Issue #229
March 1 , 2011
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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]
Canadian Companies Capitalizing on Trend Toward 3D Thanks to the Communications Research Centre
The Communications Research Centre (CRC) is recognized globally for its research in communications technologies, including broadcast technologies. This expertise is vital to government regulators, broadcasters, manufacturers and others in the Canadian hi-tech community. Research also results in technologies that can be commercialized by Canadian industry. CRC's broadcast research portfolio includes 3DTV. Companies keen to capitalize on the trend toward 3D are contacting CRC about its 2D-to-3D conversion technologies that help firms bridge the current content gap for 3D television program material.
EDITOR'S PICK [Table of Contents]
Metropolitan Areas and the Next Economy: A 50 State Analysis
Alan Berube and Carey Anne Nadeau, The Brookings Institution
As state economies regain their footing in the wake of the Great Recession, America’s metropolitan areas will lead their transformation to the next economy. This report finds metro areas—cities and their surrounding suburbs and outlying rural areas—contain outsized shares of the assets that can drive the next wave of economic growth in states and nationwide—international exports, innovative and educated workers, and lower-carbon forms of development. In 47 states, metropolitan areas generate a majority of total economic output. It contains profiles for each state that illustrate the degree to which its population, jobs, economic output, and key attributes for economic growth are concentrated in its metropolitan areas.
INNOVATION & RELATED POLICY [Table of Contents]
The Toronto Region Research Alliance (TRRA)
This panel invited interested parties to participate in a consultation process. TRRA conducted an on-line survey of key business leaders among SMEs, large companies, and foreign-controlled companies, and circulated draft responses to a smaller number of business leaders for further comment to formulate answers to four of the Expert Panel’s questions. The report details the impact of SR&ED financing, assesses how to improve the amount of R&D conducted in Canada by Canadian subsidiaries of global corporations, perceptions of Canadian competitiveness on R&D support and performance, and how to extend current support programs into the services.
The Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity
In its own response to the call for Review of Federal Support for R&D the Institute argues that the questions asked by the panel are on the right track.
The Consultation Paper recognizes that innovation is critical to Canada's standard of living and that it is much broader than scientific R&D. It also recognizes that innovation is affected by a system of factors influencing our companies' choices to adopt innovation as a competitive strategy - a choice that compels them to draw on a variety of inputs, not just R&D, in support of innovative activity. This report includes answers to the specific questions raised by the panel.
Ian Livingstone and Alan Hope, NESTA
This report sets out how the UK can be transformed into the world’s leading talent hub for video games and visual effects. At over £2 billion in global sales, the UK’s video games sector is bigger than either its film or music industries - and visual effects, the fastest growing component of the UK’s film industry, grew at an explosive 16.8 per cent between 2006 and 2008. High-tech, knowledge-intensive sectors and, in the case of video games, major generators of intellectual property, these industries have all the attributes the UK needs to succeed in the 21st century. Yet it is already starting to lose its cutting edge: in just two years the UK’s video games industry has dipped from third to sixth place in the global development rankings. Meanwhile, the visual effects industry, though still enjoying very rapid growth, is having to source talent from overseas because of skills shortages at home. That is mainly a failing of the education system – from schools to universities – and it needs to be tackled urgently if the UK is to remain globally competitive.
Mid-Term Report of the EU High Level Expert Group on Key Enabling Technologies
European Commission
In 2009 European Member States and the European Commission convened an expert group tasked with the elaboration of a coherent European strategy to develop six key enabling technologies (KETs) - nanotechnology, micro and nanoelectronics, advanced materials, photonics, industrial biotechnology and advanced manufacturing systems - and bring them most effectively to industrial deployment. This working document outlines the potential impact of KETs on challenges faced by and competitiveness of European industry, presents a SWOT analysis of KETs, current challenges for KETs on value chains in the EU and beyond, and provides an initial vision of the way forward. This vision recognizes that those nations and regions mastering KETs will be at the forefront of future and advanced and sustainable economies integrating cutting-edge technologies into their manufacturing and service industries and managing the shift to a low carbon, knowledge-based economy.
