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
LUCIE receives funding from the Swedish Research Council (Linneaus grant)
On June Swedish Minister of Education, Leif Pagrotsky, awarded a very prestigious Linneaus grant to LUCIE (the Lund University Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and CIRCLE, a main partner of LUCIE, which has managed the work on the Linneaus proposal). LUCIE and CIRCLE, a number of whose members collaborate closely with the Innovation Systems Research Network in Canada, was awarded 5 million Swedish Kroner per year for ten years for its application “Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Knowledge Creation: Dynamics in Globalizing Learning Economies”.
Alcatel and SaskTel To Do Joint R&D
Saskatchewan’s Crown corporation SaskTel and Alcatel announced they have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to conduct joint research and development. Once finalized, the agreement will lead to the creation of approximately 20 new R&D positions to be based in Saskatchewan and jointly funded by Alcatel and SaskTel. Robert Watson, president and CEO of SaskTel, Lorne Calvert, premier of Saskatchewan, Serge Tchuruk, CEO and chairman of Alcatel and Hubert de Pesquidoux, EVP and president of Alcatel North America attended the signing ceremony held recently at Alcatel’s Paris headquarters. R&D activity resulting from the MOU will focus on the development of advanced software applications to address global market needs, says the press release. Products and services resulting from the collaboration will be distributed worldwide, utilizing Alcatel’s global market reach, in conjunction with SaskTel International, a wholly owned subsidiary of SaskTel offering global telecommunications consulting services.
TechAlliance’s Success Growing
London’s TechAlliance is in expansion mode, buoyed by a $700,000 provincial grant. The funding, spread over three years, will allow the agency to hire additional staff and expand programs to support high-tech companies and link them to investors. Techalliance received the funding from the Ontario government’s $31.5-million research commercialization program launched last year. Founded in 2002, Tech-Alliance receives about $85,000 in annual funding from the City of London, but this year received an additional $110,000 grant. The University of Western Ontario technology transfer office also will share in a $3.9-million grant from the same provincial program.
Toronto Region Research Alliance Applauds Launch of Ontario’s Market Readiness Program
The Toronto Region Research Alliance (TRRA) congratulates the Ontario government for its investment in fostering innovative companies, through the establishment of the Market Readiness Program. The forward-looking initiative, part of the government’s $160-million Ideas to Market strategy announced in the 2006 budget, was launched July 21 by Premier and Minister of Research and Innovation Dalton McGuinty.
The four-year, $46-million Market Readiness Program will provide innovative companies across the province with initial financial support, management expertise, training and proven leadership in order to bring new discoveries to market, with the ultimate goal of creating more innovative Ontario-based firms that create jobs and compete in the global marketplace.
Editor's Pick
Imagine a Toronto…Strategies for a Creative City
Strategies for Creative Cities
This report argues that creative industries may soon overtake ICT and business services as the fastest growing sector in the region’s economy. In order to preserve this momentum and ensure that other industries benefit from the presence of a strong creative sector, the authors recommend enlisting regional leaders to create programs that support creative people, creative enterprises, affordable spaces for creative work, and a shared community vision. According to the project, creative industries are those producing cultural goods, including media and broadcasting, architecture, the performing arts, advertising, design, and publishing. Creative workers, however, can be found in any industry, but rely on creativity in their daily work. This includes writers, graphic designers, musicians, illustrators, artisans and photographers. The Toronto study focuses on the region’s need to build on this growth to advance Toronto as a center of North American creativity and to connect creative firms with partners in other industries. These partnerships give creative firms greater access to the capital available to more traditional industries and provide those industries with access to the region’s creative talent.
Innovation Policy
Ron Saunders, CPRN
The product of a research program managed by CPRN, the School of Policy Studies at Queen’s University (SPS), and Statistics Canada, this volume provides a synthesis of recent research on human capital development in seven different academic disciplines (economics, sociology, psychology, education, public health, economic geography an d political science). The authors identified areas for new research and specifically research that would cross disciplinary boundaries.
Raising Our Game: A National Competition Strategy
Edward Gresser, Paul Weinstein Jr., and Will Marshall, Progressive Policy Institute (PPI)
This report offers a comprehensive national strategy on how America can sustain its economic strength and remain the most innovative and productive country in the world, even as these powerful new economic competitors emerge. This strategy proposes the creation a “super” research and experimentation tax credit. Specifically, Congress should make the Research and Experimentation Tax Credit (RETC) permanent and double it from 20 percent to 40 percent of all R&D expenditures. In addition, the U.S. should create a regionally focused network of university-based venture capital funds based on a model in place in Michigan. These funds finance loans for start up companies trying to commercialize new scientific and technological advancements. Other recommendations deal with education, fostering entrepreneurship, stabilizing the economy and worker security.
