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
$300 Billion Fund Proposed for Alberta’s High Tech Sector
A $300 million fund could help Alberta’s high-technology sector, according to a report issued recently by a task force headed by Smart Technologies Ltd. co-founder and executive chairman David Martin. The province would invest money from the fund into other investment funds targeting emerging technology firms. Martin’s report also recommended providing easier access to startup capital as well as a provincial scientific research and experimental development credit to help high-potential firms. The report also recommends promoting business centres and entrepreneurship.
UC Berkeley to Get $113-million Gift to Endow 100 New Faculty Chairs
UC Berkeley reports that it will receive $113 million from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to create 100 endowed faculty chairs and slow the exodus of top professors to wealthy private universities. The university and the foundation hope that the huge gift will help Berkeley retain faculty members who are sometimes wooed by private universities with offers of $100,000 pay hikes and millions of dollars in research money:
Canada Considers Privatizing Some Federal Labs
Canada’s Treasury Board recently announced the creation of an independent panel of experts to provide advice on transferring management of federal non-regulatory laboratories into private or other non-government hands. The four individuals comprising the panel, each with extensive experience and leadership in Canada’s science and technology community, will consider different management options for the Canadian systems of federal research labs.
Editor's Pick
Understading the Regional Contribution of Higher Education Institutions: A Literature Review
Paul Arbo and Peter Benneworth, OECD Directorate for Eduction The contribution of higher education institutions to regional development is a theme that has attracted growing attention in recent years. Knowledge institutions are increasingly expected not only to conduct education and research, but also to play an active role in the economic, social and cultural development of their regions. The extent to which higher education institutions are able to play this role depends on a number of circumstances: the characteristics of the institutions, the regions in which they are located and the policy frameworks are all significant. At the same time, there are signs of more fundamental conceptual and strategic confusion. The discussions in this domain are frequently characterised by slogans and popular metaphors. Drawing mainly from a selection of European and North American publications, the report takes an overall view on the development of higher education institutions in the regional context. It focuses on the evolution and discourses of higher education and research, the regional aspects of higher education policies, the various functions and roles that the institutions play, measures taken to link the universities with their regional partners, and the conditions which favour or hamper stronger regional engagement.
Innovation Policy
Commission of European Communities This Staff Working Document develops, for the first time, elements of a policy framework aiming at better supporting innovation in services, taking into account the report of an Expert Group that was set up in its preparation. This framework will be further developed in consultation with stakeholders, taking also into account the most recent analysis of new policies developed in the Member States in support of service innovation. Services are becoming more and more a driver of productivity and growth in developed economies and are the only sector of the European economy that has resulted in net job creation in the last two decades. This report addresses innovation aspects of commercially provided services, mainly based on statistical evidence from the Community Innovation Survey (CIS).
Technology Transfer: A New Paradigm – How State Universities Can Collaborate with Industry
Catherine S Renault, Jeff Cope, Molly Dix, and Karen Hersey, AUTM In some states, policymakers, pressed by local and regional industrial interests, are debating how to “reform” technology transfer at public universities. “Reform” in this context is generally understood to mean redirecting university technology transfer activities to increase the benefits of state-funded research to local industries. Progress toward this goal is often constrained by federally mandated laws applicable to technology transfer at universities. For example, North Dakota grants broad exclusive authority to the State Board of Higher Education to develop regulations and policies for governing state universities (N.D.C.C. Ch. 15-10-17 §7). Calls for change have also been countered by the view of many universities that the system is not broken. This paper offers some fresh ideas on these topics.
Cities, Clusters & Regions
Global Futures for Canada’s Global Cities
Thomas J Courchene, IRPP The thesis of this paper is that the globalization and the information age have led to the economic, political and even democratic ascendancy of global city regions (GCRs). Yet there is sometimes a wide gulf between the potential for these GCRs and their on-the-ground reality. This is especially the case in Canada, where GCRs are fiscally weak and jurisdictionally constitutionless. Accordingly, the analysis focuses on a variety of alternative structures and processes that would allow our GCRs to reach their potential with respect to the knowledge-based economy. There is a variety of ways that the GCRs can become more fully and formally integrated into the operations of Canadian political and fiscal federalism. The most promising avenue would be to rework federal-municipal relations, following Ottawa’s recent initiatives in the municipal arena such as sharing the federal gas tax and exempting cities from the GST. But the GCRs maintain that federal gas-tax sharing amounts to an equalization program disbursed by the large cities to the smaller ones. The GCRs want access to a broad-based tax available on a derivation principle. Since the GCRs are the creatures of their respective provinces, the appropriate way to achieve this would be to rework provincial-municipal relations. Just as the provinces piggyback on the federally collected personal income tax (PIT), so cities could piggyback on the provincial portion of the PIT.
