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Ontario's Regional Economic Development and Innovation NewsletterIssue #130
June 1, 2006
Studies & Publications: Announcements | Editor's Pick | Innovation Policy |Clusters
and Innovation Events
This newsletter is published by ONRIS at the Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto, and sponsored by the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade. The views and ideas expressed in this newsletter do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Ontario Government. ANNOUNCEMENTS [Table of Contents] US Bill Proposes Greater Public Access to Scientific Research Newly proposed US legislation is calling for federally-funded research papers to be posted free of charge on the Internet. The Federal Research Public Access Act, introduced by Senators John Cornyn and Joe Lieberman, would require every federal agency with an annual research budget of more than 100 million US dollars to implement a public access policy. The proposed US bill comes shortly after a study published by the European Commission on Europe's scientific publication system, which recommends, among other actions, ensuring published articles arising from EU-funded research are made available in open access archives after a given time period.
Large Cities Under Stress: Challenges and Opportunities Enid Slack, Larry Bourne and Heath Priston Canada’s future is increasingly linked to the fortunes of its largest cities and emerging city regions. These cities are under stress. This report focuses on the changing role and character of large cities and city regions in Canada and their importance to the future of the country. It reviews alternative definitions of what a large city is, constructs a hierarchy of Canadian cities and then illustrates how the characteristics of the largest cities differ from those of smaller places. It then identifies the key trends, challenges and opportunities of large cities, compares the performance rankings of Canadian cities with those of cities abroad, and suggests what is needed for those cities to be successful. The final section reviews and evaluates alternative models of governance for large city regions. INNOVATION & RELATED POLICY [Table of Contents] Buying and Selling Research and Development Services Julio M. Rosa, Antoine Rose and Pierre Mohnen, MERIT Research and development is a crucial activity in the innovation process. Not every firm is in a position to overcome constraints to R&D, such as costs. Those that perform R&D must choose between forming a partnership with other firms, governmental organizations, universities or doing it themselves internally. Others may sell R&D services or buy them. This study provides a statistical portrait of the strategies Canadian companies used in conducting research and development between 1997 and 2002. It is based on data from the Survey of Research and Development in Canadian Industry. Science and the Public Interest: Communicating the Results of New Scientific Research to the Public The Royal Society A number of controversies have arisen in recent years about when and how scientists have communicated their results to the public. This report addresses a number of the issues raised by these controversies and provides guidance to researchers. Its central recommendation is that researchers should take account of the public interest when considering whether or how to communicate their results. The report makes a number of recommendations about practices such as the promotion of papers from journals and scientific conferences, and managing interests that compete with the public interest. It includes a checklist of questions to help researchers to consider the public interest in relation to their results.
CLUSTERS & REGIONS [Table ofContent Innovation, Knowledge and Regional Economic Performances: Regularities and Differences Across the EU Alessandro Sterlacchini This paper examines how the recent economic performance – jointly measured by the level and growth rate of per capita GDP - of 151 developed European regions has been affected by their innovation and knowledge base. A regression analysis is carried out by using as a main explanatory variable a composite indicator extracted from a comprehensive set of innovation and education variables. The above relationship is controlled for structural characteristics and allowed to vary across EU countries. The results point to a highly significant economic impact of innovation and knowledge which, however, is not homogeneous among countries and regions. Phil Cooke, Center for Advanced Studies Cardiff University This contribution to the International Encyclopedia of Human Geography outlines the history of theories of locality, particularly with respect to the field of economic geography. First, a fuller account of the origins of the localities analysis from the early 1980s is attempted. Then, the rise of locality studies and critical responses to the approach is reviewed. Finally attention is devoted to the long legacy of locality studies, which includes new regionalist research, urban cultural & consumption research and at a lesser level the ‘scalar envelope’ critique of spatiality in general. The Knowledge Economy and Urban Economic Growth Otto Raspe and Frank van Oort, Urban and Regional Research Centre Utrecht This paper discusses the role of knowledge to economic growth in a spatial context. The authors observe that in adopting the European policy strategy towards a competitive knowledge economy, The Netherlands is – as are most European countries - mainly oriented towards industrial, technological factors. The policy focus is on R&D specialized regions in their spatial economic strategies. The authors placed the knowledge economy in a broader perspective. Based on the knowledge economy literature, they valued complementary indicators: the successful introduction of new products and services to the market (innovation) and indicators of skills of employees: ‘knowledge workers’.
VENTURE CAPITAL [Table ofContents] The Profitability of Venture Capital Investment in Europe and the United States European Commission This paper examines the profitability of venture capital investment in Europe and the United states. It highlights the unfavourable profitability differential of European venture capital investment in comparison with the United States. The investment performance measures used are the internal rate of return (IRR) and investment multiples. The analysis covers aggregated industry returns and venture capital funds’ returns aggregated by vintage year. It relies on the VentureXpert private equity and venture capital performance database, maintained by Thomson Venture Economics. It also considers developments in the private equity and venture capital markets in Europe and the United States.
