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
Massachusetts Governor Proposes US$1 Billion in Funding for Scientific Research
In the most sweeping policy announcement of his new administration, Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick proposed $1 billion in funding for scientific research, a package designed to cement the state’s reputation as a global powerhouse of medicine and biotechnology. The 10-year initiative, which has won the endorsement of legislative leaders, would fund academic research and start-up companies, as well as create a stem cell bank at the University of Massachusetts for newly created lines of embryonic stem cells, a controversial arena of research currently barred from federal funding.
US$300 Million Lures Sematech to Albany
A major Texas-based consortium for computer chip development known as Sematech has agreed to locate a key part of its operation in Albany, as long as the state comes up with a $300 million incentive package. As a result, the governor and top lawmakers committed the funds in a capital budget bill for International Sematech. The company would establish its headquarters in Albany, adding about 450 high-paying research and development jobs here to an existing work force of 250.
University of Miami Lures Big Names, Money for Research
A year ago, the Duke University Center for Human Genetics had about 180 researchers working on everything from autism to Alzheimer’s. Today, 51 of them are at the University of Miami medical school. Within the past six months, UM’s medical school has hired 30 researchers and staff members from the University of Michigan, 20 from the University of California at Los Angeles, 10 from Columbia University and seven from Johns Hopkins University — all top universities in biotechnical research. The researchers bring with them about $70 million in multiyear grants from the National Institutes of Health, the key funder of medical research in the US.
Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) Inc. has set the stage for joint technical, scientific and technology transfer activities with the Institute for Photonic Sciences (ICFO) in Catalonia, Spain. With members of a delegation from the Catalan region in Toronto recently for OCE’s Discovery 2007: TO NEXT conference, OCE and ICFO signed a memorandum of understanding outlining increased partnership in photonics between the two regions. The goal of the MOU is to stimulate innovation and expedite the commercialization of technologies that will make businesses in both regions more competitive globally. Together, the two partners will build industrial R&D collaborations and seek mutually beneficial trade and business opportunities. The two regions will also explore educational opportunities, including the exchange of scientific expertise and personnel.
CPRN Revamps Cities and Communities Website
To help Canada and Canadians make the transition to new economies and politics of place, CPRN is addressing several paths of research including the intersection of social and economic policy in local places, and issues of citizenship and governance in cities and city-regions. CPRN has revised their web site in a way that makes it much easier to find relevant material, in particular the cities and communities web page is highly relevant for any researchers interested in local and regional issues in Canada.
Editor's Pick
Presentations and Papers from the ISRN Annual Meeting
Held on May 3-4 in Vancouver, this annual conference brought together ISRN members from across Canada as part of the MCRI City-Region Initiative project. Presentations and papers deal with innovation, talent, and civic goverance in small, medium and large Canadian city-regions
Innovation Policy
Financing Entrepreneurs: Better Canadian Policy for Venture Capital
C.D Howe Institute
Innovation and growth depend in large part on entrepreneurship, which in turn may require financing in the form of venture capital investment. In Canada, Labour-Sponsored Venture Capital Corporations (LSVCCs) have become the dominant source of venture capital. This report from the CD Howe Institute argues that there is reason for concern over this development, because evidence suggests LSVCCs are inefficient investment vehicles, charging high fees and yielding disappointing results: very few funds generate positive returns. Moreover, government tax subsidies to LSVCCs may crowd out private venture investment. The report suggests Canadian policymakers should investigate other ways to facilitate entrepreneurial investment. Potential changes to the legal environment begin with capital gains taxation: evidence shows that a reduction in the capital gains tax rate stimulates venture capital funding. More generous treatment for employee stock options is also an option for Canada. Among the suite of broader policy choices: direct government investment programs, such as the United States’ Small Business Innovation Research Program and Australia’s Innovation Investment Funds. While these programs involve public subsidization of venture capital, the US and Australian examples have generated records indicating effectiveness in fostering innovation and economic development.
