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
The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) announced a $26-million investment to help universities across the country attract and retain the best and brightest minds from Canada and around the world. The funds will provide infrastructure support for 136 projects at 40 universities, enabling 192 high-calibre investigators to conduct their research in world-class facilities.
Microsoft to Open Doors in Vancouver
U.S. technology giant Microsoft Corp. will skirt Washington’s tough stance on immigration by opening a new software development centre in the Vancouver area this fall. The Microsoft Canada Development Centre will serve as a base for the company’s core business — software development. When the company initially opens its doors, likely in September, it plans to hire between 200 and 300 people from around the world.
CANARIE Optical Network Solutions from Nortel Opens New Innovation Opportunities
CANARIE, Canada’s advanced Research and Education network, has deployed a new optical network from Nortel(1) (TSX: NT)(NYSE: NT) to provide scientists and researchers with enough bandwidth to deliver the network capacity required for major science and research projects as well as education and training. Nortel’s Metro Ethernet optical solution has more than quadrupled CANARIE’s previous network capacity. This allows more information sharing and provides additional bandwidth for multimedia, detailed simulation and modeling, and other compute-intensive applications. CANARIE’s advanced optical network forms a national backbone that is helping address increased bandwidth demand from scientists, researchers and universities. CANARIE is also an important international network that provides the highest possible connectivity and collaboration between Canadian and international research organizations. Similar to gains made with deployment of CAnet 4, in which provincial networks and universities, schools, research facilities, government entities and international partners were connected via an optical network, CANARIE expects this latest network upgrade to provide Canada with significant competitive advantage in innovation. It is planned to help in attracting and retaining investment and talent from regional research network operators, government laboratories and researchers requiring pooled resources for compute-intensive and high-performance applications.
Local Futures Launches New Website
The Local Futures Group is a research and strategy consultancy that provides a geographical perspective on social and environmental change, set within a 21st century knowledge economy. We introduce this perspective into public policy and corporate strategies, both in the UK and internationally. In honour of its tenth anniversary the group has launched a new website and some new services.
Editor's Pick
Glenn Athey, Max Nathan and Chris Webber, NESTA
This paper looks at urban innovation policy in Great Britain. The authors conclude that Innovation policy for cities should be broader. Policymakers are becoming more interested in cities’ economic role, and in city-level innovation strategies. The Science Cities programme, for example, reflects policy interest in using cities as innovation engines. However, national innovation policy is seen by some as overly narrow and centralist. Similarly, given the differences in local economic conditions and performance across the country, cities and regions arguably need greater freedom to develop bespoke innovation strategies. However, cities and regions would also need the capacity to deliver. Any policies that give cities and regions greater freedom of powers should also have an adequate focus on building capacity amongst institutions and policy makers to design and implement effective innovation strategies
Innovation Policy
The Power of Technological Innovation in Rural America
Jason Henderson, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas
Too many rural communities believe that technological innovation is something that happens only in major urban areas or large research universities. This new study argues that rural communities need to focus more on technology adoption strategies. Henderson notes that small size and remoteness may limit the ability of some rural areas to produce new radical technology innovations. However, these regions are well situated to spur innovations in more mature industries, where inventions and innovations are more process-based. As industries mature, the costs associated with new innovations drop and this shift creates opportunities for rural communities. Henderson’s research shows that less populated regions have higher patent activity in more mature sectors, and that manufacturers (a more mature industrial sector) in rural and urban regions differ little in terms of adopting new technologies. The report also lauds public policies, such as the work of land grant universities and the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnerships, that provide support for these critical technology adoption efforts.
The Benefits from Publicly Funded Research
Ben R Martin and Puay Tang, SPRU
In recent years the UK Government has increase public spending on basic research in universities and research labs. Yet scientists and research funding agencies constantly argue that more public money should be spent on research. This paper reviews the extensive body of research that demonstrates the nature and extent of the benefits of publicly funded research, and those associated with each type of exploitation channel. The relative importance of each channel varies with scientific field, technology and industrial sector. Consequently, there is no simple answer to the central question of this study: ‘What are the economic and social benefits of basic research?’. The paper includes a conceptual overview of the challenges involved in any attempt to assess the economic and social benefits from publicly funded basic research, summarizes the findings of previous studies and summarizes the main conclusions. It also presents a number of case studies that illustrate the different exploitation channels.
