Issue #194
June 15, 2009
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This newsletter is published by ONRIS at the Centre for International Studies, 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 [Table of Contents]
Ontario Modernizing History Through New Technologies
Ontario is strengthening the creative economy by helping cultural and heritage institutions harness new technology to attract visitors and make local heritage more accessible. The Museum and Technology Fund will provide $6.5 million over four years to organizations such as community museums, art galleries and archives to take advantage of new technologies that will improve access to their collections and contribute to local economic development. A number of community museums in Ontario currently offer online exhibitions. The new fund will provide matching investments to encourage similar programs and partnerships.
Canadian Government Invests in Next Generation of Innovators
The Government of Canada recently announced $1.9 million in new funding for 52 organizations across Canada working to engage young Canadians in science and engineering. The grants are awarded through the PromoScience program of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC). The funded organizations include museums, science centres, universities, non-governmental organisations and other groups from across the country. They offer a wide range of learning experiences in a variety of areas, from encouraging interest in science among Aboriginal girls, to chemistry and physics Olympiads, environmental science, mathematics, and gene research.
Congress Looking at Modernizing SBIR & STTR Programs
Members of Congress began work Thursday to reauthorize the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs with a hearing on draft legislation to modernize the two initiatives. Rep. Glenn Nye (D-VA), the Chairman of the House Small Business Committee's Subcommittee on Contracting and Technology, said that the programs, which require federal agencies to reserve a portion of their research and development (R&D) budgets for small businesses, are badly in need of an update in order to meet new challenges. The hearing focused on four pieces of legislation that would revamp the SBIR and STTR programs. Taken together, the bills are expected to provide capital for small business owners that participate in SBIR and STTR, send to market more products that are developed through the programs, and streamline the initiatives, so they better foster entrepreneurship and innovation.
EDITOR'S PICK [Table of Contents]
Future Knowledge Ecosystems: The Next Twenty Years of Technology-Led Economic Development
Anthony Townsend, Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, and Rick Weddle, Intitute for the Future (IFTF)
The model of self-contained research parks and incubators that dominated the last fifty years of technology-based economic development is being challenged by deep shifts in the global economy, science and technology, and models of innovation. This paper describes fourteen emerging trends that will set the context for technology-based economic development in the coming decades. These trends are used to develop three scenarios for the future of technologybased economic development over the next two decades. In the first scenario, an incremental evolution of the research parks model takes place in a world of rapid, but steady and predictable change. In the second scenario, entirely new networks of R&D space emerge in a “research cloud” that challenges current models to adapt, sometimes dramatically. The third scenario, the research park models is in rapid decline as R&D becomes highly virtualized and parks’ legacy cost structure makes them obsolete for young firms. The paper concludes by highlighting the strategic implications of these scenarios for existing and future parks and economic development.
INNOVATION & RELATED POLICY [Table of Contents]
Mobilizing Science and Technology to Canada's Advantage: Progress Report 2009
Industry Canada
This report is the Government of Canada's update on the implementation of Canada's Science and Technology (S&T) Strategy, which was launched by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in May 2007. The progress report outlines advances that have been made toward the S&T Strategy's key objectives of developing an entrepreneurial advantage that encourages firms to innovate; fostering a knowledge advantage that puts Canadians at the forefront of research and discovery; and creating a people advantage of the best-educated, most skilled and most flexible workforce.
The Bologna Process and Implications for Canada's Universities: Report of the 2009 AUCC Symposium
The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC)
The Bologna Process, now involving 46 countries, is a voluntary intergovernmental initiative, which aims to create a European Higher Education Area by 2010 where education systems would be compatible, degrees comparable and students’ and academics’ mobility would be unhindered. The conception of its goals makes the European initiative distinctive. Recognition of qualifications is conceived not only as a means to open up mobility and access in both the academic world and the European labour market, but also as an important measure for developing a specifically European consciousness and community. The AUCC has been monitoring these changes under way in Europe and convened a symposium in 2009 to consider the implications of this process for Canadian universities.
Workshop Proceedings on Research Priority Setting
European Commission
This report summarizes the results of the workshop on "Research Priority Setting for International Cooperation" organized by the International Cooperation Directorate of DG Research and to which twenty experts from academia and policy practice covering areas like EU policy coordination, EU governance, and EU research policies, contributed. It comprises a summary of the discussions at the workshop and a selection of some of the individual contributions, specifically those prepared subsequently by authors to complement oral contributions presented at the meeting. These include coverage of the main conclusions relevant to priority setting of the CREST "Open Method of Co-ordination" Expert Group on the Internationalisation of R&D and discussions of priority setting in both EU contexts and partner countries.