STATISTICS & INDICATORS [Table ofContents] The 2006 Washington State Index of Innovation and Technology Washington Technology Center (WTC) WTC's Index of Innovation and Technology is the culmination of this analysis published in a statistical report. The data is categorized into six core indicators: Innovation, Competitiveness, Growth, Financial Capacity, Human Potential, and Quality of Life. The Index identifies strengths and growth opportunities for 12 distinct communities in Washington State: Bellingham, Bremerton, Ellensburg, North Central (Wenatchee area), Olympia, Pullman, Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma, Tri-Cities, Vancouver, and Yakima. WTC's Index of Innovation & Technology is the only comprehensive report to examine and analyze Washington state's technology economy potential as a whole and provides detailed comparisons of the state's communities, both urban and rural against these same measures.
A Global Overview of Innovative Activities from a Patent Indicators Perspective Mosahid Khan and Hélène Dernis, OECD This paper provides an overview of innovative
activities across a wide range of OECD member and non-member countries,
based on international comparable patent indicators. Patent data are
frequently used to measure innovative activities, because patent-based
indicators reflect the inventive performance of countries, regions,
firms, as well as other aspects of the dynamics of the innovation
process. Analysis of data from a wide range of sources (e.g. triadic
patent families, EPO, USPTO, etc.) shows that there has been a significant
increase in the level of patenting for all the countries over the
past 15 years. There has also been an increase in internationalization
of patenting activities (cross-border ownerships and patents with
foreign co-inventors), reflecting the globalization dimension of Science
and Technology activities. ICT and biotechnology industries’
innovative activities tend to the most internationalize. In addition,
non-member countries, such as China, India and the Russian Federation
have a high level of internationalization compared to large OECD countries.
Breakdown of internationalization indicators by partner country shows
that common language, historical links and geographical proximity
play an important role in determining partner countries. EVENTS [Table of Contents] Toronto, 5-6 June, 2006 The 2006 Ontario R&E Summit being hosted by ORION and MaRS and being held in the new MaRS Discovery District Collaboration Centre. This event is promoted as "Ontario's definitive annual gathering for the research and education community, inspiring innovation through collaboration technologies and expertise". MaRS is a non-profit corporation aimed at improving commercial outcomes from Canada's foundation of science and technology innovation. The Collaboration Centre, opened last May, is a "convergence innovation centre" located in Toronto's refurbished and hip Discovery District. Changing Foresight Practices in Regional Development: Global Pressures and Regional Possibilities Turku, Finland, 7-9 June, 2006 The future of regions is dependent on proactive interaction between companies, universities and public actors. The aim of the conference is to discuss the different strategic possibilities of regions under the rapidly changing pressures of globalizing world. The key questions are: How regional actors can cope in a global economy? What are the new ways to study and explore the future of regions? How to enhance regional co-operation and networking? What are the strategic keys to prosperous regional futures? Does creativity strengthen regions? How general foresight and development theories can strengthen regional development in practice? How companies can shape their regional strategies in globalizing economy? The conference will consist of several keynote addresses and parallel sessions.
Athens, Greece, 11-14 June, 2006 The 2006 International Society for Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM) Conference will be held in Athens this summer. Many topics will be discussed such as: academic-industry networks for innovation, learning and the entrepreneurial mindset, managing knowledge, SMEs: opportunities & threats, public policy to stimulate networks. Deadline for submitting an abstract: January 27, 2006.
Innovating
Through EU Regional Policy Brussels, 12-13 June, 2006 The Directorate General for Regional Policy is organizing a series of conferences between now and the middle of next year under the general heading ‘Regions for Economic Change’. They are designed to be useful to practitioners (national, regional and managing authorities) in terms of the learning opportunities provided and to examine the different ways in which Europe’s Cohesion Policy contributes to the Lisbon process or the growth and jobs agenda. There will be three events in the series, leading up to the fourth Cohesion Forum, which takes place in June 2007. 9th Uddevalla Symposium 2006: Entrepreneurship and Development - Local Processes and Global Patterns Fairfax, Virginia, 15-17 June, 2006 The conference organizing committee will be accepting
abstracts until the 28th of February, 2006. Keep checking the conference
website for more news and information. International Conference on Technology Policy and Innovation: Science, Society and Sustainability Santorini, Greece, 18-21 June, 2006 The choice of the ICTPI Greece 2006 theme, “Science,
Society and Sustainability” was based on the outcomes of the recent
national Technology Foresight (TF) exercise (Greece 2001-2021), emphasizing
these three key factors and their interactions as critical for the emergence
of a knowledge-based economy and society. Scholars interested in presenting
at this conference should submit a paper for consideration before March
15, 2006. Toronto, 19-20 June, 2006 CANMEDBIO is an emerging technology showcase, seminar and partnering program for the CANadian MEDical device and BIOtechnology industries. Be a part of the event that will encourage increased commercialization of Canadian innovations and technology. Successful commercialization involves face-to-face connections between and among innovators, investors and companies. Moreover, commercial success is dependant on the financing and partnering companies can achieve to bring innovations to a global market. Innovation, Competition and Growth: Shumpeterian Perspectives Sophia-Antipolis, 22-24 June, 2006 Recent developments in economics have gone from the recognition of the importance of innovation (early studies of innovation, exogenous growth models) to the exploration of innovation mechanisms (more refined microeconomic and sectoral studies of innovation) to the incorporation into economic models of the results of the previous research (endogenous growth, evolutionary models). An important lesson to be drawn from all this research is that a purely macro-based analysis of growth is not enough. The ISS 2006 conference aims at favouring dialogue amongst open minded researchers sharing a common interest in innovation and in the work of Schumpeter. The following subjects provide examples of topics about which the dialogue could be especially fruitful. The growing importance of knowledge and of human capital, increasing returns and path dependence, the role of variety in economic growth, the role of time and importance of business history, the co-evolution of technology and institutions, the economics of agglomeration are just some examples of subjects that will be discussed at this years event.
