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
IBM Delivers Software to Ontario Universities via Cloud Computing
BM and the Ontario Centres of Excellence recently launched a pilot project that gives university students, professors, and other researchers anytime, anywhere access to some of IBM’s leading business software via cloud computing. Cloud computing is an emerging compute model for delivering and consuming IT capabilities as a service. This Tools as a Service (TaaS) technology showcase, which enables researchers to have 24/7 access to IBM’s WebSphere Integration Developer and Rational Software Architect over the Internet, is a major milestone for the IBM Canada Centre for Advanced Studies and its partners in the Centre of Excellence for Research in Adaptive Systems (CERAS). Early adopters of this pilot include the University of Waterloo, York University, Queen’s University, University of Toronto, Carleton University, the Ontario Cancer Institute, and developers from the IBM Canada software lab.
he International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the Canada Research Chairs Program are pleased to announce eight research partnerships between outstanding university scholars in Canada and their peers in the developing world. The teams will undertake research projects that address important topics including health, environmental sustainability, resource management and information communications technology. The International Research Chairs Initiative (IRCI) was launched by IDRC, in collaboration with the Chairs Program in December 2007. It solicited applications for joint research between Canada Research Chairs and their counterparts at universities in the developing world. Eight teams were selected to receive up to $1 million over five years, each to address a key development challenge.
Minister of Industry Launches a $2 Billion Knowledge Infrastructure Program
The Honourable Tony Clement, Minister of Industry, recently launched the Knowledge Infrastructure Program,a two-year $2-billion measure to support infrastructure enhancement at post-secondary institutions, including universities and community colleges, across Canada. The program will promote employment and provide economic stimulus, and create jobs for engineers, architects, trades people and technicians. It will also generate the advanced technological infrastructure needed to keep Canada’s research and educational facilities at the forefront of scientific advancement.
Editor's Pick
Inside Canada’s Black Box of Regional Development
Martin Prosperity Institute
These two working papers address the topic of regional development in Canada. Both tackle different perspectives on systems of regional governance and the foundations of prosperity and growth. Broadly speaking, the results of economic modeling suggest that Canada has an environment of tolerance and diversity that helps to attract the Creative Class. However, structures of regional governance are critical to constructing the regional visions necessary to sustain and improve performance on talent and investment attraction.
Innovation Policy
Environment-Based Innovation: Policy Questions
Argentino Pessoa and Mario Rui Silva, University of Porto
Natural resources and physical cultural resources, termed in this paper as “Environmental Resources”, can be important assets for regional competitiveness and innovation. In recent years, these kinds of assets are being more considered in regional development strategies, because they can be a source of differentiation and of new competitive advantages. However, innovation policies and its instruments are largely shaped for knowledge-based innovation. On the contrary, policies towards environmental resources are usually focused on environment protection. This paper discusses the role of environmental resources in regional innovation policies. It begins by relating environmental resources with regional development and by emphasizing some opposite views in what refers to the function of environmental resources in regional development. Next we deal with the relationship between regional competitive advantages and innovation strategies. The specificities and problems that arise when the aim is to construct competitiveness advantages through environmental resources valorization are the core of section 3. In that section, we highlight the characteristics of environmental resources and we check the applicability of the “natural resource curse” to the dynamics based on the valorization of environmental resources. The reasons that justify the public intervention as well as difficulties concerning the adequate level of intervention (local / regional / national) are also examined. The paper ends with some conclusions and policy implications.
The Widening and Deepening of Innovation Policy: What Conditions for Effective Governance?