Florida Life Sciences Road Map
Perry Wong, Ross DeVol, Kevin Klowden and Benjamin Yeo, Milken Institute Florida’s life sciences industry has the potential to develop a robust innovation pipeline that links universities and research institutions with incubators, intellectual property firms, and venture capital. The industry has the capacity as well to develop a competitive edge nationally and in foreign markets, due to its well-established mix of sectors. This report serves as a road map, beginning with a general discussion of the components of a vibrant life sciences economy and Florida’s strengths and weaknesses.
Statistics & Indicators
Towards a Geography of Culture: Culture Occupations Across the Canadian Urban-Rural Divide
Michael Schimpf and Paul Sereda, Statistics Canada Over the past several years, increasing attention has been paid to the expanding role that the cultural sector plays in the urban economy. Recent work emphasizes the role of the culture sector for encouraging economic growth, urban renewal and improving a city’s quality of life. However, there is little written in past literature concerning whether the size of a city affects the extent of the workforce engaged in the culture sector. Hence, the first purpose of this paper is to shed light on the relative importance of culture employment across a broad cross-section of Canadian communities, ranging from isolated rural parts of Canada to its largest cities. Specifically, this paper is interested in whether culture is only a big city phenomenon, or if there are smaller cities and rural areas that also support vibrant cultural life.
Life After the High-Tech Downturn: Permanent Layoffs and Earnings Losses of Displaced Workers
Marc Frenette, Statistics Canada The high-tech sector was a major driving force behind the Canadian economic recovery of the late 1990s. It is well known that the tide began to turn quite suddenly in 2001 when sector-wide employment and earnings halted this upward trend, despite continued gains in the rest of the economy. As informative as employment and earnings statistics may be, they do not paint a complete picture of the severity of the high-tech meltdown. A decline in employment may result from reduced hiring and natural attrition, as opposed to layoffs, while a decline in earnings among high-tech workers says little about the fortunes of laid-off workers who did not regain employment in the high-tech sector. This study uses a unique administrative data source to address both of these gaps in our knowledge of the high-tech meltdown. Specifically, the study explores permanent layoffs in the high-tech sector, as well as earnings losses of laid-off high-tech workers. The findings suggest that the high-tech meltdown resulted in a sudden and dramatic increase in the probability of experiencing a permanent layoff, which more than quadrupled in the manufacturing sector from 2000 to 2001.
Policy Digest
An International Comparative Quickscan into National Policies for Creative Industries
Erik Braun and Mariangela Lavagna, EURICUR The study focuses on national policies aiming to stimulate the economic development of creative industries. The paper compares policies stimulating innovation, entrepreneurship, access to venture capital, market development, creative clusters, intellectual property rights and other relevant policies for the creative industries. The investigation includes examples from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The examples also come from regions for Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany and Spain. For the quick scan approximately 1000 policies have been examined in 18 countries.
A key question is: are creative industries primarily the subject of economic or cultural policy? The explorative study shows that national governments consider it to be both. The most interesting policies combine cultural objectives (diversity, quality and distribution) and economic objectives (innovation, entrepreneurship, export, investment, clustering and economic growth). The policy schemes included in the research indicate that the majority of policies stimulating the economic development of creative industries originate from, and are funded by, the cultural sectors. The awareness of its economic potential has increased but it has not resulted in an appropriate balance between mainstream economic policy and cultural policy.
The majority of countries in the investigation do not have a comprehensive national strategy for creative industries. Nonetheless, the number of countries with an integrated national strategy for creative industries is growing. Most of the countries in the research have integrated strategies for sub-sectors of creative industries (such as design, audiovisual, media and gaming).
An explicit strategy for creative industries also raises the issue of priorities. In some cases, economic policies focus more on creation whereas other countries prioritise distribution. Most countries though have explicit policies for creation and production on the one hand and for distribution on the other. Generally speaking, the latter is better integrated in standard economic policies than the former.