CITIES, CLUSTERS & REGIONS [Table of Contents]
Urban Liveability and Economic Growth
Philips for The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU)
This report looks in detail at the inextricable relationship between business and cities. The report highlights ways in which business and policymakers are working together to make cities more liveable. Creating business growth is a massively complex task, dependent on many factors which are often not in the control of residents, workers, investors or even policymakers. However, success in creating growth undoubtedly contributes to the liveability of a city – a fact not lost on those surveyed by the EIU who were clear that jobs, cost of living, public transport and roads were among the most important factors contributing to the attractiveness of city as a place to live and work. Four key findings emerged from this report: jobs take precedence over liveability; lack of affordable housing is a barrier to attracting talent; foreign investment is critical; and the private sector can be a valuable partner to developing urban amenities.
Nathaniel Baun-Snow and Ronni Pavan
Between 1969 and 2007 a strong monotonic relationship between wage inequality and city size has developed. This paper investigates the causes of the city size inequality premium and its relationship with the growth in overall wage inequality. It finds that one-quarter to one-third of the overall increase in hourly wage inequality in the United States from 1979 to 2007 is explained by city size independent of observable skill. While this influence has occurred throughout the wage distribution, the fraction of the increase in the lower half of the wage distribution explained by city size is at least 50 percent larger than that in the upper half of the wage distribution. More rapid growth in within skill group inequality in larger cities has been by far the most important force driving these city size specific patterns in the data. Differences in the industrial composition of cities of different sizes explain 19 to 32 percent of this city size effect. Our evidence on the evolution of wage inequality in cross- sections of cities improves understanding of the role of urban agglomerations in contributing to the expansion of inequality in marginal products of labor over time.
Richard Florida, The Atlantic
In this article, Richard Florida presents his analysis of the Baun-Snow and Pavan's findings in their recent paper "Inequality and City Size" (posted directly above).
In particular, Florida reflects on the implications these data trends have on the role of and the opportunities that cities offer in the modern American economy. He argues that all of this leads to an intriguing conclusion about the connection between cities and wages. On the one hand, city-size has become a factor in increasing inequality, magnifying the underlying bifurcation of the labour market. On the other hand, bigger cities appear to pay better average wages. In short, cities make inhabitants richer, more productive, and increase their wages, even as they reflect and compound the growing social and economic divides of today's increasingly spiky world.
STATISTICS & INDICATORS [Table of Contents]
Measuring Wider Framework Conditions for Successful Innovation
NESTA
This report is a comprehensive review of the data for measuring the wider conditions for successful innovation using the functional model of the innovation system as presented in the pilot Index in 2009. The report considers the relative strengths and weaknesses of current data, highlighting where gaps in the measurement of the conditions exist. Each section concludes with proposals for new data to address the gaps identified.
Social Impacts of the Development of Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators
Fred Gault, UNU-MERIT
This paper examines the social impacts of the development of science, technology and innovation indicators. The approach deals separately with the development process and with the use of the indicators that result. Underlying the discussion is an assumption that indicators are a technology, a product, which governs behaviour, is modified by users (outside of the producer community), and develops in response to user needs. Science and technology indicators are considered separately from innovation indicators, and the importance of language based on codified and tacit knowledge is emphasized. The knowledge is codified in manuals, and the tacit knowledge is held in overlapping communities of practice that develop the manuals, gather the data, produce the indicators and use them. Finally, there is a discussion of how this process changes and renews itself.
2011 Global R&D Funding Forecast
Battelle and R&D Magazine
This report projects consistent and positive global R&D spending in 2011. Global R&D (including public, private and nonprofit spending) is projected to increase by 3.6 percent from $1.15 trillion to almost $1.2 trillion. However, 2011 R&D as a percentage of global GDP will remain constant at 1.9 percent. This increase is attributed to a shift in the geographic distribution of investment. Asian countries continue to rapidly increase their investments in R&D spending (China has over taken Japan as the second largest investor in R&D spending to the U.S.) and the U.S. and Europe should maintain nearly flat levels of spending.