Susana Borras, CIRCLE
In relation to the gradual and steady introduction of the systemic perspective and of new public management techniques in innovation policy-making during the past decade, many countries in the developed and developing world have been substantially widening and deepening their innovation policies. The introduction of new and more sophisticated policy instruments (deepening) has been accompanied by an expansion of the realm of action for innovation policy (widening). The main argument of this paper is that this remarkable governmental activism and experimentalism raises important analytical questions about the conditions under which innovation policy contributes to an effective governance of the innovation system. Hence, this paper has two main purposes. Firstly, it characterizes in an unambiguous way the widening and deepening trends in innovation policy, problematizing their possible effects on governance. And, secondly, it develops an analytical toolbox based on a series of theoretical assumptions about the political conditions for effective governance of innovation systems.
Cities, Clusters & Regions
Do Institutions Matter for Regional Development?
Andres Rodriguez-Pose, LSE
This paper discusses the question of whether institutions matter for regional development and, if so, of how can the institutional dimension be integrated in regional development strategies. It finds that while the role of local institutions is crucial for economic development and as a means of determining the returns of regional development policies, generating an institution-based general
regional development strategy is likely to be undermined by the lack of definition of what are adequate, solid, and efficient institutions. Problems related to the measurement of institutions, to their space and time variability, to the difficulties for establishing the right mix of formal and informal institutions, and to the endogeneity between institutions and economic development make one-size-fits-all approaches to operationalizing institutions within regional development possibly unfeasible. Development strategies
that are specifically tailored to the conditions of different regional institutional environments across regions are, in contrast, likely to yield greater returns.
Ontario Commercialization Network Review: From Good to Great
OCN
Ontario initiated a review of the Ontario Commercialization Network (OCN) in September 2008, to better align the network with Ontario’s Innovation Agenda, a nearly $3-billion commitment to help make innovation the driving force of Ontario’s economy. The goal is to ensure that Ontario establishes the kind of policy, program and service environment needed to support our world-class scientists and innovators in their efforts to turn research excellence and best-in-class technologies into new industries, new jobs, and future social and economic prosperity. Key findings suggest Ontario is well-positioned to become a world-class jurisdiction for innovation in the years to come. The Steering Committee found that existing programs and organizations represent a strong platform on which to build a world-class innovation system. The report also makes clear recommendations about how the province can “build the OCN into a world-class commercialization network capable of moving Ontario to the forefront of global innovation.”
Science Foundation Arizona
There is currently a global competition underway for the innovative, high-growth knowledge industries of the future. This report argues that, despite today’s immediate fiscal and economic challenges posed by the emerging global, knowledge-based economy in the years ahead. Now is the time to lay the foundation for a sustained, high-growth recovery that enables the state to “leap forward” and become on the the world’s leading job and wealth generating economies. The recipe for success elaborated in this report is that Arizona needs to succeed through innovation and entrepreneurship across its burgeoning technology-based industries in electronics, aerospace and defense, sustainable development, and the biosciences.
Statistics & Indicators
R&D in Europe: Expenditures Across Sectors, Regions and Firm Sizes
Kristian Uppenberg, Centre for European Policy Studies
The 2010 initial deadline for achieving the Lisbon goals is fast approaching. It has been known for some time, however, that this
ambitious agenda will not be achieved on time. Thus, this target year has long been abandoned from official policy documents. But while the Lisbon agenda’s initial timetable may have turned out to be unreasonable, its underlying economic logic is not. This study focuses on one of the targets set out at Lisbon: raising the level of research and development (R&D) in the business sector. The Lisbon agenda set the goal of raising the EU’s R&D spending to 3% of GDP, of which two-thirds should be by businesses rather than by the government or education sectors. This goal reflects widespread concern emerging in the late 1990s that Europe’s lingering gap in productivity growth vis-à-vis the US stemmed in no small part from a shortage of innovation in the business sector. This appeared to be a structural phenomenon, as the EU’s R&D gap with respect to the US and Japan had been in place and relatively constant over several decades.