Cities, Clusters & Regions
Growth, Innovation, Scaling and the Pace of Life in Cities
Luís Bettencourt, José Lobo, Dirk Helbing, Christian Kühnert and Geoffrey West
This paper argues that urban life and metropolitan economies develop according to a predictable pattern, one that closely resembles patterns observed in other types of social organization and in biological organisms. Cities with higher populations tend to experience faster rates of innovation and greater productivity in their urban economy. The authors find that indicators of urban activity tend to fall into three categories. The first involves indicators that relate to the needs of individuals. As a city accumulates new residents, each of those residents requires employment, housing and utilities. Thus, as population increases, these indicators tend to grow linearly. A second group of indicators is affected by economies of scale, though the study indicates that these economies do tend to plateau after a certain scale. The final group of indicators measures the creation of knowledge and innovation. The pace of discovery and innovation in cities accelerates as the city grows and continued growth depends on a constantly increasing rate of knowledge production and distribution. These findings suggest that it may be possible to predict future rates of urban innovation and high-tech economic development as a city’s population grows. In addition, expanding urban economies may require increasing investment in innovation and R&D to support their economic and population growth and to avoid economic collapse.
What Determines the Efficiency of Regional Innovation Systems?
Michael Fritsch and Vikto Slavtchev
This paper assesses the efficiency of regional innovation systems (RIS) in Germany by means of a knowledge production function. This function relates private sector research and development (R&D) activity in a region to the number of inventions that have been registered by residents of that region. The paper finds that both spillovers within the private sector as well as from universities and other public research institutions have a positive effect on the efficiency of private sector R&D. It is not the mere presence and size of public research institutions, but rather the intensity of interactions between private and public sector R&D that leads to higher efficiency. The authors find that the relationship between the diversity of a regions’ industry structure and the efficiency of its innovation system is inversely u-shaped. Regions dominated by large establishments tend to be less efficient than regions with a lower average establishment size.
Super Cluster: Ideas, Perspectives and Updates from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Industry
PriceWaterhouse CoopersBoston, Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, and the New England Healthcare Institute
This report is both a celebration of the success and potential of the Massachusetts life sciences super cluster as well as a warning against complacency. It contains articles by and interviews with some of the super cluster’s biggest stars, including a Nobel Prize winner, top pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device CEOs, and experts from academia, medicine, venture capital and state government. It describes the current state of the life sciences super cluster, the outlook for the future, and critical areas of improvement. It recommends that collaborative efforts for improvement in this area should include a strategic plan to improve school curricula to ensure that demand for high quality workers is addressed; a plan to resolve issues surrounding worker retention (including long commutes and high housing costs); the provision of a consistent tax, licensing and regulatory environment; and developing strategic and innovative policy responses to growing competition.
Edward L Glaeser and Kristina Tobio, Harvard University
In the last 50 years, population and incomes have increased steadily throughout much of the Sunbelt. This paper assesses the relative contributions of rising productivity, rising demand for Southern amenities and increases in housing supply to the growth of warm areas, using data on income, housing price and population growth. Before 1980, economic productivity increased significantly in warmer areas and drove the population growth in those places. Since 1980, productivity growth has been more modest, but housing supply growth has been enormous. The paper infers that new construction in warm regions represents a growth in supply, rather than demand, from the fact that prices are generally falling relative to the rest of the country. The relatively slow pace of housing price growth in the Sunbelt, relative to the rest of the country and relative to income growth, also implies that there has been no increase in the willingness to pay for sun-related amenities. As such, it seems that the growth of the Sunbelt has little to do with the sun.
Statistics & Indicators
2007 Global Biotechnology Report
Ernst & Young
Strong product pipelines and product success, record-breaking financing totals, unprecedented deal activity and impressive financial results mark historic industry advances according to this annual report. This report contains a variety of indicators that assess the strength of the global biotechnology industry. With the biotech industry maturing in more regions, an increasing number of companies will have to deal with the challenges of success. This year’s report features results of an Ernst & Young survey of over 400 biotechnology CEOs, at small, mid-sized and large biotech companies, which found that some of the fastest growing challenges facing their companies are issues facing maturing companies: ensuring regulatory compliance for sales forces, dealing with pricing pressures, expanding globally, and managing global operations.
nd the definition to be more inclusive of science’s diverse activities or dimensions.
Policy Digest
Competitive Cities: A New Entrepreneurial Paradigm in Spatial Development
OECD
Economic globalization and the subsequent intensification of inter-city competition have caused a profound change in the governance of cities. It is the change in the mode of policy planning from managerialism, which is primarily concerned with effective provision of social welfare services to citizens, to entrepreneurialism, which is strongly characterized by proeconomic-growth strategic approaches, risk-taking, innovation and an orientation toward the private-sector. The change has been most evident in urban spatial development, which has long been preoccupied with the managerial mode of policy making, ultimately aiming at efficiently managing the diverse spatial needs by land-use control and infrastructure provision.