Evaluation of the United Kingdom Foresight Programme
PREST
This report presents the findings of an independent evaluation by PREST, University of Manchester of the current round of the United Kingdom Foresight Programme, launched in 2002. It addresses the impact of the Programme and its constituent projects, its cost-effectiveness and its management. The overall conclusion is that the Programme has achieved its objectives of identifying ways in which future science and technology could address future challenges for society and identifying potential opportunities. It has succeeded in being regarded as a neutral interdisciplinary space in which forward thinking on science-based issues can take place. All projects have been successful in mobilising diverse groups of high-calibre specialists to work in a multidisciplinary framework and have demonstrated the scope for collaboration across disciplinary boundaries.
Cities, Clusters & Regions
Neighbourhood Action: What Works Locally
Interngovernmental Committee for Economic and Labour Force Development (ICE)
This report contains the proceedings from the meeting of ICE on May 28th, 2006. ICE brings together representatives from all three orders of government to help coordinate public sector efforts to support economic and labour force development in Toronto. It includes presentations from some of the speakers at the meeting as well as the agenda, biographies of speakers, a list of registrants, pictures, and evaluations.
Canada’s Hub Cities: A Driving Force of the National Economy
Natalie Brender and Mario Lefebvre, Conference Board of Canada
Canada’s cities are not receiving the investment they need to fulfill their role as drivers of national prosperity. This is a study on convergence among Canadian communities, which demonstrates that when there is economic growth in a province or region’s “hub city”—its economically leading census metropolitan area—smaller communities in the province or region grow at an even faster rate. The finding of convergence between the performance of leading and lagging economies has an important policy implication: big cities—and hub cities in particular—should be targeted for strategic investment in order to produce a truly nationwide economic impact across Canada. This investment approach would produce “win-win” gains for big cities and smaller communities alike.
Statistics & Indicators
Bearing the Brunt: Manufacturing Job Loss in the Great Lakes Region, 1995-2005
Howard Wial and Alec Friedhoff, The Brookings Institution
More than one-third of the nation’s loss of manufacturing jobs between 2000-2005 occurred in seven Great Lakes states: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. This study reveals that, despite these statistics, manufacturing – with its 38 percent increase in productivity during the period – remains a major driver in six of the seven state’s economies. After discussing the impact of this most recent restructuring of U.S. manufacturing, Wial and Friedhoff look more closely at the impact of the job losses on the 25 largest manufacturing-dependent metropolitan areas of the Great Lakes. All but one, Peoria, Ill., lost manufacturing jobs during the past decade. Canton, Ohio, and Flint, Mich., suffered the loss of the greatest share of manufacturing employment, with decreases of 31.1 percent and 29.5 percent, respectively.
Events
Saskatoon, 8-10 August, 2006
The World Association of Industrial and Technological Research Organizations Biennial Congress – WAITRO 2006 – is an opportunity for the research and technology community worldwide to come together to learn from each other and from invited experts. WAITRO participants include potential collaborators from research and technology organizations in other parts of the world to develop projects of common interest. Representatives of International Finance Institutions and International Development Agencies will be present to assist in formulating projects that address the needs of the developing world.
The Future of Science Technology and Innovation Policy
Sussex, 11-13 September, 2006
This conference, besides celebrating the 40th Anniversary of SPRU (Science and Technology Policy Research), offers the opportunity to engage in a critical evaluation of the present and future research agenda of the Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) field. This conference seeks to explore empirical, theoretical and applied policy approaches that can enable us to conceptualize the contradictory nature of modern science and technology and innovation, and thus provide practical policy guidance. Such a conference is particularly timely because many of the existing conceptual frameworks are apparently undergoing a period of what Kuhn called ‘normal science’ where their assumptions are rarely questioned, and where they are institutionally and academically isolated from criticism. We aim to identify fruitful new ways forward in the field of STI policy by subjecting these established frameworks to structured debate and critical evaluation. The conference will be organized in the form of plenary sessions, parallel sessions and set debates. It will cover a series of broad themes. These include: Ownership, Accountability and Relevance of Science – for example, the deficiencies of peer review, the pros and cons of patenting in universities, the shifting boundary between public and private knowledge, and processes for allocating resources between disciplines. Technology, Security and Sustainability – for example, the dual relationship between technology and security, changing environment and energy policy, the balance between sustainability and growth, and the role of technology in sustainable development. Dynamics of Innovation Interfaces – for example, the management and dynamics of innovation across different levels (such as individuals, groups, firms, sectors, networks and systems), user-centred innovation processes vs. producer-centered innovation processes, and the connection between innovation and entrepreneurship.