Index of the Massachusetts Innovation Economy
Massachusetts Technology Collaborative
This report a argues for the necessity of increased investments in research and high-tech industry to propel the state through the difficult times ahead. Lester suggests that the state should follow an innovation strategy that focuses on “sustaining the flows of capital, knowledge and people” that are vital to competitiveness but can suffer during times of economic hardship. This year’s data set does not yet reflect the effects of the crisis, but it does identify areas of strength for the state and negative trends that will have to be remedied to sustain growth. The report uses eleven indicators to benchmark the state’s innovation economy against nine other leading technology states, including California, Connecticut, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Massachusetts remains the top state in SBIR awards per capita, though its share of the national total is declining. The state also leads in per-capita patents, per-capita engineering degrees granted and educational attainment. Areas of concern identified in the report include flat growth in real median household income and a significant erosion in real wages between 2003 and 2007. Massachusetts also has a lower number of two-year college graduates than the other states in the study, creating a labor shortage for new and expanding companies.
America’s Loss is the World’s Gain: America’s New Immigrant Entrepreneurs
Vive Wadhwa et al., Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation
Immigrants have historically provided one of America’s greatest competitive advantages. They have come to the United States largely to work and have played a major role in the country’s recent growth. Between 1990 and 2007, the proportion of
immigrants in the U.S. labor force increased from 9.3 percent to 15.7 percent. Since even before the 2008 financial and economic crisis, some observers have noted that a substantial number of highly skilled immigrants have started returning to their home countries, including persons from low-income countries like India and China who have historically tended to stay permanently in the United States. These returnees contributed to the tech boom in those countries and arguably spurred the growth of outsourcing of back-office processes as well as of research and development. Who are these returnees? What motivated their decision to leave the United States? How have they fared since returning? This paper attempts to answer these questions through a survey of 1,203 Indian and Chinese immigrants who had worked or received their education in the United States and returned to their home country.
Policy Digest
Clusters, Cluster Policy and Swedish Competitiveness in the Global Economy
Christian Ketels, Ministry of Education and Research Globalization Council
Proximity enables firms to take advantage of knowledge spill-overs and exploit supplier demand linkages with other entities engaged in related activities. Cluster strength thus seems to be one of the important determinants of prosperity differences across geographies. How can cluster-based economic policy help Sweden succeed in global competition? The report approaches this central question through three different steps. First, what can be learnt from the academic research on clusters so far? Second, what conclusions can be drawn from the debate about whether cluster policy is at all useful, and how can it be structured to achieve the best possible impact? Third, what does this mean in terms of implementing a cluster policy for Sweden? The author outlines specific recommendations on how policy should be designed to improve cluster dynamics, how the fundamentals can be changed to make the emergence of strong clusters more likely, and the extent to which cluster processes can be a channel back into overall competitiveness policies at the regional and national level. These findings and recommendations are summarized below:
Clusters and Modern Economies
- Clusters are a part of the reality of all economies and have a meaningful impact on economic outcomes. This makes them a candidate for policy but gives only limited guidance for how such policies should be structured;
- A cluster approach needs to be integrated into a broader competitiveness agenda, using it most in areas like entrepreneurship and innovation, where cluster dynamics play a strong role. Many other elements matter for economic performance and asking cluster policy to achieve too much is the best way to get disappointed;
- Cluster evolution has to be seen as a dynamic process where government policy is one of the factors that infl uence the general direction of change. Cluster policy thus should be more concerned with how the evolutionary process of cluster development can be changed from the current status-quo in a given location than with defining the ‘end point’ of such a process;
- Globalization provides many opportunities for cluster development, but also challenges. Cluster policy can support clusters succeeding in this changing environment through a focus on combining local buzz, i.e. unique strengths in specific interrelated activities, with global pipelines, i.e. established linkages with strong partner clusters in global value chains
Cluster Policies.: Problems and Pitfalls
- Traditional economic models provide a solid motivation for public policy action. Cluster policy meets the general welfare arguments for government intervention and is not based on a different set of economic assumptions;
- Clusters are a process tool to improve competitiveness; agglomeration is not a goal per se but a starting point for more
effective policy action. Proponents and critics disagree mostly in which of approaches they understand to be cluster policy, not so much in how they assess them individually; - The details of how cluster programs are deployed, structured, extended to mobilize groups of clusters, and leveraged to impact a location’s wider economy are crucial. The most critical questions raised about cluster policy concern the scope of impact it can reach, not whether or not it is creating distortions
- Cluster policy is a tool that inherently faces the danger of being abused as a shield for distortive industrial policy. To overcome this challenge, it requires strong governance and ultimately strong institutions, including a commitment to competition.
