Events
Be a Regional
Reporter!
Subscriptions
& Comments
Next issue: December 2, 2002
ANNOUNCEMENTS [Table of Contents]
OECD praises Canada's regulatory reforms and encourages sustained momentum
Effective regulation and ongoing regulatory reform have contributed to Canada's solid economic performance and relatively high living standards, but improvements are possible in some areas and would yield significant gains, according to a new OECD publication. Regulatory Reform in Canada: Maintaining Leadership through Innovation identifies Canada as a pioneer and leader in the area of regulatory reform. It was one of the first OECD countries to adopt a regulatory reform program, and it now has a sophisticated and mature system of regulatory governance.
Australian organization seeking dialogue with Canadians on cluster experiences
Clusters Asia Pacific Inc. (CAP) is seeking Canadians' interest in sharing information on their cluster agendas. Rod Brown, Executive Director of CAP, points out that while getting companies to collaborate is the hardest job in the world, cluster programs can assist. However it is not a perfect science, and CAP wants to swap experiences and ideas, and open up a dialogue with Canadians given the similarity of our economic, political and social structures. CAP is keen to establish dialogue between clusters in the same industry, and has many company and government contacts in Australia and NZ ready to connect with Canada -industries such as food, aerospace, IT, optics, printing, windpower, fishing, defence, environment - you name it! Clusters Asia Pacific Inc. (CAP) is an alliance of 30 organizations (headquarters in Canberra) that recently convened the TCI world conference in Cairns - the theme was 'connecting clusters'. Please contact Rod Brown at apd@orac.net.au.
EDITOR'S PICK [Table of Contents]
Statistics Canada
The October 2002 issue of the Innovation Analysis Bulletin features eight articles. These include an article, "Innovation, growth theory, and the role of knowledge spillovers", which discusses the significance of knowledge spillovers, the relation to innovation and growth, and the closely related concept of absorptive capacity. “The digital divide in Canada” shows that the gap between the haves and have-nots in information and communications technology may be narrowing, but still exists. A third article, "The state of telecommunications services in Canada" measures the impact and outcomes of regulatory decisions that have shaped the state of competition within telecommunications services. Data indicate that concentration varies across telecommunications services.
INNOVATION & RELATED POLICY [Table of Contents]
Science
dependence of technologies: evidence from inventions and their inventors
R.J.W. Tijssen, Centre for Science and Technology Studies, Leiden
University
This paper reports on the findings of a new methodology to increase our understanding of the contribution of research efforts to successful technical inventions. Using a nation-wide mail survey among inventors working in the Dutch corporate and the public research sectors, together with statistical analysis, the author finds that some 20% of the private sector innovations turned out to be (partially) based on public sector research. Furthermore, citations in patents referring to basic research literature were found to be invalid indictors of a technology’s science dependence.
REGIONAL INNOVATION & CLUSTERS [Table of Contents]
SSTI Special Issue: A Look At Innovation Indices & Report Cards
In their November 1st weekly digest, The State Science and Technology Institute has brought together a range of information and links related to innovation indices. Along with an overview of their benefits and potential pitfalls, the issue documents national, state and regional/local indexing efforts, giving web links to the latest reports. Also of interest is a list of web resources where useful US statistics on such issues as venture capital, R&D, education and the business environment, can be obtained.
KNOWLEDGE & UNIVERSITIES [Table of Contents]
University Spin-off Companies in Canada
Here are some preliminary results from Statistics Canada’s 2001 Survey of
Intellectual Property Commercialization in the Higher Education Sector. As of
March 31, 2001, Canadian universities and research hospitals had created a
total of 673 spin-off companies, which in 2002, are expected to have total
revenues of $2.5 billion and to employ 18,835 people. Of the 673 spin-off
companies, 318 have both revenues and employment and a further 86 have
revenues but no employment. Also 11 of the companies are known to be
controlled outside Canada: seven in the United States and one in each of
Great Britain, France, Switzerland and Japan.
I. Feller (Pennsylvania State University), C. Ailes and J. D. Roessner
(Georgia Institute of Technology)
This paper, published in Research Policy, reports on findings from surveys and interviews with 355 firms participating in the 18 engineering research centers (ERCs) established between 1985 and 1990. The authors find that those firms participate primarily to gain access to upstream modes of knowledge rather than specific products and processes. Findings also point to the problematic continuation of industrial support for ERCs following termination of NSF funding after reaching the maximum number of years (11) permitted under the program, and related pressures on ERCs to direct their research portfolios towards shorter-term, more applied research. NSF engineering research centers (ERCs) constitute the most upstream performer of R&D among university–industry–government research centers.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & E-COMMERCE [Table of Contents]
Measuring the Information Economy 2002
OECD
This publication provides one of the first sets of comprehensive and internationally comparable data drawn from official statistics. It brings together more than 80 indicators covering the production of Information and Communication Technologies (value added, foreign trade, patents and R&D) and its use (Internet access by households and businesses broken down by sector and size class). Some of the main conclusions are: businesses, the primary users of the Internet, often employ it for marketing but much less so for sales and when they do sell online, 70% of the time it is to other businesses and fewer than 10% receive payment on-line; and in countries where more than 70% of individuals search for prices online, only 20 to 40 percent actually buy over the Internet. Online transactions account for only 2% of total sales in 2002 and the overwhelming majority of these sales are to domestic customers.