High Growth Entrepreneurs, Public Policies and Economic Growth
Erik Stam et al., Friedrich-Schiller-University and the Max Planck Institute of Economics
This paper investigates whether the presence of ambitious entrepreneurs is a more important determinant of national economic growth than entrepreneurial activity in general. The authors use data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor to test the extent to which high growth ambitions of entrepreneurs affect GDP growth for a sample of 36 countries. The results suggest that ambitious entrepreneurship contributes more strongly to macro-economic growth than entrepreneurial activity in general. The paper finds a particularly strong effect of high-expectation entrepreneurship for transition countries. These results are interpreted in light of the ongoing debate about public policies designed to stimulate high growth start-ups.
NGA
This report provides a snapshot of trends in the states and identifies a wide range of strategies now employed. California’s big
investments, such as $3 billion for stem cell research, have already grabbed national headlines. But states like Arizona, Indiana and North Dakota, which haven’t historically been big R&D spenders, are also investing public dollars. This analysis provides a first look into which states are taking action and why, what they are funding, and how. This report provides clear guidance on how to design R&D investments that work. The biggest lesson learned is straightforward: How much a state spends on R&D is secondary. How it is spent is absolutely critical. Key to this truth is the notion that R&D efforts must be considered investments, not expenditures.
Just like any investors, states must begin by carving out areas where returns are tangible and commensurate with risks taken. Not only do the benefits include building talent and high-paying jobs in the state, but they also can be seen in solutions to pressing social problems, improved business efficiency and productivity, and success in global markets.
NGA
This report summarizes what has been learned in the course of the Innovation America initiative, paying special attention to the role of governors in establishing best practices. In collaboration with leading experts, the NGA Center for Best Practices produced several reports expanding on Innovation America’s three core strategies: improving science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education; improving the alignment of the postsecondary system with state economies; and encouraging regional economic growth. This final report: Highlights strategies and best practices around those three themes, stressing the importance of innovation and the governors’ role in advancing and encouraging it; Spotlights key findings from an NGA-commissioned survey that gauged Americans’ “innovation attitude,” conducted by noted researcher Dr. Frank Luntz, who uncovered the ways in which governors can inspire citizens to embrace a successful innovation agenda; Looks ahead to sustaining the innovation agenda in the future and provides best practices around the three Innovation America themes, with illuminating snapshots from Governor Napolitano’s site visits to state innovation hubs in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Cupertino, California; and Woodbury, Minnesota.
Cities, Clusters & Regions
The Liverpool Model: European Capital of Culture Research Program: Baseline Report 2006/07
Impacts 08
The main aim of Impacts 08 is to develop an exemplary, longitudinal ‘Liverpool Model’ for cultural impact assessment that will measure and analyse the socio-economic and cultural impacts of Liverpool’s European Capital of Culture program. The core objectives are to provide longitudinal impact analysis of cultural programmes and events; Provide intelligence to guide decision-making within the cultural program and marketing strategy; Grow the evidence base for the impact of culture upon regeneration and city renaissance (to inform national debate, influence funding decisions, and assist regional cultural planning); Provide a replicable model that will add to the legacy of 2008 (e.g. for future Capitals of Culture or similar large-scale projects elsewhere, but also to inform other large programmes specifically in Liverpool). The research measures across the full range of cultural, economic, social and environmental impacts of the cultural program and will comprise a demonstration project for developing cultural intelligence in Liverpool and the region as a whole. Analysis therefore focuses on a whole range of target groups and areas of interest, including: Communities of interest and place, four regeneration themes – cultural, economic, social and environmental; and cultural impacts.
Statistics & Indicators
State Energy Efficiency Scorecard 2006
More and more states are turning to energy efficiency as the “first fuel” in the race for clean and secure energy resources. In their commitments to advance energy efficiency policies and programs, they are outpacing the federal government by a widening margin. States now spend about three times as much on energy efficiency programs as the federal government, and are leading the way on appliance standards, building codes, energy efficiency resource standards, and other key policies that drive energy efficiency investment. In this era of state pre-eminence, it is important to document best practices and recognize leadership among the states, so that other states follow, and to encourage federal action to catch up. Toward that end, ACEEE developed this report as a comprehensive ranking of state energy efficiency policies and identified exemplary programs and policies within each policy category. The report ranks states based on their progress in eight energy efficiency policy categories.
