Issue #210
April 1, 2010
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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 Plan Calls for 20,000 More College Students
David Onley, Ontario's Lieutenant Governor, announced earlier this month a plan to add space in colleges and universities for 20,000 students this year with the goal of raising Ontario's postsecondary enrollment rate to 70 percent. The plan also includes the creation of a new Ontario Online Institute and the development of a strategy to improve the quality of Ontario's postsecondary education system with input from leaders in education and business. The announcement is part of the five-year Open Ontario Plan that also includes a new Water Opportunities Act, targeting the clean-water technology sector among other initiatives.
Ontario Budget Invests in Research and Innovation
Urgently needed capital should become more accessible to Ontario’s bioscience companies and help create jobs in the biotechnology sector, thanks to Ontario’s 2010 budget. An announced increase in the budget of the Ministry of Research and Innovation coupled with anticipated adjustments to existing funding programs designed to encourage research and innovation will help stimulate research and innovation.
UK Launches National Space Program
The United Kingdom's new space agency will begin operations on April 1. The UK Space Agency will consolidate the U.K.'s civil space efforts and spur activity within the aerospace technology sector. A new $60.3 million International Space Innovation Centre within the European Space Agency facility also was announced.
EDITOR'S PICK [Table of Contents]
David F. Shaffer and David J. Wright, The Nelson Rockefeller Institute of Government
Universities and higher education systems across the country are taking leading roles in their states’ economic development efforts — and this report says this trend seems likely to strengthen as the nation moves into the era of an “innovation economy.” The study found that higher education’s increasingly important role builds on, but goes well beyond, the research strengths of universities — incorporating efforts as wide-ranging as job training, business consulting, housing rehabilitation and even securing seed money for new businesses. Much of the public discussion of universities’ economic development role has focused on research prowess, the report said. This research finds, however, that although economic development through innovation starts with research and new knowledge, it is at least as important to also strengthen the ability of enterprises to take advantage of new products, services and processes.
INNOVATION & RELATED POLICY [Table of Contents]
Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Financial Market Cycles
Josh Lerner, OECD
This document first reviews the evidence concerning the relationship between innovation and entrepreneurship. It then turns to understanding the consequences of market cycles for these activities. The author looks at the way that financial considerations impact the innovation investment decision and innovation in entrepreneurial ventures specifically. He then turns to the implications of the current economic crisis and highlights four crucial observations.
Sub-Central Governments and the Economic Crisis: Impact and Policy Responses
OECD
The world is recovering from the worst crisis since the Great Depression, leaving a strong and lasting impact on Member countries’ public finances. This paper analyses how sub-central governments (SCG) are affected and how fiscal policy has reacted in the first months after the outbreak of the crisis. In general and in line with earlier downturns, SCG’s public finance appear to be less affected than central governments. However, SCGs suffer from a scissors effect of higher spending and lower tax revenue, especially those with a volatile tax base and large social welfare responsibilities. While some SCGs were conducting their own stimulus plans, others cut expenditures and raised taxes, potentially undermining national government’s recovery programmes. Most national governments are helping SCGs to cope with the crisis, by disbursing additional grants and supporting investment programmes, by easing centrally-imposed fiscal rules, lifting borrowing constraints or by temporarily raising the sub-central tax share. The crisis also showed the need for better coordination in intergovernmental fiscal relations, both for more macroeconomic coherence and for efficiency in public service delivery. Several countries are creating or reinvigorating their institutions for managing relations across levels of government.
CITIES, CLUSTERS & REGIONS [Table of Contents]
Toronto as a Global City: Scorecard on Prosperity 2010
Toronto Board of Trade
The riddle presented by Scorecard 2010 is a compelling one indeed: the Toronto region has made great strides in becoming one of the world’s most desirable places to live and work, but its economic performance remains middling at best. The region must solve this conundrum in order to protect its enviable quality of life and achieve its full potential as a world-leading jurisdiction. This scorecard functions as a tool that can help drive solutions by highlighting weaknesses in the Toronto regional economic development platform, exposing diconnects between labour attractiveness and economic performance, provinding lessons from peer-region experiences, presenting measurements that can help guide policy, and calling on all mayoral candidates to clearly articulate how they will address these challenges.
