The IPL newsletter: Volume 3, Issue 50

Science dependence of technologies: evidence from inventions and their inventors

R.J.W. Tijssen, Centre for Science and Technology Studies, Leiden University

This paper reports on the findings of a new methodology to increase our understanding of the contribution of research efforts to successful technical inventions. Using a nation-wide mail survey among inventors working in the Dutch corporate and the public research sectors, together with statistical analysis, the author finds that some 20% of the private sector innovations turned out to be (partially) based on public sector research. Furthermore, citations in patents referring to basic research literature were found to be invalid indictors of a technology’s science dependence.

University Spin-off Companies in Canada

Here are some preliminary results from Statistics Canada’s 2001 Survey of Intellectual Property Commercialization in the Higher Education Sector. As of March 31, 2001, Canadian universities and research hospitals had created a total of 673 spin-off companies, which in 2002, are expected to have total revenues of $2.5 billion and to employ 18,835 people. Of the 673 spin-off companies, 318 have both revenues and employment and a further 86 have revenues but no employment. Also 11 of the companies are known to be controlled outside Canada: seven in the United States and one in each of Great Britain, France, Switzerland and Japan.

Impacts of research universities on technological innovation in industry: evidence from engineering research centers

I. Feller (Pennsylvania State University), C. Ailes and J. D. Roessner (Georgia Institute of Technology)

This paper, published in Research Policy, reports on findings from surveys and interviews with 355 firms participating in the 18 engineering research centers (ERCs) established between 1985 and 1990. The authors find that those firms participate primarily to gain access to upstream modes of knowledge rather than specific products and processes. Findings also point to the problematic continuation of industrial support for ERCs following termination of NSF funding after reaching the maximum number of years (11) permitted under the program, and related pressures on ERCs to direct their research portfolios towards shorter-term, more applied research. NSF engineering research centers (ERCs) constitute the most upstream performer of R&D among university–industry–government research centers.

SMARTStart Breakfast Series: “Innovation Nation: Canadian Leadership from Java to Jurassic Park” 

Toronto, 25 November, 2002

This breakfast talk features Leonard Brody, co-author of the recent book “Innovation Nation: Canadian Leadership from Java to Jurassic Park.” The book cuts through traditional Canadian modesty and presents Canada as one of the leading producers of technological innovation in the world. ”Canadians have quietly altered the face of the technology economy with business models that have changed the way the world does everything. From developing Java and the Blackberry to defining the specifications for XML and inventing the space shuttle’s Canadarm, Canadians have sculpted, touched, researched, improved processes, and blazed trails in the world’s most innovative companies.”

THECIS Innovation Club Breakfast Talk: “Building a Culture of Innovation” 

Calgary, 26 November, 2002

Held in partnership with Calgary Technologies, THECIS’ breakfast talk features
Tom Wood, President, Mount Royal College, Ora Zabloski, Davies Park, and Colin Jackson, President and CEO, Epcor Centre for the Performing Arts. Presentations are followed by a panel discussion and questions from the floor.

Talk: 21st Century Transitions: Implications for Government Policy

Toronto, 29 November 29, 2002, 10:00 am to 12:00 noon

Riel Miller from the OECD International Futures Programme will be discussing the findings of the OECD’s International Futures Program which ran a series of six Forum for the Future conferences examining the question: will daily life by the third decade of the 21st century seem radically different, for large parts of the world’s population, when compared with the last decades of the 20th century? The talk is sponsored by The Rotman School of Management and the Program on Globalization and Regional Innovation Systems, Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto. Please confirm attendance to: isrn.progris@utoronto.ca.

CITO InnoTalk – What is the Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) Program? 

Waterloo, 4 December, 2002 (8:30 am – 11 am)

This InnoTalk will explore the Scientific Research & Experimental Development (SR&ED) Tax Credit Program, a federal government incentive program designed to encourage the development and advancement of Canadian technologies. The program offers tax incentives in the form of refundable and non-refundable tax credits ranging from 20% to 35% on qualified expenditures. Additional credits are available in most provinces including Ontario. These incentives reduce the after tax cost of performing SR&ED in Canada to one of the lowest in the world. The SR&ED program provides nearly $2 billion in credits to over 18,000 claimants each year.

International Conference On Advances In Infrastructure For Electronic Business, Education, Science, Medicine, And Mobile Technologies On The Internet

L’Aquila (Italy) 6-12 January, 2003

The conference attracts experts in computer/communications science and engineering, management and business administration, plus all others researching the e-business in interdisciplinary fashions. Topics include: B2B, B2C, E-Business Management. Workflow Technologies, Datamining, E-Banking, Virtual Marketplace, E-Marketing and E-Government. Keynote speakers include Peter Lyman (UC Berkeley) and Erich Neuhold, IPSI/Fraunhofer.

International conference on territorial development: The key role of regions

Paris, 21-23 January, 2003

This international conference will explore the increasingly important role of regions in all European countries as a key player for territorial development. The regional level is essential especially for the promotion of co-operation and innovation at various levels of governance, from local to international. The aim of the conference is to provide public as well as private stakeholders the opportunity to exchange ideas. Themes to be covered include regions and economic development, regions and territorial cohesion, and regions and civil society.

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.

The Knowledge-based Economy: New Challenges in Methodology, Theory and Policy

Augsburg, Germany 9-12 April 2003

This 3rd European Meeting of Applied Evolutionary Economics focuses on the most important aspects of knowledge-based economies within the framework of evolutionary economics. Conference themes include: knowledge and learning; dynamics of technological and qualitative change; industrial organisation in a knowledge-based economy; evolution of institutions financial markets in knowledge-based economies; and policy in a knowledge-based economy. Deadline for submission of extended abstracts: October 18, 2002.