Entrepreneurial Approaches Have Distinct Characeristics:
Pro-active: It aims to foster local economic development through “positive” rather than “passive” approaches with a focus on growth creation rather than management;
Market-led: New approaches are becoming increasingly market driven – public policy makers can use market mechanisms to achieve public goals;
Inventive: policy planning in the new approaches shows strong characteristics once distinctive to private businesses, such as risk-taking, inventiveness, promotional and profit motivation. Many methods employed by policy planners originated in the private sector. Above all, strategic planning forms the backbone of the new approaches, as a means to plan effectively for and manage the future at a time when the future itself appears increasingly uncertain.
Entrepreneurial policy making at the local and regional level has the potential to transform cities. However, there are many pitfalls. Policy should aim to:
Build Unique Local Assets
Too much dependence of planners on a handful of successful cases as “good practices” resulted in an ironic situation that place-marketing, which originally aimed at differentiating a city from others, has in fact seriously undermined the local distinctiveness and uniqueness of many cities, and created “analogous cities”, which refers to the situation where it is difficult to differentiate a city from others both in actual physical forms and place
marketing narratives. Planners’ efforts to appeal to stereotyped images of knowledge workers’ tastes also contributed to the creation of built environments that are strongly characterized by similarities in tastes and their consumption-oriented nature, which favours selected social groups with considerable disposable income.
This clearly points to the necessity to re-construct future policy planning around the notion of
identifying and building up unique local assets rather than focusing too much on image creation. Place promotion without unique local assets would fail to leave long-lasting effects on the local economy.
Plan for the Long-Term
Past policy experience strongly indicates that in order for urban entrepreneurialism to address effectively long-standing urban issues, it is necessary to incorporate policy measures to translate short-term impacts gained by city promotional strategies into long-term effects on local economies. Such a process requires local capacity to assimilate short term economic gains into long-standing economic restructuring.
Thus, policy efforts to build up local economic capacity are essential, and these are precisely what have often been neglected by policy planners who are under pressure to maximize short-term gains by attracting external elements.
Take a Holistic Approach
Urban policy planners are increasingly required to address wider policy objectives; not only economic but also social, environmental and cultural policies are demanding policy planners’ attention. It is also expected to play a positive role in a global policy agenda rather than simply reacting to it.
Hence, urban entrepreneurialism should adopt more holistic approaches by incorporating wider policy objectives into coherent and complementary strategies. For example, market-led approaches, which have become the guiding principle due to their capacity to respond to rapid changes, should aim at achieving wider policy goals by positively interacting with market forces, not simply by following them.
Mobilize and Empower a Variety of Actors
Public-private partnership provided a collaborative framework that is flexible and efficient. However, the narrowness of the scope of stakeholders that participate in the process has often made it difficult for residents to share the strategies coming out of such partnerships. The corporatist mode of decision making sometimes created the image that important decisions were made behind closed doors in an elitist circle to which ordinary citizens did not have proper access. Such criticism suggests that urban entrepreneurialism has often failed to secure citizen support, which is crucial for the long-term viability and effectiveness, as well as the democratic legitimacy, of entrepreneurial strategies.
An entrepreneurial urban economy will only emerge through an active process to nurture entrepreneurial culture among residents. All the actors in the local economy, including residents, business executives and government officials, have to learn how to be entrepreneurial.
A New Role for Local Governments
The widened scope of participants will pose a challenge for local governments. There is a widespread concern about the efficacy of traditional local government structures and practices in planning in the face of the shift from government towards governance. To continue to play a central role, they need to develop new styles of operation which are amenable to contemporary modes of governance. This would require a departure from hierarchical and bureaucratically-determined practices that are driven by rules and regulations and which are slow to respond to new demands that arise.
The essence of urban entrepreneurialism is to apply innovative thinking to policy planning in a strategic way, based on long-term vision. Such attitude is an essential property not only of competitive private enterprises in the global market, but also of competitive cities in inter-city competition on a global scale. Urban entrepreneurialism should manifest itself in identifying and building up unique local assets, in harnessing “old policy tools” with
totally new perspectives, and in mobilizing the collective potential of all the actors in the local economy by motivating and empowering them. The question that a policy planner employing an entrepreneurial approach should always ask himself is just how entrepreneurial his approach is in this sense.