Living on the Edge: Globalization of Emerging Technology Clusters in Vancouver
Brian Wixted and Adam J Holbrook, CPROST
Detailed interviews with emerging technology entrepreneurs in Vancouver have shown that their knowledge and innovation networks are geographically structured, stretching at least across the North American continent. However their primary competition is in the global marketplace. What emerges is an apparent advantage for knowledge-intensive, emerging technology firms located in cities that are gateways between continental and international markets, rather than simply being located in major national or continental industrial centres. A possible explanation is quality of life, where the cosmopolitan nature of transportation hubs attracts super-creative knowledge-workers. Thus city-regions which may not have conventional continental market-based competitive advantages may be able to create policies to improve their quality of place and attract the knowledge entrepreneurs that are found in emerging technology industries. The paper also considers the contribution of different types of infrastructure in the evolution of strategies to support knowledge-intensive activities.
What Makes a City Entrepreneurial?
Edward L. Glaeser and William R. Kerr, Kennedy School of Government
This policy brief tackles the question of why some cities are more entrepreneurial than others. Start-ups can be found on every block in Silicon Valley, while in declining Rust Belt cities there are much fewer. The authors report that high levels of entrepreneurship are closely correlated with regional economic growth. They offer a few policy insights to state and local policymakers who want to encourage entrepreneurship in their communities.
Innovating the Green Economy in California Regions
Center for Community Innovation
During periods of severe economic crisis, policy makers and citizens look towards the future to identify and support emerging industries that hold the promise of renewed growth in investments and employment opportunities. As unemployment remains high and as the environmental challenges brought on by global warming mount, the “green economy” has garnered significant attention as a potential solution to both problems. However, as with any new industry, the process of developing new products and reworking existing production processes begins with innovation, and the resultant economic growth depends on commercialization. Rather than evaluating the claims that the green economy will be a panacea for the current set of crises this report focuses specifically on the question of how much innovation is occurring in the green economy, and how it takes place at the regional scale.
Urban Economics: Atlanta, the Rap and R&B Capital of the World
Daniel Silver, Martin Prosperity Institute
This mini-essay explores the possibility that Atlanta’s pop-oriented rap and R&B scene has broader effects on its economy, both today and in the future. As more cities reinvent themselves in the post-industrial economy, drawing on symbolic resources is becoming increasingly important. Many cities are looking to build culture industries; some, like Detroit, could benefit from inventing new forms of music embodied in their specific histories. Atlanta does not need to accomplish either of these difficult tasks. It is already a national musical leader with enormous productive capacity that seems impervious to outsourcing. If its pro-business leaders recognize its music industry as one of the city’s most important economic assets and capitalize on that position, and if its many university graduates continue to direct their energy to transforming its musical potential into valuable products then betting on Atlanta will be smart money.
STATISTICS & INDICATORS [Table of Contents]
Priority Sector Report: Creative and Cultural Industries
The Cluster Observatory
The Cluster Observatory presents the first in a series of priority sector reports, which analyzes clusters in sectors of special interest. The creative and cultural industries have overall average annual growth rates nearly double that of the general economy: Between 2001 and 2006 annual average growth rates were 2.21% compared to 1.2% for total European employment. This adds up to that the European creative and cultural industries firms employing a total of 5,240,630 persons (numbers from 2006). Large urban areas and capital city regions dominate the creative and cultural industries, but some city regions do better than others. Regions with high concentrations of creative and cultural industries also have Europe’s highest prosperity levels. Among the regions of Europe that rank among the top 25 either by population or creative and cultural industries employment the following have a larger creative and cultural sector than expected: Athens, Berlin, Budapest, Bucuresti, Denmark, Helsinki, Inner London, Outer London, Maastricht, Madrid, München, Nijmegen, Rome, Stockholm, and Valencia. As a share of the regional labour market, creative and cultural industries account for the largest shares in Inner London (5.12%), Praha (4.97%), Hamburg (3.94%) and Bratislava (3.9%).