Saskatoon, 8-10 August, 2006 The World Association of Industrial and Technological Research Organizations Biennial Congress – WAITRO 2006 – is an opportunity for the research and technology community worldwide to come together to learn from each other and from invited experts. WAITRO participants include potential collaborators from research and technology organizations in other parts of the world to develop projects of common interest. Representatives of International Finance Institutions and International Development Agencies will be present to assist in formulating projects that address the needs of the developing world. The Future of Science Technology and Innovation Policy Sussex, 11-13 September, 2006 This conference, besides celebrating the 40th Anniversary of SPRU (Science and Technology Policy Research), offers the opportunity to engage in a critical evaluation of the present and future research agenda of the Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) field. This conference seeks to explore empirical, theoretical and applied policy approaches that can enable us to conceptualize the contradictory nature of modern science and technology and innovation, and thus provide practical policy guidance. Such a conference is particularly timely because many of the existing conceptual frameworks are apparently undergoing a period of what Kuhn called 'normal science' where their assumptions are rarely questioned, and where they are institutionally and academically isolated from criticism. We aim to identify fruitful new ways forward in the field of STI policy by subjecting these established frameworks to structured debate and critical evaluation. The conference will be organized in the form of plenary sessions, parallel sessions and set debates. It will cover a series of broad themes. These include: Ownership, Accountability and Relevance of Science - for example, the deficiencies of peer review, the pros and cons of patenting in universities, the shifting boundary between public and private knowledge, and processes for allocating resources between disciplines. Technology, Security and Sustainability - for example, the dual relationship between technology and security, changing environment and energy policy, the balance between sustainability and growth, and the role of technology in sustainable development. Dynamics of Innovation Interfaces - for example, the management and dynamics of innovation across different levels (such as individuals, groups, firms, sectors, networks and systems), user-centred innovation processes vs. producer-centered innovation processes, and the connection between innovation and entrepreneurship.
Blue Sky II: What Indicators for Science, Technology and Innovation Policies in the 21st Century? Ottawa, 25-27 September, 2006 This forum will examine new areas for indicator development and set a broad agenda for future work on science, technology and innovation (STI) indicators. Emphasis will be placed on indicators of outcomes and impacts in order to support monitoring, benchmarking, foresight activity, and evaluation, applied to policies and programs, and their economic and social impacts. The Forum is expected to provide ideas and guidance for indicators work in both OECD and non OECD countries, as well as in their international organizations. The Forum will include plenary sessions featuring invited guest speakers who are leading authorities in their fields. Break-out sessions will discuss papers on specific themes selected through a call for papers. New Generation Innovation: New Approaches and Policy Designs Atlanta, 27-29 September, 2006 Particular areas of interest include: new developments in university-industry relationships, new strategies for technology-based local and regional economic development, technology transfer to and from the public sector, trajectories for emerging technologies. All session proposals, paper proposals and abstracts should be submitted electronically not later than Friday, May 12, 2006.
The
9th Annual Conference of the Competitiveness Institute (TCI): The Role
of Cluster Governance and Companies' Involvement in Clusters Initiatives
The goal of this conference is to share ideas, build alliances and explore the best modes of economic development. Additionally information is offered about specific clusters, introductory courses on cluster theory and presentations given by an array of world experts (academics, businesses and institutions).The main topics include competitiveness, innovation, cluster initiatives, industrial organization and corporate change. The theme of the 9th conference will be "Governance and business involvement in cluster initiatives". 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, or contribute
to, the content, subscribe or unsubscribe, please contact us at onris.progris@utoronto.ca.
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