EVENTS [Table of Contents]
SMARTStart
Breakfast Series: "Innovation Nation: Canadian Leadership from Java to
Jurassic Park"
Toronto, 25 November, 2002
This breakfast talk features Leonard Brody, co-author of the recent book "Innovation Nation: Canadian Leadership from Java to Jurassic Park." The book cuts through traditional Canadian modesty and presents Canada as one of the leading producers of technological innovation in the world. ”Canadians have quietly altered the face of the technology economy with business models that have changed the way the world does everything. From developing Java and the Blackberry to defining the specifications for XML and inventing the space shuttle's Canadarm, Canadians have sculpted, touched, researched, improved processes, and blazed trails in the world's most innovative companies."
THECIS Innovation Club Breakfast Talk:
“Building a Culture of Innovation”
Calgary,
26 November, 2002
Held in
partnership with Calgary Technologies, THECIS’ breakfast talk features
Tom Wood,
President, Mount Royal College, Ora Zabloski, Davies Park, and Colin Jackson,
President and CEO, Epcor Centre for the Performing Arts. Presentations
are followed by a panel discussion and questions from the floor.
Talk: 21st Century
Transitions: Implications for Government Policy
Toronto, 29 November 29, 2002, 10:00 am to 12:00 noon
Riel Miller from the OECD International Futures Programme will be discussing the findings of the OECD’s International Futures Program which ran a series of six Forum for the Future conferences examining the question: will daily life by the third decade of the 21st century seem radically different, for large parts of the world's population, when compared with the last decades of the 20th century? The talk is sponsored by The Rotman School of Management and the Program on Globalization and Regional Innovation Systems, Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto. Please confirm attendance to: isrn.progris@utoronto.ca.
CITO
InnoTalk - What is the Scientific Research and Experimental Development
(SR&ED) Program?
Waterloo, 4 December, 2002 (8:30 am - 11 am)
This InnoTalk will explore the Scientific Research & Experimental Development (SR&ED) Tax Credit Program, a federal government incentive program designed to encourage the development and advancement of Canadian technologies. The program offers tax incentives in the form of refundable and non-refundable tax credits ranging from 20% to 35% on qualified expenditures. Additional credits are available in most provinces including Ontario. These incentives reduce the after tax cost of performing SR&ED in Canada to one of the lowest in the world. The SR&ED program provides nearly $2 billion in credits to over 18,000 claimants each year.
L'Aquila (Italy) 6-12 January, 2003
The conference attracts experts in computer/communications science and engineering, management and business administration, plus all others researching the e-business in interdisciplinary fashions. Topics include: B2B, B2C, E-Business Management. Workflow Technologies, Datamining, E-Banking, Virtual Marketplace, E-Marketing and E-Government. Keynote speakers include Peter Lyman (UC Berkeley) and Erich Neuhold, IPSI/Fraunhofer.
International conference on territorial development: The key role of regions
Paris, 21-23 January, 2003
This international conference will explore the increasingly important role of regions in all European countries as a key player for territorial development. The regional level is essential especially for the promotion of co-operation and innovation at various levels of governance, from local to international. The aim of the conference is to provide public as well as private stakeholders the opportunity to exchange ideas. Themes to be covered include regions and economic development, regions and territorial cohesion, and regions and civil society.
Knowledge And Economic And Social Change: New Challenges To Innovation Studies
Manchester, 7-9 April, 2003
The purpose of this conference is to bring together the innovation studies community to focus on the current developments in the global economy, in technologies, and in political systems that are continuing to pose new challenges to analysis. Topics include: the increasing importance of the role of knowledge in the operation of the global economy; and the qualitative change in the conditions under which knowledge is exploited to create wealth, to improve the quality of life, and to move towards a sustainable ecosystem, economy and society. The conference is organized by Advances in the Economic and Social Analysis of Technology and the Institute of Innovation Research.
The Knowledge-based Economy: New Challenges in Methodology, Theory and Policy
Augsburg, Germany 9-12 April 2003
This 3rd European Meeting of Applied Evolutionary Economics focuses on the most important aspects of knowledge-based economies within the framework of evolutionary economics. Conference themes include: knowledge and learning; dynamics of technological and qualitative change; industrial organisation in a knowledge-based economy; evolution of institutions financial markets in knowledge-based economies; and policy in a knowledge-based economy. Deadline for submission of extended abstracts: October 18, 2002.
WILL YOU BE ONE OF OUR REGIONAL REPORTERS? [Table of Contents]
Yes, you! In an effort to improve our coverage of Ontario's regional economies in this newsletter, we are looking for a few people who are 'plugged in' to the latest local economic development and innovation happenings in their regions. All we ask is that you send us a short message once a month highlighting recent news and research initiatives from your region - please forward items that you would like to share with newsletter recipients, as well as other items of interest, to: onris.progris@utoronto.ca.
SUBSCRIPTIONS & COMMENTS [Table of Contents]
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 the content,
subscribe or unsubscribe, please contact us as onris.progris@utoronto.ca.
This newsletter is prepared by Tijs Creutzberg.
Project manager is David
A. Wolfe.