European Innovation Scoreboard 2009
PRO INNO Europe
This is the ninth edition of the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS), which provides a comparative assessment of the innovation performance of EU27 Member States, under the EU Lisbon Strategy. The EIS 2009 includes innovation indicators and trend analyses for the EU27 Member States as well as for Croatia, Serbia, Turkey, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. This year’s assessment shows that there continues to be convergence amongst the groups, with Moderate innovators and the Catching-up countries growing at a faster rate than the Innovation leaders and Innovation followers.
Trends 2010: A Decade of Change in European Higher Education
European University Association (EUA)
This major study (the sixth in the Trends series) analyzes the implementation of the Bologna ‘tools’ in universities (e.g. new degree structures, credit transfer and accumulation systems, and the use of the diploma supplement) since the outset. Importantly, it also assesses progress towards the underlying aims of the Bologna Process, such as improving quality of teaching, graduate employability, and mobility of students and staff. Equally, it looks at some of the key challenges for policymakers as they look ahead to the next decade of higher education cooperation.
MetroMonitor: Tracking Economic Recession and Recovery in America's 100 Largest Metropolitan Regions
The Brookings Institution
The fourth instalment of the Metro Monitor series reveals nascent signs of recovery from the current recession, showing that the economy grew in each of America's largest 100 metropolitan areas during the fourth quarter of 2009. However, job gains have lagged significantly, and employment is recovering far slower during the Great Recession than in the three other most recent recessions.
State and Local Governments' Fiscal Outlook March 2010 Update
United States Government Accountability Office (GAO)
The state and local government sector continues to face near- and long-term fiscal challenges which grow over time. Although the sector’s near-term operating balance remains negative, increases in federal grants-in-aid—largely from the Recovery Act—alleviated some near-term pressure. In the near-term, the sector’s fiscal position can be attributed to several factors, including steep revenue declines. This report projects that the sector’s long-term fiscal position will steadily decline through 2060 absent any policy changes. The decline in the sector’s operating balance is primarily driven by rising health care costs. The fiscal challenges confronting the state and local sector add to the nation’s overall fiscal difficulties. Because most state and local governments are required to balance their operating budgets, the declining fiscal conditions shown in these simulations suggest the fiscal pressures the sector faces and the extent to which these governments will need to make substantial policy changes to avoid growing imbalances.
POLICY DIGEST [Table of Contents]
The Royal Society
The advisory group to the report was chaired by Sir Martin Taylor FRS and included two Nobel Laureates, two former ministers of science, and leading figures from two high-tech companies. The report draws on a year of evidence gathering, analysis and consultation. It distils two urgent messages. The first is the need to place science and innovation at the heart of the UK's long-term strategy for economic growth. The second is the fierce competitive challenge the UK faces from countries which are investing at a scale and speed that it may struggle to match.
Science in a competitive climate: The report highlights last year’s announcement of a $21 billion boost for science in the US and recent claims from American scientists that they will steal the finest minds if UK investment slips. It also draws attention to a recent €35 billion investment in the ‘knowledge economy’ by France, a commitment from the German government to increase their federal budget for education and research by €12 billion by 2013 and the year on year increase of 20% in China’s science spending over the last decade.
The commercialization myth: The report busts the familiar myth that the UK is good at science but bad at exploiting its results. It highlights the emergence of an innovation economy in the UK with universities becoming fledgling economic powerhouses. Patents granted to UK universities have increased by 136% between 2000 and 2008 and university spin outs employed 14,000 people in 2007/08 and had a turnover of £1.1 billion. While the report also cites examples of science driving successful sectors of the economy such as pharmaceuticals, business R&D is picked out as a weakness for the UK. In 2007 British companies spent 1.14% of GDP on R&D while in the US the figure was 1.9% and in Germany 1.8%.