Events
Miami Beach, Florida, 13-17 May, 2007
IAMOT 2007 will provide an international technical forum for experts from industry and academia to exchange ideas and present results of ongoing research in the following tracks: Knowledge Management, Green Technologies, Social impact of technology development, MOT Education and Research / Corporate Universities, New Product/Service Development, National and Regional Systems of Innovation, Small and Medium Enterprises, Emerging Technologies, Technology Transfer, Marketing and Commercialization, Technology Foresight and Forecasting, Information and Communication Technology Management, The Integration of Technology and Business Strategies, R&D Management, Project and Program Management, Industrial and Manufacturing System Technologies / Supply Chain Management, New Forms of Organizations, Management of Technology in Developing Countries . Technological Alliances, Mergers and Acquisitions, Theory of Technology, Technology Incubation, Management of Technology for the Service Economy, Innovation/technological development and productivity
Unionville, 15 May, 2007
Join this breakfast discussion to hear the latest innovations in healthcare IT from local firms (large and small ) and their perspectives on challenges and opportunities in this sector. Keynote speakers at this event include: Sal Causi, IBM Canada – “The Hospital of the Future”; Frederic Vezon, Aurora MSC – ” Managing Medical Images in the 21st Century”; John Bodolai, Nightengale Informatix; and Howard Rosen, Life:WIRE – “Health Management in the Palm of your Hand”. These speakers will be followed by discussion and networking sessions.
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.
Networks of Creativity in Science and Arts: Colloquium for Young Social Scientists
Padua, Italy, 22 May, 2007
The aim of this colloquium is to bring together research and researchers in different fields dealing with networks, communities, creativity and innovation. We therefore invite young scholars, including Phd students, in economics, economic geography, business and management, social science, and related subjects to submit proposals for a cross disciplinary colloquium/workshop to be held in Padua, the 22nd of May 2007. The colloquium is connected to the conference “Networks of creativity in science and arts”, which takes place the day before. CALL FOR PAPERS.
Today’s Research: Tomorrow’s Prosperity – Commercializing University Research
Toronto, 24 May, 2007
This is an exciting opportunity to interact with international leaders from business government and academia. Keynote speakers include Ross C DeVol, from the Milken Institute; David Naylor, President of the University of Toronto; and Ted Sargent, Canada Research Chair in Nanotechnology. The theme of the morning panel is “Getting the Job Done: International Experiences in Technology Commercialization” and has speakers from Ireland, Sweden, Austria and Chicago. The afternoon panel is entitled “What Business Wants: The Business View of Technology Commercialization”.
Toronto, 28 May – 1 June, 2007
Toronto’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry cluster will come together to celebrate being the largest high-tech hub in Canada and the third largest in North America. During this event a series of activities will be undertaken to showcase the depth and breadth of Toronto’s high technology sector. These will include trade associations’ events such as seminars and business networking functions, job fairs, collaboration demonstrations, an ICT business open door program, school projects, educational seminars, special exhibits showcasing innovation & excellence and other ICT sector- related activities. An organizing committee formed by ICT industry stakeholders representing a cross-section of this industry, in both the private and public sectors, has been formed to implement this initiative
Photonics North 2007 – Closing the Gap Between Theory, Development and Application
Ottawa, 4-7 June, 2007
Conference topics include, but are not limited to: biophotonics, fiber lasers and amps, guided wave devices, industrial applications, new optical materials and nanophotonics, optical sensors and detectors, optics and photonics in defence and security, photonics design and simulations, photonics devices and networks, and ultrashort pulse lasers.
The Americas Competitiveness Forum 
Atlanta, 11-12 June, 2007
This conference will provide a venue for government ministers from the Western Hemisphere to come together with leaders from the private sector, academia, and non-governmental organizations, to explore cutting edge ideas and best practices in several key areas of competitiveness. The ACF’s main tracks are sparking and sustaining innovation; creating solutions in education and workforce development; designing successful global supply chain strategies; and fostering small business development and growth. This forum will be more than a discussion; it will serve as a launching pad for a continued, practical dialogue on competitiveness in the Western Hemisphere.
Innovation, ICT and Creativity: Knowledge-Based Regions for a Competitive Europe
Bilbao, Spain, 13-15 June, 2007
The IANIS+ 2007 Conference in Bilbao will address the importance of transformative uses of ICT to achieve competitiveness, the ways in which regions can contribute to the Lisbon Agenda and their own development, the challenges that regions will face, and the new priorities they will need to adopt so as to become creative regions better adapted to today’s global competitive environment.