Industry Financed R&D at Colleges and Universities by State, FY 2001-2005
NSF
Every year, the National Science Foundation releases its Academic R&D Expenditures report, filled with statistics concerning the characteristics of research and development at U.S. colleges and universities. Using these reports, SSTI has prepared two tables detailing the funds provided by industry from 2001 to 2005 for institutions of higher education in each state and the District of Columbia.
The Means to Compete: Benchmarking IT Industry Competitiveness
Economist Intelligence Unit
This report uses a combination of 25 quantitative and qualitative indicators to produce a score and ranking for each county in the study. Besides the U.S., the countries with overall index scores in the top 10 were Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Australia, Taiwan, Sweden, Denmark, Canada and Switzerland. The assortment of indicators was organized into six distinct categories, each with a specific weighting for the composite index score.
Policy Digest
Innovation Policies for the 21st Century: A Report of a Symposium
Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy, STEP
The capacity to innovate and commercialize new goods and services remains vital to the future competitiveness of the United States and indeed all participants in the global economy. Reinforcing and sustaining this capacity is particularly salient as research, development, manufacturing, and the delivery of services, made possible by new information and communications technologies, become ever more global. The emergence of new participants in the global economy, focused on attracting and developing high-technology industries within their national economies, is increasingly significant. China, for example, combines the advantages of high-skill and low-wage knowledge workers with a strong sense of national purpose. Responding to these structural changes in the global economy, other advanced economies have already initiated major programs, often with substantial funding, that are designed to attract, nurture, and support innovation and high-technology industries within their national economies.
Above all, it is important to understand, as one recent report notes, that the pace of competition is accelerating. To better understand how competition is evolving, the National Academies’ Board on Science, Technology and Economic Policy (STEP) held a symposium on April 15, 2005, which drew together leading academics, policy analysts, and senior policy makers from around the globe to describe their national innovation programs and policies, outline their objectives, and highlight their achievements. This volume contains the proceedings of this symposium. Of particular significance is the discussion of the importance of understanding and harnessing innovation ecosystems.
An innovation ecosystem captures the complex synergies among a variety of collective efforts involved in bringing innovation to market. These efforts nclude those organized within as well as collaboratively across large and small businesses, universities, and research institutes and laboratories, as well as venture capital firms and financial markets. Innovation ecosystems themselves can vary in size, composition, and in their impact on other ecosystems. The strength of the linkages across a given innovation ecosystem can also vary. Beyond this description, the term “innovation ecosystem” also captures an analytical approach that considers how public policies can improve innovation-led growth by strengthening links within the innovation ecosystem. Intermediating institutions (such as public-private partnerships) can play a key role in this regard by aligning the self-interest of venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and other participants within a complex innovation ecosystem with desired national objectives.
Build competencies with attention to regional strengths. This consideration is important for a large country like the United States, whose markets display very strong regional differences but each of whose regions possess their own strengths and possibilities. Institutions cooperating in regional development must hire people whose interests enhance and complement what is already found in the environment, which “doesn’t happen unless somebody pays attention to it.” The idea is to build regional strength, not justinstitutional strength.
Identify a research strategy. For example, Stony Brook’s conscious decision to make biomedical research a priority meant allocating university resources to proposals and projects that work together to build a foundation for future successes—even if, “in terms of some sort of absolute measure of quality,” these were at times not the best proposals to come forward. While there were exceptions to this practice, a bias was maintained in favor of those fields that could be expected to help further the overall strategy.Faculty development and capital improvements were coordinated to enhance biotechnology capabilities. While other areas needed and deserved attention, the immediate opportunities for funding lay in the biosciences, which therefore received the focus.
Build a regional environment. In the early 1980s, Long Island business organizations were not aware of the rapidly growing opportunities in the biotechnology industry. They did not appreciate the significance of an emerging major tertiary health-care facility or the value of federal funding as a source of technology. The Long Island economy was then dominated by large aerospace contractors—principally, Grumman Corporation—that was to fall by the wayside as the cold war came to an end and industry shifted completely. “So it was important for me and my counterparts at the two laboratories to get together, pound the pavement, and talk to people—to take the biotechnology message to business groups, chambers of commerce, and state and local government agencies,” Dr. Marburger – now science advisor to the President – recalled. “The whole region had to cooperate in making this work, and somebody always has to take the first step to get others together.” Because Long Island’s business community was aware of the dangers of relying on a single industry, these efforts by the leading centers of research to work together with business were warmly received.