Recommendations: To maximize the economic opportunities from science the Royal Society report recommends:
Recommendation 1: Put science and innovation at the heart of a strategy for long-term economic growth
• Create a new long-term framework for science and innovation committing to increased expenditure;
• Outline spending plans over a fifteen year period (2011-2026);
• Prioritize investment in scientific capital – including infrastructure and skills;
• Expand the R&D tax credit.
Recommendation 2: Prioritize investment in excellent people
• Direct a greater proportion of Research Council funding to investigator-led research;
• Increase the length and quality of UK PhD training;
• Support transferable skills training for researchers;
• Increase the number of postdoctoral fellowships.
Recommendation 3: Strengthen Government’s use of science
• Review strategic science spending by Government departments;
• Expand the Small Business Research Initiative to support innovative procurement;
• Provide Departmental Chief Scientific Advisers with greater resources;
• Appoint a Chief Scientific Adviser to HM Treasury.
Recommendation 4: Reinforce the UK’s position as a hub for global science and innovation
• Extend the geographic reach of the UK Science and Innovation Network;
• Increase support for mechanisms, such as the Science Bridges scheme, which link UK research groups with partners overseas;
• Incentivize more of the world’s best scientists to remain in, or relocate to, the UK;
• Improve visa conditions for visiting scientists and researchers to the UK.
Recommendation 5: Better align science and innovation with global challenges
• Create strong global challenge research programs, led by RCUK, to align scientific, commercial and public interests;
• Reform research funding and assessment to support and reward interdisciplinary research;
• Use public and stakeholder dialogue to help identify and shape these challenges;
• Ringfence departmental contributions to priority research areas.
Recommendation 6: Revitalize science and mathematics education
• Provide incentives to recruit, retain and attract teachers back to science subjects;
• Commit to increasing the numbers of primary teachers with science expertise;
• Establish new expert groups to advise on the development of science and mathematics curricula and qualifications.
EVENTS [Table of Contents]
Resolved: The US Should Pick Winners 
Washington, D.C., 8 April, 2010
Americans have great reverence for market forces. We proudly reject anything that smacks of industrial policy or the government picking winners in economic matters. Or do we? Are we kidding ourselves when we assume the government played no role in the creation or success of pursuits from steelmaking to the Internet? Shouldn't we respond as major competitors around the world adopt national innovation policies and ramp up government research and development in emerging technologies? Or is it folly to think Washington can actually be ahead of the market, especially given recent government missteps and the current political polarization. Central planning has been tried and failed, right? Please join us for a thought-provoking, timely, and lively debate.
ORION Summit 2010: From Here to the Future - At an Innovation Crossroads
Toronto, 12-13 April, 2010
ORION Summit 2010 will be a celebration of achievements, bringing together leading researchers, scientists, educators and innovators to map out what researchers and educators will be able to do in the future, with cutting-edge advanced and collaborative technologies and new and exciting applications and services that will help place Ontario at the global vanguard of the innovation and knowledge-based economy. Attend the Summit for informative and inspiring keynote speakers and breakout sessions on topics ranging from the latest collaborative tools for research and education, health research, digital media, college/industry collaboration, and more.
The Organization, Economics and Policy of Scientific Research
Torino, Italy, 23-24 April, 2010
The aim of the workshop is to bring together a small group of scholars interested in the analysis of the production and diffusion of scientific research from an economics, historical, organizational and policy perspective. The workshop does not have a narrow focus; it aims to include papers form the various streams of research developed in recent years in and around the area of public and private scientific research. To submit a contribution and for further information contact: Aldo Geuna (aldo.geuna@unito.it)
and Francesco Quatraro (brick@carloalberto.org).
