The IPL newsletter: Volume 3, Issue 55

A New Economic Framework for the SME Innovator: Moving Ontario’s Information and Communications Technologies Industries Forward

Ontario ICT Industry Working Group

This presentation to Ontario’s Minister of Enterprise, Opportunity and Innovation lays out a series of recommendations on how to continue the fostering of Ontario’s ‘SME Innovators’ in the IT industry. These include: more tax relief for capital gains to support a risk oriented investment culture; skills support; and federal/provincial collaborative- and cluster-oriented initiatives.

Innovative State Policy Options to Promote Rural Economic Development

NGA Center for Best Practices

Here is a briefing summarizing the various U.S. state-led strategies to increase prosperity in non-metropolitan regions. The strategies concentrate on developing new economic drivers for rural regions that build on a region’s strengths, the most promising of which are: adapting to cluster-based principles, promoting entrepreneurship outside the agricultural sector, and reinvigorating the agricultural sector through diversification and value-added agriculture practices.

Fuel Cell Vehicles: Race to a New Automotive Future

Office of Technology Policy, U.S. Department of Commerce

This report identifies some of the many challenges – policy and technological – facing the widespread adoption of fuel cells in the automotive industry.  Of particular interest is the public policy dimension related to government participation and investment in research, and the shaping of goals and incentives to firms so that they make the necessary investments to bring the technology to market. Also of interest is the report’s survey of current fuel cell related policies in Canada, Western Europe and Japan, all countries/regions with major automotive manufacturing capacity including.

The U.S. Competitive Position in Advanced Automotive Technologies

M. Albert et al., CHI Research

Commissioned by the Office of Technology Policy in the U.S., this report assesses the competitive position of the United States in eleven advanced automotive technologies by way of patenting trends and citation indicators. The report finds that inventive activity in most of the technologies is growing at a rapid pace and that most patenting has been related to emissions control. Also, while the U.S. leads Japan in new combustion regimes inventive activity, Japanese patents in this category are far more highly cited than those of the United States and have much faster cycle times (innovation speed).

Development Report Card for the States

The Corporation for Enterprise Development, a non-profit organization promoting asset building and economic opportunity strategies, has released its latest Development Report Card on the US states. Some 28 indicators are listed for each of the 50 states in the following areas: employment, earnings and job quality, equity, quality of life, and resource efficiency.  Rankings are available by state or by indicator, and the website even allows users to customize data retrieval.  This year’s top 3 states are Colorado, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.

Tech~Expo: The Discovery Marketplace

Toronto, 26 February 2003

This event brings together promising advanced research from university, community college and government laboratories, businesses looking for commercialization opportunities, and advisors. The focus will be on information technology, software, microelectronics and communications. The one-day program features short, information packed presentations, networking, partnering and technology transfer opportunities that can drive product and manufacturing innovation.

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 organization 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.

Evaluation of Government Funded R&D Activities

Vienna, 15-16 May, 2003

The aim of this conference is to discuss recent scientific contributions to the understanding of the effects and implications of government funded R&D activities. It will focus on recent theoretical, qualitative and quantitative studies and the exploration of different approaches to evaluate their effects. An applied workshop with policy makers will be organized on “What we know and what we should know about evaluation of technology policy” at the end of the conference. Deadline for submission of abstracts: February 2003, 15th.

Innovation through Collaboration: Clusters, Networks, Alliances

Manchester, 8-11 June, 2003

This conference aims to address the issues associated with collaboration in the context of recent research which suggests that as many as 50-70% of strategic alliances will fail within four years due to a vast array of cultural, political, technological and commercial factors. It will provide a forum for academics, business people and consultants to discuss these issues in depth by presenting the latest academic papers, delivering company presentations on the subject and running interactive workshops. Selected proceedings will be published in a special edition of The Journal of Enterprising Culture.  The conference is organized by the International Society for Professional Innovation Management.

Creating, Sharing And Transferring Knowledge: The role of Geography, Institutions, Organizations

Copenhagen, 12-14 June, 2002

The conference has four main objectives: to contribute to a more satisfactory understanding of the mechanisms underlying the way in which knowledge is created, shared and transferred; to examine the promoting or inhibiting effect of particular circumstances of organizational context, institutional setting or geographical configuration, such as cities and agglomerations or clusters; to investigate arrangements particularly capable of enhancing, capturing and utilizing end consumer knowledge; and to consider the implications for managerial strategy and public policy. Both senior and junior scholars are invited to participate and contribute with a paper to the conference.

Communities and technologies (C&T 2003)

Amsterdam or Bonn, 19-21 September, 2003

This international conference is a forum for stimulating and disseminating research into all facets of communities and information technology. Attendees represent multidisciplinary research efforts from applied computer science and social science. The 2003 conference will focus on presentations and discussion of empirical and conceptual research on a wide range of topics including (Virtual) Community formation and development; Virtual communities vs. location-based communities; Digital cities, and Design methods for communityware. The deadline for submission of full research papers is March 14, 2003.

What Do We Know About Innovation? A Conference in Honour of Keith Pavitt

Brighton, 13-15 November, 2003

This conference is in recognition of the lifetime contribution of Professor Keith Pavitt to the study of innovation. Keith’s work was based on a deep empirical understanding of innovation and firm behaviour, and he placed particular emphasis on the development of new data, methods, and taxonomies. His contributions spanned economics, management and science and technology policy. The conference is organized around the major themes of his work, including the structure, dynamics and management of innovation processes, the relationship between basic research and technical change, knowledge and the theory of the firm, the globalization of R&D, and science and technology policy.