Form regional partnerships. Institutional rivalries are counterproductive; cooperation and collaboration are essential for regional-scale development; and regional-scale development is important for a stable pattern of growth. The fact that companies start up, grow, then frequently either die or move elsewhere is not necessarily the end of the world, but it does necessitate continual start-ups. Some of the new companies may survive and add permanently to the economy, some may have to be replaced with others that are sufficiently similar to stabilize the workforce. It is because regional partnerships enhance mobility and multiply opportunities for workers and for businesses that a critical mass of mutually compatible businesses is needed to stabilize the inevitable effect of startups’ moving away.
Fund the machinery, which consists of facilities, people, and organizations. None of this happens without people who know that their job is to make it happen; neither regional development nor technology transfer can be made to work with volunteers.In other words, whether at a state, county, or local government economic development office, or at an organization that is either freestanding or associated with a university or a business group, someone has to know that technology transfer is his or her job. Technology-related economic development usually entails investing state and local government funds in facilities so as to reduce costs for startup tenants, and people are needed to bring entrepreneurs together with financial and technical support. Nearly always, such people are more than brokers. They are teachers and counselors, too: for entrepreneurs, who know the technology but not business practices, and for investors, who are ignorant of the ways of engineers and scientists.
Events
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.
Globally Competitive, Locally Engaged: Higher Education and Regions 
Valencia, Spain, 19-21 September 2007
Higher education institutions (HEIs) can play a key role in their regions. They are significant regional employers, they educate students and conduct basic and applied research that promotes enterprise formation and supports businesses, public services and cultural institutions. OECD countries are now seeking to mobilize higher education to support more strongly their economic, social and cultural development. Initiatives to foster innovation and competitiveness draw on the “triple helix” cooperation between government, business and higher education institutions. In 2004, the OECD launched a comparative review of how higher education is being mobilised to support the social, cultural and economic development of regions. The experiences from this review and the earlier OECD work on territorial reviews, carried out by the Directorate for Public Governance and Territorial Development (GOV) are brought together in the OECD conference entitled “Globally Competitive, Locally Engaged – Higher Education and Regions”. A report under the same title will be launched at the conference.
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 Ecology of a Creative Community – 6th Annual Conference of the Creative City Network of Canada
Edmonton, 10-13 October, 2007
This conference will bring together municipal cultural planning and development staff from communities across Canada for professional development sessions, dialogue, keynote speakers, and networking opportunities. While the conference is primarily tailored to the needs of our members, registration is open to anyone wishing to expand their knowledge in the cultural planning and development sector.
Transforming Regional Economies – SSTI Annual Conference
Baltimore, 18-19 October, 2007
SSTIs annual conference offers exposure to some of the best state and regional approaches for a brighter economic future, unrivaled networking opportunities with those in the TBED community, thoughtful exchange with peers from across the U.S. The SSTI annual conference promises quality. With more than 20 carefully planned sessions, conference participants are ensured access to the latest thinking and best practices in tech-based economic development. Limited attendance further affords one the opportunity to engage in open, creative dialogue, and registration fees are kept reasonable so you can send your entire leadership team. All added up, SSTI’s annual conference is the field’s most stimulating and rewarding professional development investment of the year.
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, MA, 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.
DRUID-DIME Winter Conference – Economics and Management of Innovation and Organizational Change
Aalborg, Denmark, 17-19 January, 2008
The conference is open for all PhD students working within the broad field of economics and management of innovation and organizational change. The conference organizers invite papers aiming at enhancing our understanding of the dynamics of technological, structural and institutional change at the level of firms, industries, regions and nations. DRUID is the node for an open international network. Confirmed invited senior scholars are: Maryann Feldman, University of Georgia; Reinhilde Veugelers, Katholike Universiteit Leuven; Paula Criscuolo, Tanaka Business School; Alfonso Gambardella, Università Bocconi; Gerry George, London Business School.
Subscriptions & Comments
Please forward this newsletter to anyone you think will find it of value. We look forward to collaborating with you on this initiative. If you would like to comment on, or contribute to, the content, subscribe or unsubscribe, please contact us at ipl.munkschool@utoronto.ca.
This newsletter is prepared by Jen Nelles.
Project manager is David A. Wolfe.