Toronto, 5-7 May, 2010
The twelfth and final meeting of the Innovation Systems Research Network begins with Policy Day on Wednesday, May 5th. This is to provide a forum where the members of our research team, including co-investigators, domestic collaborators and Research Advisory Committee members from Europe and the United States, can meet with provincial and municipal officials who have an interest in the outcomes of our current major research initiative entitled: Social Dynamics of Economic Performance in City-Regions. The ISRN National Meeting continues on Thursday and Friday, May 6th and May 7th. During these sessions, our project researchers will be presenting the results of our ongoing research with cross city comparisons and overall perspectives on the five year research project. Limited registration is available for non-ISRN members. Register using one of the guest registration options for any or all of the three days. Breakfast and lunch is included with your registration, with a cash bar reception on Policy Day. There is a registration option to join us for the Annual ISRN Dinner on Thursday evening. A cost recovery fee is charged to Non-Members …more
The Rightful Place of Science?
Tempe, Arizona, 16-19 May, 2010
This conference will address the challenges facing a society that is at once utterly dependent on science and technology and yet equally unprepared to govern the implications of that dependence. In his inaugural address, President Obama promised to “restore science to its rightful place” in U.S. society, but that location is far from obvious. How can we understand this provocative formulation in the context of the complexity, uncertainty, and political, social and cultural diversity that mark our world?In this conference – amid art, music, literature, media, humor and more – we will explore the place of science in society and how science and technology can most effectively contribute to an improved quality of life for all. The transformative potential of science and technology challenges our ability to understand and shape our common destiny. What inquiries, communities, networks, and institutions can improve our ability to effectively engage this challenge?
Ontario Centres of Excellence Discovery 10
Toronto, 17-18 May, 2010
Connect with dynamic business leaders, investors, researchers and entrepreneurs at Discovery 2010 – Canada's foremost innovation and commercialization event. Learn about exciting successes and emerging trends in advanced health, clean technology, digital media, manufacturing and the green economy. Meet the people whose cutting-edge ideas and technologies are driving Ontario's innovation economy.
Pecs, Hungary, 24-26 May, 2010
An increasingly complex array of actors is involved in today's regional development agendas. They range from private firms and labour organizations to government and non-government institutions. Despite the growing awareness in the public and academic domains of the multi-actor nature of regional development, we still often struggle to fully comprehend the mutually interactive strategies and practices which cut across regions and countries. In light of recent upheavals in the global economic and financial system, such an understanding will be critical to future studies of regional development. Indeed this interest in actors, institutions and organizations in regional development needs to be properly grounded in the wider contexts of global change in economic imperatives, transnational working and cooperation and environmental concerns. To some regions, these contexts provide favourable and timely frameworks for action and initiatives. Other regions may find these contexts increasingly challenging and threatening. Taken together, understanding better these broader contexts can provide important insights into regional development potential, planning and practices and establish the agenda for research and policy. We welcome papers from all – academics, students and those working in policy and practice. The event is inclusive and offers major networking opportunities for scholars in our field.
BioEnergy Conference & Exhibition 2010
Prince George, BC, 8-10 June, 2010
The International BioEnergy Conference and Exhibition is the Canadian leader in the global dialogue on bioenergy. Our sponsors, speakers, exhibitors and delegates are key influencers and opinion shapers from around the world on the new technologies and processes that will bring about a global change in the way we perceive and use energy. With the addition of the BC Bioenergy Network as Conference Co-Host, the tradition of leadership and excellence will continue in 2010. We are also happy to announce that the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade will once again co-host the 2nd International Partnerships Forum and Business to Business Meetings. And 2010 will also mark the introduction of a parallel conference on Emerging Clean Technologies.
Opening Up Innovation: Strategy, Organization and Innovation
London, 16-18 June, 2010
The DRUID Summer Conference 2010 intends to explore new theoretical, empirical and methodological advances in industrial dynamics, contributing novel insights and stimulating a lively debate about how economic systems and organizations evolve. The conference will include an exciting programme of plenary debates where internationally leading scholars take stands on contemporary issues within the overall conference theme. Both senior and junior scholars are invited to participate and contribute to the conference with a paper.