- Cluster policy is not about identifying a small number of clusters that will drive economic growth in the future; only the market
process can make such a selection. Instead, cluster policy mobilizes competitiveness upgrading in many clusters and enables effective competition between them.
Recommendations for Sweden: The Potential Role of Cluster Policy on:
- Entrepreneurship: Sweden’s low levels of entrepreneurship are driven by a large number of factors, from cultural factors to many aspects of the business environment. Cluster policy can not address all of these factors. However, cluster policy can be part of an overall policy change to move from a policy that is focused on making it easier to become an entrepreneur, for example by educational programs, to a policy that also creates higher incentives for being an entrepreneur. Programs that explicitly link current entrepreneurship programs to clusters and cluster initiatives could be a first step in this direction. Cluster initiatives could be encouraged to set up efforts to foster spin-outs from existing anchor companies and identify areas in which existing companies could benefit from the presence of new suppliers and service providers.
- Innovative Capacity: Sweden’s innovative capacity is one of the country’s most valuable assets. Both the receding patenting rates and the longstanding discussion about the relatively low returns to additional investments in innovation are therefore a key concern. Cluster environments are particularly strong in creating higher incentives for R&D and turning these investments into marketable goods and services. They also provide good environments for linking up to foreign research hubs and attracting advanced foreign skills. While many good examples already exist, further opportunities for integrating innovation and cluster policies should be reviewed.
- Workforce Skills: Sweden’s skill base is a crucial element of its competitiveness and many studies indicate that globalization is increasing the returns to skill dramatically. Cluster-based approaches have shown their value in aligning the workforce skills provided by the educational system with the needs of companies in many locations. Programs could be launched that provided targeted funding to joint educational programs of clusters and related educational institutions.
- Physical Infrastructure: Sweden needs to further develop its physical infrastructure in line with the needs of its economy. The available data suggest that this is largely a matter of prioritization rather than overall spending levels. Cluster and regional competitiveness efforts can be an important tool to make more informed decisions about investments based on the joint knowledge of companies, academia, and the public sector.
General economic policies as a tool to enable the emergence of strong clusters in Sweden. These ideas discuss policies that do not use clusters directly as a delivery mechanism but have a strong impact on the underlying drivers of cluster emergence. For a knowledge driven economy like Sweden, strengths in human capital quality and innovative capacity are particularly important facilitators of cluster emergence. But there are also a number of other policy areas that Sweden should address in order to enable the emergence of stronger clusters. including: market segmentation; regional development and specialization; and higher education policy.
Events
UNDERSTANDING AND SHAPING REGIONS: SPATIAL, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FUTURES
Leuven, Belgium, 6-8 April, 2009
Many topics will be discussed such as regional policy and evaluation, regions as innovative hubs, economic restructuring and regional transformation, and local and regional economic development. Abstract submission deadline: Sunday, 4th January 2009.
Creative Industries, Scenes, Cities, Places: Idiosyncratic Dimensions of the Cultural Economy
Cardiff, UK, 22-23 April, 2008
This seminar will focus on the relationship between places (cities, neighbourhoods, and quarters) and the development of creative industries. The range of papers should cover both theoretical perspectives and practical examples of the issues and challenges faced by researchers in trying to capture the economic, social and cultural dimensions of the creative economy. The conference will focus on four themes and questions: How to study the relationship between creative industries and city-regions. What are the methodologies which address the way creative industries produce and interact with their markets? What is the role of place at various levels (city, neighbourhood, regions) in fostering creativity and creative production? What is the importance of public support policies and frameworks in developing the creative industries sector? Does fostering creative industries mean enabling regional growth?