Increasingly, the delivery of the policies for creative industries, as well as for policies aiming to stimulate sub-sectors, are put in the hand of arm’s length organisations. These organisations are funded from various public sources. These organisations give account for their activities to the Ministries involved. In some cases, special workgroups with representatives of Ministries and other public stakeholders supervise the national strategy.
What is the role of national governments in the policies for creative industries? What should be done locally and what nationally? There is no unambiguous answer to this question. It depends very much on the type of policies. The national level is leading for international market development, venture capital schemes and copyright policies (in relation to supranational policies). Local and regional governments are leading in creative cluster policies and entrepreneurship. Innovation policies give a mixed picture as all levels of government are strongly involved. Nevertheless, national governments are in charge of the most important innovation policy schemes.
Most of the selected countries and regions have developed special policies promoting innovation in creative industries. Several different and interactive trends have emerged within innovation policy. Many national governments are developing policies and schemes to create and foster networking, creative partnerships and collaborative strategies among different sectors and actors, and among different disciplines as a way to affect and stimulate innovation. R&D, both technological and non-technological, has emerged as a key strategy to develop a strong creative sector and develop innovative projects. R&D schemes and funds are being set up to foster projects at the intersection between cultural and business sectors to encourage specific creative disciplines that are critical to the national cultural development, or to make a better use of promising technology. The majority of the initiatives in this area are mainly directed to the creation/production phase. Specific policies for sub-sectors are present; the majority can be found in design, film and gaming.
A question that emerges from the international quick scan of policies for creative industries is: what is the role of the European Union? Including the creative industries in the Lisbon strategy is one, but will the European Union stimulate inventive economic policies for creative industries? These are also relevant questions for the Canadian and Ontario context, both of which have rich markets of creative industries.
Events
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.
Working Lunch: Global Futures for Canada’s Global Cities 
Toronto, 1 October, 2007 The ongoing fiscal crisis in Toronto has become a hot-button municipal issue that is front and centre in the Ontario provincial election. Faced with a budget shortfall in excess of $500 million, mayor David Miller has been forced to cut services and search for new revenue sources, and despite recent pre-election promises of new dollars from the McGuinty government, long-term municipal funding remains tenuous. Please join IRPP President Mel Cappe, author Thomas J. Courchene (IRPP and Queen’s University) and commentator Joe Berridge (Urban Strategies Inc.) for a stimulating discussion of Toronto’s fiscal weakness, how it limits the city’s global competitiveness, and the implications for intergovernmental relations.
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.
The Role of Universities in Regional Development and Growth
Cambridge, UK, 12 October, 2007 Over the past six years, Cambridge University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have explored new ways in which universities, working with industry and other stakeholders, might help to enhance the productivity, competitiveness and entrepreneurship of the UK. In the coming months, The Cambridge-MIT Institute is running a series of workshops presenting CMI case studies alongside examples from other organisations, in order to share lessons learned and provide insight into effective practices that successfully impact productivity, competitiveness and entrepreneurship. The purpose of this workshop is to understand how information and knowledge is diffused within the business community and transferred between universities and firms, and how these processes might be supported and enhanced. The workshop will bring together specialists from the business, policy and academic communities to provide insights on how regional knowledge exchange initiatives work and the role of universities in different spatial and economic contexts.
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.
Turning Knowledge into Practice: Getting More out of Public Investment in Innovation
Berlin, Germany, 23-24 October, 2007 The main focus of this conference is on the need to measure and improve the effectiveness of publicly-funded programs, in particular with regard to research and innovation. The conference will provide policy makers, program owners and managers as well as companies and innovation experts with concrete information about the state of the art of the evaluation and impact assessment of publicly-funded programs.
3rd International Conference on Services and Innovation
Dublin, Ireland, 7-8 November, 2007 The objective of this conference is to increase awareness and understanding of services innovation in a business environment and to: provide businesses (large and small), with practical steps and examples to develop innovation in services; help inform investors, researchers and policy makers about services innovation and learn about national and global developments and share practical experiences through case studies from established businesses.
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.
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This newsletter is prepared by Jen Nelles.
Project manager is David A. Wolfe.