CITIES, CLUSTERS & REGIONS [Table of Contents]
Middle Wage Jobs in Metropolitan America
Paul Sommers and Drew Osborne, The Brookings Institution
his report investigates the accessibility of middle-wage jobs—good-paying jobs for less-educated workers—for those without bachelor’s degrees in 204 metropolitan areas. It measures “accessibility” as the share of jobs that are middle-wage as a percentage of the share of workers without a bachelor’s degree. The higher this percentage, the more accessible middle-wage jobs are. Despite the economic downturn, middle-wage jobs remain a prominent feature of the labour market in metropolitan areas nationwide. Yet policymakers can do more to tailor economic and workforce development strategies to expand the number of middle-wage jobs in metropolitan areas to better match the number of middle-wage jobseekers. They can also strengthen policies that help more working adults earn four-year college degrees, thereby enhancing their earning power while reducing competition for middle-wage jobs. The type of analysis provided in this report can help economic and workforce developers and policymakers better align middle-wage jobs and middle-wage jobseekers in their metropolitan economies.
What Explains the Quantity and Quality of Local Inventive Activity?
Gerald Carlino and Robert Hunt, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
This report finds that local human capital is the most important variable in explaining why some regions patent at higher rates than others. Authors Gerald Carlino and Robert Hunt conclude that the education level of the local workforce is directly related to its innovative activity. While the paper itself does not connect patents to economic growth, it comes on the heels of another article, published last year that found a connection between local patenting activity and local employment numbers. Together, the articles suggest that investments in local human capital can be an effective strategy in spurring local innovation and creating jobs. The other variables include historical mix of industries, the average number of employees per establishment, historical patenting activity in different industries and R&D activity at private firms, government laboratories and universities. University R&D was additionally broken down by academic field and source of funding.
VENTURE CAPITAL [Table of Contents]
Global Trends in Venture Capital: 2009 Report
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu
“The perfect storm” has become the cliché of choice to sum up the global economic recession of 2008-2009. Certainly, today’s economic environment is dramatically different than the one venture capitalists were operating in five years ago when the first Global Venture Capital Survey was launched. Five years ago, the venture capital community was recovering from the tech bubble bursting and was just beginning to see significant move towards the globalization of the venture capital industry. Are venture capitalists battling the global recession blues or feeling optimistic about the new opportunities for investing in technology? What is on the minds of venture capitalists around the world as they plan their future investment moves? The economic downturn is the financial story of the year, so it was the obvious choice as the theme of this survey.
Right-Sizing the US Venture Capital Industry
Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation
Contrary to popular belief, the venture capital industry is not a necessary condition in driving high-growth entrepreneurship, according to this report. While venture capital will continue to be crucial to some forms of high-growth companies, the report concludes that the sector’s size must be reduced to be viable. The venture industry has seen stagnating and declining returns coupled with rapid expansion in venture capital assets under management in recent years. The report evaluated venture financing among companies on the Inc. 500 list of the fastest-growing private companies. Only approximately 16 percent of the roughly 900 unique companies on the list from 1997-2007 had venture capital backing. It also noted that only a tiny percentage (less than 1 percent) of the estimated 600,000 new employer businesses created in the United States every year obtain venture capital financing.
STATISTICS & INDICATORS [Table of Contents]
North America's High-Tech Economy: The Geography of Knowledge-Based Industries
Milken Institute
This study ranks the top high-tech centers in the U.S., Canada and Mexico in their ability to grow and sustain thriving high-tech industries. Silicon Valley, the largest and most influential high-tech center in the world, continues to lead all other metropolitan regions in North America in the breadth and scope of economic activity it creates through technological innovation. But many other metros have built strong and diverse industries that should allow them to prosper when the global economy recovery. Like most of the economy, the high-tech sector has taken a beating in the last six months, but recent numbers shows that these cuts may be leveling off and the sector could be primed to once again be an engine of sustainable growth when recovery begins to take root. Cities with strong high-tech bases will perform best as the economy recovers because the jobs generated by these fields pay so well. That’s why so many regions have worked tirelessly – with tax breaks and other incentives – to attract high-tech industries, whether computer manufacturing, medical devices development or life sciences research.
POLICY DIGEST [Table of Contents]
Venture Funding and the NIH SBIR Programs
National Academy of Sciences (NAS)
As the deadline for the reauthorization of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program draws nearer, evidence is being presente on both sides of the debate about the future of program . This new study supports the positions of the Venture Capital industry which hopes to gain access to SBIR funds. Commissioned by the NIH, the study looks at the impact of not allowing firms majority owned and controlled by venture capital companies to participate in the SBIR program at NIH, as it has been the case since 2002. It reports that restricting access to SBIR funding for firms that benefit from venture investments disproportionately affect some of the most commercially promising small innovative businesses, potential diminishing the positive impact of the nation’s R&D investments in the biomedical arena.
In a 2002 directive, the Small Business Administration ruled that to be eligible for SBIR the small business concern should be “at least 51 percent owned and controlled by one or more individuals who are citizens of, or permanent resident aliens in, the United States, except in the case of a joint venture, where each entity to the venture must be 51 percent owned and controlled by one or more individuals who are citizens of, or permanent resident aliens in, the United States.” The ruling, issued by an Administrative Law Judge, stated that venture capital firms were not “individuals,” i.e., “natural persons,” and therefore SBIR agencies could not give SBIR grants to companies in which venture capital firms had a controlling interest. The effect of this directive has thus been to exclude companies in which venture capital firms have a controlling interest.