Toronto, 14-16 June, 2007
This interdisciplinary conference, the second presented by the Design Exchange, Canada’s National Design Centre, seeks to explore
the varied and future states of cities. Papers are invited that address such related and relevant topics as green space in cities,
infrastructure, technology, environmentalism, and sustainability, Brownfield rehabilitation, ex urban growth, public transportation, universal design, street furnishings, climate change and disaster preparedness. Several themes of interest : mass media, technology, infrastructure and policy and social responsibility.
Regional Innovation in Traditional Industries
Volterra, Italy, 23 June, 2007
This workshop is part of the Structural Activity Line 3 of the DIME Network of Excellence and focuses particularly on the impact of diversification within various sectors ranging from previously highly industrialized regions to agri-food regions. The workshop will assess the way in which global competition from emerging markets is challenging traditional industries, what their responses are and how innovative and how successful such responses may be. Taking a regional innovation systems approach, the workshop will explore how network interactions can reshape a region, the effects the transformation has on the regions, and the challenges to economic growth accompanying the changes.
ECKM 2007: The 8th European Conference on Knowledge Management
Barcelona, Spain, 6-7 September 2007
This conference invites researchers, academics and people from business who are involved in the knowledge management and intellectual capital initiatives to come together debate ideas and present their latest findings and ongoing research. In its 8th year, the conference will be held in Barcelona, Spain. Barcelona is the economic, cultural and administrative capital of Catalonia. Strategically located in the Mediterranean and acting as the hub of a polynucleate metropolitan region with 4.6 million inhabitants, it is a plural, multicultural and growing space of exchange in which individuals and organisations can devote to their own projects in a climate of dynamism, harmony and creativity.
NRC Connections 2007: The Technology Cluster Advantage in Canada 
Toronto, 24-25 September, 2007
Cluster stakeholders from the private sector, all levels of government, universities and industry associations will convene in Toronto to discuss: SMEs – Surviving and Thriving in the First Five Years; Innovating to Succeed – Making R&D Collaborations Work; Making Things Happen, Staying Focused and Steering the Cluster – Together; Building Networks – Across the Street, Around the World; Cluster Marketing and Brand Building to Attract Investment; Leadership Strategies for Cluster Success; And More…
Please join us for two days of dialogue, problem-solving and networking, to promote the nurturing and growth of technology clusters.
3rd International Conference on E-Government
Montreal, 27 – 28 September, 2007
Alongside the rise in e-Government provision comes a greater interest in the study of e-Government, from both a practical and a theoretical point of view. As controversy rages around issues such as e-Voting and identity cards, so academics and practitioners pick up the gauntlet of supporting or attacking these issues. Service providers too have their opinions to share. Much time and money is being spent in considering the best way forward and in examining what has been done well and what lessons can be learnt when things go wrong. This conference aims to bring evidence of the research being undertaken across the globe to the attention of co-workers and the wider community for the purposes of helping practitioners find ways to put research into practice, and for researchers to gain an understanding of additional real-world problems. The advisory group for ICEG 2007 therefore invites submissions of papers on both theory and practice in respect of the conference themes outlined below, from academics, government departments and practitioners in the public and private sector. The closing date for paper submissions has been extended to 11 May, 2007.
Atlanta Conference on Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy 2007
Atlanta, October 19-20, 2007
The landscape of global innovation is shifting, with new problems and actors emerging on the scene. National governments are looking for new strategies, and they are turning to the science, technology, and innovation (STI) policy research community for models and research results to tell them what works and what doesn’t, under what circumstances. The Atlanta Conference provides an opportunity for the global STI policy research and user communities to test models of innovation, explore emerging STI policy issues, and share research results.
Creativity, Entrepreneurship, and Organizations of the Future 
Cambridge, 7-8 December, 2007
Creativity is an essential element of success in contemporary organizations, yet much remains to be discovered about how creativity happens in the minds of individuals, in group processes and in entrepreneurial organizations. The conference will draw on scholarly work from multiple disciplines to deepen our understanding of creativity and entrepreneurship, and the ways in which their intersection might impact organizations of the future.
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This newsletter is prepared by Jen Nelles.
Project manager is David A. Wolfe.