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
University of Wisconsin Takes Patents to San Diego – more than 2,000 miles away from the main campus
The University of Wisconsin is reportedly establishing a patent licensing office well outside the state of Wisconsin – in San Diego – a move that is said to be the first of its kind by a U.S. academic institution. The move, however, has raised some interesting issues as well as eyebrows. Having just launched an eight-year initiative in 2000 that is providing matching funds to update, expand and create new research laboratories in the university system to support biotech research, the state of Wisconsin is now facing the prospect of having its universities’ technology commercialized and produced outside the state’s boundaries. [Courtesy of SSTI]
Editor's Pick
Creating Smart Systems: A guide to cluster strategies in less favoured regions
S. Rosenfeld, Regional Technology Strategies, Carrboro, North Carolina, USA
Here is an excellent paper on cluster-based actions suitable for less advantaged regions such as those older industrialized regions dominated by labour intensive industries that have lost cost advantage to newly industrialized nations, or the less populated regions that have been dependent on resource- based industries but which must find new clusters with growth opportunities to stem the out-migration of youth. Along with providing a menu of actions that have been used successfully to improve cluster competitiveness, the paper clearly summarizes a few assumptions about clusters (i.e. what they are), what makes clusters ‘grow’ and the barriers facing less favored regions.
Innovation Policy
Implementing Canada’s Innovation Strategy
The Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation (OCRI)
This briefing provides both a series of recommendations on how the federal government can facilitate the strategy ‘s implementation and a summary of how OCRI’s programs are meeting the innovation challenge set out by Canada’s innovation study,. These recommendations pertain to meeting the knowledge performance challenge, the skills challenge, the innovation environment challenge and community-based innovation challenges.
M. Gertler and D. Wolfe, Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto
In examining regional foresight exercises as a process through which regional or local economies can alter the trajectory of growth, this paper illustrates how the actions of communities shaping local visioning exercises interacts with larger institutional structures to produce local outcomes. It address a key challenge for those designing regional technology foresight exercises – appreciating how the scope for local action by individuals and organizations is shaped (often unconsciously) by institutional influences at higher levels of governance. Four important questions are addressed in the analysis. These include: what role do local social learning processes play in today’s knowledge economy; what characteristics of local social learning exercises (of which regional foresight constitute a prime example) are most important in enabling regions to move onto new developmental trajectories; and to what extent do structures and institutions at multiple levels of governance shape and circumscribe the scope for local action and possibilities for generating effective, ongoing social learning processes?
Invented Here: The 2002 Southern Innovation Index
Southern Growth Policies Board and the Southern Technology Council (STC)
Here is the first innovation index of the Southern Growth Policies Board and the Southern Technology Council, which tracks the progress of technology and innovation initiatives of 13 Southern Growth member states plus the commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The index, which will become an on-line database that can be updated regularly, identifies 56 benchmarks and 10-year targets for each, aims to engages each state in an active, dynamic planning process.
Regional Innovation & Clusters
The Challenge of Evaluating Cluster Behavior in Economic Development Policy
P. Raines, University of Strathclyde
This paper argues that cluster policy evaluation should not only find ways of capturing cluster effects as part of value-for-money and cost effectiveness exercises, but should adopt the wider analytical goal of understanding more clearly the processes by which policy can influence cluster development. This conclusion follows from a review of existing cluster policy evaluation and the methodological challenges posed by the cluster approach. In particular, five sets of key evaluation challenges associated with collective action are identified. These include identifying the collectives/clusters to be examined; measuring collective behaviour within those collectives; linking collective behaviour to significant changes in both individual firm and the cluster performance; comparing the performance of different clusters; and linking changes in cluster performance to territorial impacts.
Knowledge
What is the ‘Knowledge Economy’? Knowledge Intensity and Distributed Knowledge Bases
Keith Smith, INTECH
The objectives of this paper are firstly to examine what various authors mean by the concept of a knowledge economy or learning economy; secondly to describe quantitatively the creation and use of knowledge across industries; thirdly to develop an approach to understanding the knowledge intensity of mature, ‘traditional’ or low-technology industries. Using Community Innovation Survey data it shows that knowledge investments are economy wide, not confined to high-tech sectors, and not confined to R&D. The paper then turns to concepts and a methodology for mapping the knowledge base of an economic activity. The paper concludes by discussing how such ‘distributed knowledge bases’ might affect our conceptions of the knowledge economy and suggests links to current policy challenges in both developed and developing economies.
Information Technology
Broadband deployment strategies in France, Ireland and Sweden
Prepared for Corning by the consulting firm Cullen International
Here is a very good report summarizing the different solutions devised in France, Ireland and Sweden in fostering broadband deployment. The common theme across these three countries is that public authorities have invested in telecommunications projects where there were demonstrated market failures. Each of these three countries has developed a unique solution on the basis of their specific needs, priorities, geography and spread of GDP. However, there are a number of common traits that seem to indicate the emergence of a new philosophy in telecom policy. Among them are that all three countries promote the idea of a third party infrastructure provider that constructs and manages broadband infrastructure to be leased to several operators on a cost-oriented basis and that all consider this to be the most competition neutral way to support the sector while enhancing competition in networks and services. [Courtesy CANARIE]
Statistics Canada
Access to high-speed Internet by cable increased substantially in 2001, but smaller communities in Canada were still far behind their larger counterparts. More than 70% of cable homes (homes with access to cable) in small communities did not have access to high-speed Internet by cable. Deployment, however, occurred fastest in small communities, where the number of homes with access to high-speed service more than doubled to almost 363,400, representing about 27% of homes with access to cable, up from 11% in 2000. Overall just over 9.4 million homes, or about 85% of cable homes, had access to broadband service as of August 31, 2001, up from about 70% a year ago.
Events
London, Ontario 26-27 September 2002
This new event, organized by the Canadian Medical and Biological Society and hosted by the University of Western Ontario, brings together the Canadian medical and assistive technology research community to present leading edge research. The focus of the event is on discoveries and innovative technologies that will spawn new business enterprises and products and may be of interest to those concerned with medical device clusters. Sixty Canadian researchers and emerging companies will showcase their innovations to the business community from Canada. The audience will include Chief Technology Officers and senior management from medical device, pharmaceutical and bio-technology companies; entrepreneurs searching for new business opportunities; scientists; healthcare purchasing agents; venture capital companies; and hospital representatives.
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.
BayBYTEs 2002 – Rural Technology Forum: Reaping the Rewards from Working in Rural Communities
Port Blandford, Newfoundland 23-25 September, 2002
BayBytes2002 is a national annual event that celebrates the commitment of people living and working in rural settings and promotes the technological growth of rural communities while increasing the interest in supporting rural businesses. This year’s event features four sessions including: ‘Rural Canadian Innovators’, which will profile community and business initiatives exemplifying rural innovation across Canada; ‘Circumpolar Perspectives’, which will discuss technology and innovation in the agriculture, tourism and sustainable development sectors in remote northern / circumpolar areas and ‘From New Zealand to Newfoundland and Labrador: Small Communities with Global Reach’, a session which looks at the pay-off from cluster based economic development.
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.
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This newsletter is prepared by Jen Nelles.
Project manager is David A. Wolfe.