Call for Empirical Assessment by the NRC
To better understand the impact of the SBA exclusion of firms receiving venture funding (resulting in majority ownership), the NRC proposed that the NIH study be extended to include this empirical analysis by the NRC.4 In particular, this empirical analysis
addresses two key questions that bear on the policy issue at hand. These are:
• How many firms have been or are likely to be excluded by the ruling from participation
in the NIH SBIR program?
• What is the likely effect of this exclusion on these firms and on the NIH SBIR program?
Main Conclusions of the Study
The Academies’ study finds that between 4.1 percent and 11.9 percent of firms that won SBIR Phase II awards from NIH between 1992 and 2002 have been excluded, or possibly excluded, from the program because of the SBA ruling. The evidence suggests that the impact of the ruling falls disproportinately on the most promising firms - i.e. firms that have been repeatedly selected by the NIH for their promising technologies and by venture investors for commercial potential. By selecting out some of the most commercially promising innovative small firms, the SBA directive appears to limit opportunities to exploit the nation’s substantial investments in research at NIH. This is contrary to one of the four key goals of the SBIR program, which is the commercialization of federal research. Although the evidence is not definitive, the implementation of the SBA ruling appears to be negatively affecting current
participation by firms and the long term commercialization potential of the NIH SBIR program.
Based on the Committee’s analysis of the impact of restricting venture funding on the NIH SBIR program and its experience in the larger evaluation of SBIR programs at five agencies, the Committee recommends that consideration should be given either to restoring the de facto status quo ante eligibility requirements for participation in the SBIR program or to making some other adjustment that will permit the limited number of majority venturefunded firms with significant commercialization potential to compete for SBIR funding.
EVENTS [Table of Contents]
Marketing and Mobilizing Your Technology
Ottawa, 17-18 June, 2009
Research findings resulting from Canada’s large investments in Science and Technology / Research and Development must translate into economic development, public policy and social programs. It is all about Turning research into action – enabling the Canadian economy to be competitive and productive and ensuring the quality of life of Canadians by creating a safe, healthy and secure environment that is energy efficient and environmentally sustainable. Join the thought leaders, network and connect with senior executives, practitioners and experts in the field to discuss and learn the latest in increasing the value of technology transfer practices and turning research results into action for your organization.
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.
12th Annual Conference on Technology Policy and Innovation - ICTPI09
Porto, Portugal, 13-14 July, 2009
The theme and motto of the 12th ICTPI Conference - Science, Technology and Knowledge Networks – long term growth strategies to face the financial crisis – will seek to challenge the participants in developing strategic responses to the crisis that integrate long-term concerns, by involving research and development, higher-education and science-based innovation.
Research and Entrepreneurship in the Knowledge-Based Economy
Milan, Italy, 7-8 September, 2009
Knowledge creation and management has been widely recognized as the main driving force for the economic growth of advanced economies. In the knowledge-based economy, learning, knowledge, research and human capital are key variables in the development of firms, sectors and countries. The increasing importance of the knowledge-based economy leads to a growing number of challenges for the actors involved: the need to integrate and coordinate research, a better definition of actions and the search for the right instruments to tackle the cognitive and management aspects of the processes and to evaluate outcomes and effects. Within this framework, the conference aims to create an opportunity for presentation of current research in the field and to open a space for debating on the impact of investments in research and human capital on firms, sectors and countries in the knowledge-based economy, and on the role for public policy. Keynote speakers include: Giovanni Dosi, Dominique Foray, Franco Malerba, Pascal Petit and Rehinilde Veuglers.
4th European Conference on Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Antwerp, Belgium, 10-11 September, 2009
n the light of the European Lisbon goals, the importance of the conference topics cannot be underestimated. Entrepreneurship and innovation should be the driving force in the transition of the Western economies towards knowledge-intensive economies – a necessity to maintain our current living standards. Knowledge creation and dissemination to society are indispensable to advance into the next era. The conference welcomes academics, researchers and industrial delegates to join this innovative program.
Atlanta, 2-3 Oct, 2009
Science and innovation are aimed at change—new knowledge, new techniques, and fresh approaches to addressing the major challenges facing humanity. The 2009 Atlanta Conference on Science and Innovation policy will focus on ways that science and innovation policies can shape the future by setting goals such as safety, economic security, improved health, and environmental quality and by designing programs to reach these goals.
Learning Clusters: 12th TCI Annual Global Conference
Jyvaskyla, Finland, 12-16 October, 2009
Can clusters be learning organizations? How can learning clusters promote competitiveness for businesses and the regional economy in times of constant change? What are the disciplines of successful and dynamic clusters in the knowledge economy and network society? The 12th TCI Annual Global Conference aims to raise awareness and stimulate discussion of these issues in order to inspire sustainable clustering actions and better futures in clusters, businesses and regions.
Stimulating Recovery: The Role of Innovation Management
New York, 6-9 December, 2009
Organised by ISPIM and hosted by The Fashion Institute of Technology this symposium will bring together academics, business leaders, consultants and other professionals involved in innovation management. The symposium format will include facilitated themed sessions for academic and practitioner presentations together with interactive workshops and discussion panels. Additionally, the symposium will provide excellent networking opportunities together with a taste of local New York culture.
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