POLICY DIGEST [Table of Contents]
Boosting Exports, Delivering Jobs and Economic Growth
Bruce Katz and Emilia Istrate, The Brookings Institution
An export strategy is a critical element of job growth in the immediate term. American exports grew 12.7 percent from the third quarter of 2009 to the third quarter of 2010, outperforming the 3.2 percent growth of the economy. Exports are just as critical to state economies, but state export promotion efforts often suffer from several shortcomings, although not across all states and not to the same degree. States do not have the data to understand their own export strengths, nor the effectiveness of their existing export programs. State export efforts are reactive, fragmented, and inconsistently funded. Finally, state export efforts all too often ignore (and therefore duplicate and fail to leverage) the export-promoting work of other groups or the federal government.
To remedy these problems, bolster their economies, and create jobs in the process, states should:
An export strategy is an essential component of a state competitiveness agenda in the 21st century. The recommendations in this paper show the way to a more focused and streamlined state export promotion policy for maximum efficiency and job creation effects.
EVENTS [Table of Contents]
US Competitiveness: A New Conversation with New Opportunities
Washington, DC, 10 March, 2011
There is a growing sense of urgency for bipartisan action on restoring America's competitive edge with productivity. In that spirit, ITIF is hosting a half-day conference on how to boost productivity and competitiveness by advancing emerging growth sectors such as nanotechnology, biotechnology and mobile broadband. How can we find the right mix of private sector dynamism and government support to stay ahead of global competition and boost long-term prosperity? The event will include remarks by Qualcomm CEO Dr. Paul Jacobs and panel discussions with entrepreneurs, policy experts and public officials. Stay posted for more information on this event and the evolving conversation about innovation policy.
What Future for Cohesion Policy? An Academic and Policy Debate
Sava Hoteli Bled, Slovenia, 16-18 March, 2011
This conference, co-organized by DG Regio (European Commission, the Regional Studies Association adn the Government Office for Local Self-Government and Regional Policy, Slovenia will involve a number of invited plenary presentations, and workshop or other small group discussions.
TCI European Regional Cluster Conference: Inspiring Clusters in the Beginning of the New Decade
Tallinn, Estonia, 29-30 March, 2011
TCI European regional conference in 2011 will focus on how to improve the Cluster policies both on European, national and regional level and how to achieve excellence in cluster management. The conference will also provide a deeper insight into cluster development in Eastern and Central Europe being the first TCI conference in this region. In addition to the main programme of the conference, several parallel sessions will be organized based on Open Space Technology, where the participant can define the topics of their core interest and lead the discussion themselves. As an optional program visits to Estonian cluster initiatives will be organized for the interested particpants. The cluster intiatives, which can be visited are in the field of ICT, Forest and Wood, Wind Energy, Creative Industries and ECO Construction. In addition also cultural program focused on Tallinn as Culutral Capital of Europe 2011 will be available.
Regional Development and Policy - Challenges, Choices and Recipients
Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, 17-20 April, 2011
The challenges for regional development are intensifying. Long-term factors shaping the prospects for cities and regions include the effects of climate change and new demands on energy, water and food systems. Cities also face significant demographic shifts. Rapid technological changes – captured in the notion of an emerging Knowledge Economy – will also affect cities and regions. Moreover, we are witnessing significant changes in international political economy – encapsulated by the term globaliation – but increasingly understood as incorporating the rise of new economic powers, such as the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and, above all, China). The immediate context for thinking about these questions in many parts of the world is the aftermath of a severe economic crisis and a new politics of austerity. Local, regional, national and international actors continue to search for new policy solutions at a time when traditional forms of governance are being tested and new forms of regional politics are emerging. In many parts of the world regional disparities are growing as more economic activity becomes concentrated in global city regions, posing questions about the future of cities and regions beyond the metropolis. In these austere times, some voices question the need for regional policy itself and public policy debates increasingly focus on these dilemmas.
