Research network to explore regional innovation and dynamics of clusters

A groundbreaking five-year study of Canadian regional innovation systems and their interaction with technology clusters has been given the green light by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). The inaugural meeting of the project’s investigators was held in Toronto last month which outlined the work ahead and celebrated its success in securing $2.5 million in funding through SSHRC’s Major Collaborative Research Initiatives (MCRI) program. Another $1 million is expected from other sources, including the universities hosting the project’s five regional nodes, government departments and agencies, and possibly private sector consultants.

Called the Innovation Systems Research Network (ISRN), the project builds upon research by its 50 plus co-investigators who are exploring various facets of regional innovation. Future research will attempt to distinguish the basis for dynamic regional clusters across Canada in five designated regions and the benefits to firms sharing unique sets of assets and skills.

“We’re still getting expressions of interest from many sources including government agencies and private consultants,” says Dr David Wolfe, the study’s co-director along with Dr Meric Gertler. “There’s a growing recognition across the country, especially from provinces, that this is a diverse country and one size does not fit all in terms of innovation systems. Recognition of regional innovation is also growing at the federal level, made more tangible by the explosion in clusters for information technology, biotechnology and e-commerce.”

RESULTS COULD BE PUBLIC POLICY GOLD MINE

If the ISRN meets its milestones and produces research that answers many of the questions surrounding regional innovation, the results could be a gold mine for public policy makers. Public policy in S&T at all levels of government needs all the help it can get these days. Years of bureaucratic cutbacks and federal program review have considerably weakened the ability of civil servants to set S&T policy and analyze existing policy, and ISRN research could go a long way to help overcome that shortfall.

“This is a network of networks and the whole point of this project is to undertake a series of studies carried out by people on a regional basis, so that we can test the hypothesis that things don’t happen in the same way across Canada,” says Adam Holbrook, director of the Vancouver-based Western Canada node of ISRN. “What we are doing has never been done before, not even in the European Union (EU). The EU has carried out studies in different regions, but they’ve never linked them together like this as an integrated project.”

Michael Porter, a globally recognized authority on innovation and clusters, has been working on a US study of six clusters for the past two years but has yet to report.

Researchers will focus on 22 clusters situated in five regions in emerging areas such as biomedical, photonics/wireless, and traditional industries like wood products, food and beverage, automotive and steel. Large metropolitan areas situated near research intensive universities and non-urban settings will be included in the study.

More specifically ISRN’s co-investigators will:

• consider factors that determine the strength and effectiveness of clusters as drivers of innovation and economic growth;

• examine whether and how dynamic firms benefit from the presence of nearby basic and applied research facilities, and whether proximity translates into better networking opportunities and access to innovative financing;

• identify conditions that sustain innovative clusters.

ISRN researchers hope their work will ultimately prove beneficial to a wide variety of innovation players, observers and policy makers, with the results to be disseminated as broadly as possible. ISRN will also work in collaboration with a number of other organizations, including companies, industry associations, regional economic development agencies, the National Research Council, Statistics Canada and other levels of government.

Over the next five years, ISRN has committed to achieving a series of milestones and submit to a mid-term review in the latter half of 2003. Researchers will produced a detailed report on each cluster studied, as well as completing a series of reports synthesizing their findings across industry sectors and regions.

Each regional node has also committed to train a number of graduate students, some of whom will have input into the mid-term review.

“We’re looking for both uniqueness and commonalities in clusters to identify what can be reproduced as well as things where you have to find your own way,” says Wolfe. “There will be academic benefits as well as some which are policy relevant and operational. We’ve been approached by a number of regional development agencies and provincial ministries across Canada to offer seminars on best practices. We also hope to develop stronger linkages with community-based organizations such as Ottawa’s OCRI (Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation) because it’s helpful for them to be able to identify their strengths and weaknesses.”

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