ontario’s leading researchers and innovators to identify significant emerging technologies and explore the issues, opportunities and challenges they present to both the research and business communities. Among the highlights of this year’s conference: interactive research strategy sessions, research presentations by current and upcoming innovators in communications, information technology and digital media and commercialization workshops. Dinner keynote speaker will be Bill Lishman.
Knowledge And Economic And Social Change: New Challenges To Innovation Studies
Manchester, 7-9 April, 2003
The purpose of this conference is to bring together the innovation studies community to focus on the current developments in the global economy, in technologies, and in political systems that are continuing to pose new challenges to analysis. Topics include: the increasing importance of the role of knowledge in the operation of the global economy; and the qualitative change in the conditions under which knowledge is exploited to create wealth, to improve the quality of life, and to move towards a sustainable ecosystem, economy and society. The conference is organized by Advances in the Economic and Social Analysis of Technology and the Institute of Innovation Research.
Subscriptions & 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 Jen Nelles.
Project manager is David A. Wolfe.