Regional Excellence in Innovation: Case Studies from Around the World
Thessaloniki, Greece, 22-24 April, 2009
Faced with today’s challenge of sustaining competitiveness in a world of global competition, Europe’s regions are required to improve their own regional innovation system and adapt the offer of innovation support services to the rapidly changing needs
of local companies and, in particular, SMEs. The recent slow-down of the world economy and the spectre of recession make this challenge all the more urgent as the need for new, tried and tested approaches becomes indispensable.TII’s 2009 annual conference will showcase examples of programs, schemes and models which can demonstrate their real impact on raising regional innovation performance through facts, figures and anecdotal evidence or success stories.
Toronto, 28-29 April, 2009
This three day event brings together key industry players interested in investment opportunities and issues affecting companies in the lifescience and cleantech sectors. Presenting companies will span a range of industries including biologics, medical devices, drug delivery, vaccines, diagnostics, bio-energy, agriculture and food, industrial biotech, alternative energy and clean technologies.
11th Annual Innovation Systems Research Network Conference
Halifx, 29 April – 1 May, 2009
This conference brings together researchers from across the country around the theme of “Social Dynamics and Economic Performance: Innovation and Creativity in City-Regions”. The Policy Day meeting will take place on Wednesday, April 29th. The
objective of this meeting is to provide a forum where the members of the research team, including co-investigators, domestic collaborators and our distinguished Research Advisory Committee members who come from various disciplines in Europe and the United States, can meet with federal, provincial and municipal officials who have an interest in the outcomes of our current major research initiative. The focus of the Policy Day this year is the contribution of physical, research and cultural infrastructure to innovation and creativity in urban city regions. The ISRN National Meeting takes place on Thursday and Friday, April 30th and May 1st. During these sessions, our project researchers will be presenting the results of our ongoing research and discussing the broader themes involved in our national research project. You are more than welcome to join us for this part of the meeting and you can register online for these sessions. Breakfast and lunch is included. There is a registration option to join us for the Annual ISRN Dinner on Thursday evening.
Community Engagement and Service: The Third Mission of Universities
Vancouver, BC, 18-20 May, 2009
The conference will showcase research and practice of what in North America is called ‘service to the community’. Although newly discovered by some universities, service to the community has long traditions in others, and in many cases is recognized as an explicit mandate in the university charter. Service is understood to be the Third Mission alongside teaching and research. Service and community engagement take many different forms. Examples are community based research and learning, assistance in regional development, continuing and community engagement, technology transfer and commercialization, and other forms of knowledge sharing and linkages.
Photonics North 2009: Closing the Gap Between Theory, Development, and Application
Quebec City, 24-27 May, 2009
This conference is an international event dedicated on the latest accomplishments, future directions and innovations exclusive to optics/ photonics technologies. Presentations will explore advances in Science and technology that will impact the use of photonics in the 21st century. Photonics North will provide you with the knowledge and competitive intelligence you need to keep up in the industry that changes and evolves at break-neck speed.
Madrid, Spain, 4-6 June, 2009
The European Urban Research Association (EURA) and the Urban Affairs Association (UAA) hold their second Joint Conference on City Futures in 2009. By building on the success of the first such conference, held in Chicago in 2004, the conference aims to focus sharply on international exchange. Urban scholars on both sides of the Atlantic have created a five-track structure for this forward-looking conference: Climate change, resource use and urban adaptation; Knowledge and technology in urban development; Community development, migration and integration in urban areas; Urban governance and city planning in an international era; Architecture and the design of the public realm
Glasgow, Scotland, 17-19 June, 2009
Triple Helix VII offers a multi-disciplinary forum for experts from universities, industry and government. The Conference is designed to attract leading authorities from across the world who will share their knowledge and experience, drawing a link between research, policy, and practice in sustainable development. The Conference will bring together policy-makers, academics, researchers, postgraduate students, and key representatives from business and industry. The theme for Triple Helix VII – “The role of Triple Helix in the Global Agenda of Innovation, Competitiveness and Sustainability” – reflects the interaction between academia, the private and the public sector.