Blue Sky II: What Indicators for Science, Technology and Innovation Policies in the 21st Century?
Ottawa, 25-27 September, 2006
This forum will examine new areas for indicator development and set a broad agenda for future work on science, technology and innovation (STI) indicators. Emphasis will be placed on indicators of outcomes and impacts in order to support monitoring, benchmarking, foresight activity, and evaluation, applied to policies and programs, and their economic and social impacts. The Forum is expected to provide ideas and guidance for indicators work in both OECD and non OECD countries, as well as in their international organizations. The Forum will include plenary sessions featuring invited guest speakers who are leading authorities in their fields. Break-out sessions will discuss papers on specific themes selected through a call for papers.
New Generation Innovation: New Approaches and Policy Designs
Atlanta, 27-29 September, 2006
Particular areas of interest include: new developments in university-industry relationships, new strategies for technology-based local and regional economic development, technology transfer to and from the public sector, trajectories for emerging technologies. All session proposals, paper proposals and abstracts should be submitted electronically not later than Friday, May 12, 2006.
The 9th Annual Conference of the Competitiveness Institute (TCI): The Role of Cluster Governance and Companies’ Involvement in Clusters Initiatives
Lyon, France, 9-13 October, 2006
The goal of this conference is to share ideas, build alliances and explore the best modes of economic development. Additionally information is offered about specific clusters, introductory courses on cluster theory and presentations given by an array of world experts (academics, businesses and institutions).The main topics include competitiveness, innovation, cluster initiatives, industrial organization and corporate change. The theme of the 9th conference will be “Governance and business involvement in cluster initiatives”.
Transforming Communities Through Culture: Creative City Network Conference 2006 
Toronto, 18-21 October, 2006
This conference unites academics, planners and policy makers alike in a celebration and exploration of creative cities. The program contains a variety of presentations, including papers and dramatic performances. The themes covered this year include cultural diversity and inclusion, mobilizing citizens/engaging diverse communities, and shared/public spaces.
Universities and the Powering of Knowledge: Policy, Regulation and Innovation
Ottawa, 19-20 October, 2006
Intended for participants involved in or interested in higher education, S&T and innovation policies, the conference will examine ways in which Canadian Universities have been changed, willingly or unwillingly, by federal and other policies and regulation and by efforts to make universities into an innovation engine of the knowledge-based economy. The conference will also explore likely future issues and forces which will influence Canadian universities in the next few years, set in the context of other competitor countries, economies and societies.
Paris, 25-27 October, 2006
As European economies seek new solutions for continuous and competitive growth, how will technology play? What does Europe’s future in Pharma, Agriculture, Food, and the Environment look like? Europe’s great bastions of life science are opening up: be there as it happens! Thousands of European and international participants will converge at EuroBiO. It’s where research and industry meet.
Athens, 30 November – 1 December, 2006
This Conference deals with issues within the Research Action Line 2 of the DIME Network of Excellence and in particular looks at the relationship between entrepreneurship, knowledge and learning through the analysis of the evolution of systems, industrial and territorial clusters and regions. Proposals for contributions-theoretical or empirical (based on surveys, data bases and case studies) are asked on the following four broad areas of research: entrepreneurship and cluster development; entrepreneurship and human capital: the role of entrepreneurial studies in engineering education; managing and coordinating the entrepreneurial development process; and entrepreneurship policy as an emerging policy area, distinct from traditional SME/Enterprise and other related public policies.
Singapore, 16-18 May, 2007
Organized for the first time in Asia, Triple Helix VI 2007 will provide a global forum for academic scholars from different disciplinary perspectives as well as policy makers, university administrators and private sector leaders from different countries to exchange and share new learning about the diverse emerging models of the entrepreneurial university, the changing dynamics of University- Industry-Government interactions around the world and the complex roles of the university in local, regional and national economic development.
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This newsletter is prepared by Jen Nelles.
Project manager is David A. Wolfe.