CALL FOR PAPERS - Public Administration, Technology and Innovation
Tallinn, Estonia, 6-7 May, 2011
Technological developments of the last decades have brought the co-evolutionary linkages between technology and public sector institutions into the center of both economics and public administration research. Technologies can, arguably, make public administration more effective, efficient, transparent and more accountable; but they can also cause problems with privacy, sustainability, legality, and equality, to name just a few examples. Recent public sector austerity measures (and attempts at lean government in general) may thwart socio-political efforts to foster technological innovation; but they can at the same time lead to greater willingness of governments to adopt new technologies and management principles based, directly or indirectly, on technological innovations. The challenge to public administration research is not only to trace and understand these linkages, but to find working solutions to these apparent trade-offs, and even to investigate the nature and permutations of the techno-administrative interface generally. We are inviting papers dealing with theoretical or empirical topics looking at either side of the co-evolution perspective of technological and institutional development; the role of public administration in technological progress and innovation; and the role of technology and innovation in the trajectories of public administration.
Woods Hole, MA, 15-18 May, 2011
Applications are sought from teachers and researchers who are interested in moving beyond their current disciplinary and academic boundaries to explore concepts and practices that help us work in the arena bordered on one side by critical interpretation of the directions taken by scientific and technological research and application and on the other side by organizing social movements so as to influence those directions. Participants are encouraged, but not required, to submit a manuscript or sketch related to the workshop topic that would be read by others before the workshop and be subject to focused discussion during the workshop. There is also room for participants to develop--either before or during the workshop--activities or interactive presentations to engage the other participants.
ICIM 2011: International Conference on Innovation and Management
Tokyo, Japan, 25-27 May, 2011
The International Conference on Innovation and Management aims to bring together academic scientists, leading engineers, industry researchers and scholar students to exchange and share their experiences and research results about all aspects of Innovation and Management, and discuss the practical challenges encountered and the solutions adopted.
Copenhagen, Denmark, 15-17 June, 2011
DRUID 2011 intends to map theoretical, empirical and methodological advances, contribute with novel insights and stimulate a lively debate about how technologies, economic systems and organizations evolve and co-evolve. The conference will include targeted plenary debates where internationally merited scholars take stands on contemporary issues within the overall conference theme.
CALL FOR PAPERS - Regional Studies Association - Third Global Conference on Economic Geography
Seoul, Korea, 28 June - July 2, 2011
In the wake of the economic downturn of 2007-, the debate about the causes of the crisis and recession has focused upon the unbalanced nature of its economic models and geographies. Explanations have been concerned with the imbalances in international trade and currency flows, sectoral structures between especially financial and other services and manufacturing, the relative sizes and roles of the public and private sectors, the composition of demand between consumption and production as well as its domestic or external orientation, and its socially and spatially uneven geographies. Following this diagnosis of the problems, debate about recovery has focused upon the idea of ‘rebalancing’ as a means of rebuilding new economic models that somehow correct the problematic and disruptive imbalances that generated the crisis. ‘Rebalancing’ has become an international concern for high-income economies such as Australia, UK and Japan, middle-income economies such as Portugal and South Korea as well as emerging economies such as Brazil and China. Yet it is not clear what ‘rebalancing’ might mean, whether and how it can be achieved and how it relates to currently dominant ‘new economic geographical’ models promoting greater spatial agglomeration and concentration of economic activities. These sessions will engage this debate on rebalancing regional and national economies.
CALL FOR PAPERS - Building Capacity for Scientific Innovation and Outcomes
Atlanta, GA, 15-17 September, 2011
The ability of science and innovation systems to deliver depends on continually improving capacity. Yet, capacity is multidimensional and has interrelated characteristics and related challenges. The Atlanta Conference on Science and Innovation Policy 2011 will explore the research base that addresses the broad range of capacity related issues central to the structure, function, performance and outcomes of the science and innovation enterprises. The conference will include a variety of sessions: plenaries to discuss critical questions, contributed paper sessions and a young researcher poster competition.
Lund, Sweden, 13-14 October, 2011
The conference offers two days of plenaries, presentations and intense discussions on preconditions and strategies for regional innovation policy and regional development in Europe. It is organized around five key themes: (1) Preconditions for sustainable development (economically, socially and environmentally) in European regions: (2) the role of universities in the promotion of regional development; (3) sectoral specificities (resource based and cultural/creative industries) and their impacts on regional competitiveness; (4) Southern European regions and their strategies to grow out of the global economic crisis; (5) the growth of emerging economies in Asia and Latin America and consequences for European regions.
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