Aalborg, Denmark, 21-24 June, 2010
Schumpeter 2010 serves as an opportunity for both established scholars and young researchers to present research that has a Schumpeterian perspective. The major topic of the conference is "Innovation, Organisation, Sustainability and Crises". But the conference more generally embraces micro-studies of the innovation, routine and selection as well as studies of the macro-problems of Schumpeterian growth and development as a process of "creative destruction". The broad range of issues implies that both economists, business economists, and other social scientists can contribute to the conference and that evidence may be provided by statistical and historical methods as well as other methods.
Experience the Creative Economy
Toronto, 22-24 June, 2010
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.
CALL FOR PAPERS - Partnerships in S&T Policy Research
Waterville Valley, NH, 8-13 August, 2010
The 2010 Gordon Conference on Science and Technology Policy will focus on a wide range of research at the intersection of science, technology, policy and society. The 2010 Conference will focus in particular on further developing partnerships between North American and European researchers. Invited speakers represent a variety of scientific disciplines in the policy sciences, social and natural sciences as well as the humanities. The Conference will bring together a collection of investigators who are at the forefront of their field, and will provide opportunities for junior scientists and graduate students to present their work in poster format and exchange ideas with leaders in the field. The collegial atmosphere of this Conference, with programmed discussion sessions as well as opportunities for informal gatherings in the afternoons and evenings, provides an avenue for scholars from different disciplines to brainstorm and promotes cross-disciplinary collaborations in the various research areas represented.
Toronto, 30 September, 2010
Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area ICT cluster, comes together for a celebration of technology as an engine of economic growth at the Allstream Centre at Exhibition Place in downtown Toronto. We live in a new world without borders. Two out of every three people in the world own a mobile communications device….and Toronto is leading the way to this borderless future. Technicity brings together technology leaders, entrepreneurs, investors and representatives of the region’s economic development agencies for a day of panel discussions, displays and an evening to remember, to celebrate, to brainstorm, network and create economic opportunity. It also serves as an opportunity to leverage our talent pool, infrastructure, and geographic location
to broaden the base of our already powerful ICT cluster.Technicity will highlight breaking technologies such as wireless data connectivity that will make up in next-generation cars to predictive analytics that is the next-generation for business intelligence.
Triple Helix in the Development of Cities of Knowledge, Expanding Communities and Connecting Regions
Madrid, Spain, 20-22 Oct, 2010
Innovation is understood as a resultant of a complex and dynamic process related to interactions between University, Industry and Government, in a spiral of endless transitions. The Triple Helix approach, developed by Henry Etzkowitz and Loet Leydesdorff, is based on the perspective of University as a leader of the relationship with Industry and Government, to generate new knowledge, innovation and economic development. The main theme of our conference is “Triple Helix in the Development of Cities of Knowledge, Expanding Communities and Connecting Regions”.
Entrepreneurship and Community: 26th Annual CCSBE Conference
Calgary, 28-30 October, 2010
The theme this year is Entrepreneurship and Community. We are seeking to explore the multifaceted impact entrepreneurs and small businesses have on their communities through their new ventures, business and community outreach. There is growing recognition by policy makers, members of society, business leaders and youth, that creative approaches are needed to address environmental, economic, and societal issues. The conference program highlights the research, educational methods, and community practices pertaining to venture sustainability and social entrepreneurship. In support of the theme we have attracted an array of plenary and guest speakers, and developed workshops which will contribute to the dialogue.
Making Innovation Work for Society: Linking, Leveraging and Learning GLOBELICS 8th Annual Conference
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 1-3 November, 2010
Global Network for Economics of Learning, Innovation, and Competence Building Systems (GLOBELICS) is an international network of scholars who apply the concept of "learning, innovation, and competence building system" (LICS) as their framework and are dedicated to the strengthening of LICS in developing countries, emerging economies and societies in transition. The research aims at locating unique systemic features as well as generic good practices to enlighten policy making relating to innovation, competence building, international competitiveness, regional development, labour market and human capital development. In an increasingly global and knowledge‐based competition, management strategies need to be based upon an understanding of these framework conditions and the public policies which seek to regulate the environment.
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