Innovation, Strategy and Knowledge: 2009 DRUID Summer Conference
Copenhagen, Denmark, 17-19 June, 2009
The DRUID Summer Conference 2009 intends to map theoretical, empirical and methodological advances, further contribute with novel insights and stimulate civilized controversies in industrial dynamics. The conference will include targeted plenary debates where internationally merited scholars take stands on contemporary issues within the overall conference theme. This year’s conference will bring together researchers from around the world to exchange research results and to address open issues. The plenary program will include, among others, contributions from Juan Alcacer, William Barnet, Adam Brandenburger, Russell Coff, Wes Cohen, Massimo Colombo, Phil Cooke, Giovanni Dosi, Jan Fagerberg, Andrea Fosfuri, Tim Foxon, Geoffrey M. Hodgson, Michael Jacobides, / /Rene Kemp, Thorbjørn Knudsen, Mike Lenox, Dan Levinthal, Will Mitchell, Paul Nightingale, Laszlo Poloz, Laura Poppo, Michael Ryall, Dan Snow, Bart Verspagen, Sidney Winter
Experience the Creative Economy 
Toronto, 23-25 June, 2009
This is a unique conference which allows scholars new in their careers to experience notions of the creative economy in a small and focused setting. This conference will bring together up to 25 individuals with similar research interests to share their work, receive feedback, foster the development of effective research methods and to establish an ongoing framework of collaborative learning and mutual exchange for years to come.
TEKPOL: 3rd International Conference on Innovation, Technology and Knowledge Economics
Ankara, Turkey, 24-26 June, 2009
The main objective of this workshop is to bring together researchers and policy makers from new member states and candidate counties in order to discuss the following topics: links between innovation, R&D and economic performance; innovation and technology diffusion; knowledge management and learning in organizations; systemic nature of innovation (national, sectoral and local); science, technology and innovation policies; issues concerning developing countries and technological change; economic impact of new technologies.
Global Science and the Economics of Knowledge Sharing Institutions
Torino, Italy, 28-30 June, 2009
This conference – held within the context of the EU-funded project COMMUNIA, the European Thematic Network on the Digital Public Domain – aims to bring together leading people from a number of international scientific research communities, social science researchers and science, technology and innovation policy analysts, to discuss the rationale, policy support and practical feasibility of arrangements designed to emulate key public domain conditions for collaborative research. Initiatives and policies have been proposed that go beyond “open access” to published research findings by aiming to facilitate more effective and extensive (global) sharing of not only data and information, but research facilities, tools, and materials. There is thus a need to examine a number of these proposals’ conceptual foundations from the economic and legal perspectives and to analyze the roles of the public domain and contractually constructed commons in facilitating sharing of scientific and technical data, information and materials. But it is equally important to examine the available evidence about actual experience with concrete organizational initiatives in different areas of scientific and technological research, and to devise appropriate, contextually relevant methods of assessing effectiveness and identifying likely unintended and dysfunctional outcomes.
Atlanta Conference on Science and Innovation Policy 2009
Atlanta, 2-3 Oct, 2009
Governments seek new strategies and are turning to the science, technology, and innovation policy research community for models and research results to tell them what works, what doesn’t, and under what circumstances. Test models of innovation. Explore emerging STI policy issues. Share research results. Call for papers to be posted shortly.
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This newsletter is prepared by Jen Nelles.
Project manager is David A. Wolfe.