Regions delivering innovation

A Staff Working Document 'Regions Delivering Innovation through Cohesion Policy' has been finalised for the Informal meeting of regional policy ministers in the Azores on 23-24 November providing an analysis of how innovation as a central feature in the 2007-2013 cohesion policy programmes has increased. Innovation is defined as encompassing four groups of spending categories - RTDI, entrepreneurship, innovative ICT and human resources. The analysis – also broken down by country - shows that the planned EU investment for innovation in 2007-2013 will be above EUR 85 billion - a sum equivalent to 25% of the total new envelope for the 27 Member States. This value is more than 3 times higher than in 2000-2006. The paper concludes that the positive results of the programming phase require the commitment of all partners for successful delivery.

Access the working document here.

EU ministers agree to set up European Institute of Innovation and Technology

EU research ministers agreed Friday to set up a European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) and to create four private-public sector partnerships in the field of technology as part of a drive to bridge the bloc's competitive gap with the United States. The political agreement should allow to start implementation of the EIT regulation as from Spring 2008. The EIT will have a governing body, a director and an executive committee, but will not be a new institute as such. Rather, it will network and pool resources from Europe's universities and will initially seek to focus research into three broad areas: energy, climate change and information technology. The EU has earmarked 308.7 million euros for the functioning of the EIT for a period of six years.

Press release of the council meeting here.

Manufuture Conference 2007 - Constructing a Sustainably Competitive Europe, Porto 2nd and 4th December

Bringing together a vast majority of the relevant stakeholders of European manufacturing, the Manufuture 2007 Conference, being held in Porto, Portugal from the 2nd to the 4th of December, will address new concerns related to the sustainability of manufacturing activities and operations in Europe and the global positioning of European manufacturing companies for the years to come. The financing of strategic R&D activities, the Asian perspective on some of the problems with which companies are being confronted in global manufacturing operations, and support services and the transformation of the European research and innovation infrastructure in manufacturing are some themes being approached at the conference. Finally, the main outcome of the work undertaken within the scope of Manufuture, namely the result of the road mapping activities undertaken for 25 different industry sectors, will also be presented.

More information and programme here.

Institute for Competitiveness & Prosperity

The Institute for Competitiveness & Prosperity is an independent, not-for-profit organization funded by the Government of Ontario and mandated to share its research findings directly with the public, that deepens public understanding of macro and microeconomic factors behind Ontario’s economic progress. The Our Work section includes research on Ontario’s and Canada's competitiveness, productivity, and economic progress. The Links section contains external news and resources from other institutions.

Information Day of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC), Lisbon November 30

The European Commission and the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education are organising an Information Day of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC), to be hled in Lisbon on November 30. At the Information Day participants from the scientific, political and corporate world will discuss the cooperation between the JRC and Portuguese research organisations, centred on the main themes: Agriculture and Food products, Energy and Safety, Maritime Affairs, Environment and ERAWATCH.

More information here.
Access the programme here.

Barcelona Strategic Plan for Culture

The city of Barcelona has been in the last decade promoting itself and making its own path as a European capital of culture, by situating culture as one of the principal elements in the development and projection of the city, through the running of municipal facilities and cultural services and by promoting and facilitating the emergence and consolidation of the numerous private-sector cultural platforms and projects in the city. This central objective is based on the Strategic Plan for the city's culture sector and is embodied in the following specific actions:

• To consolidate culture as a basic strategy in the development of the city of knowledge
• To assist Barcelona in becoming a centre for the production of cultural content
• To support popular and traditional culture, and the activities of Barcelona's cultural associations
• To complete and remodel the city's network of heritage facilities and improve the effectiveness of these
• To promote the educational dimension of culture
• To facilitate the incorporation of the cultural sectors into the flows of the digital age
• To articulate metropolitan strategies in the field of culture
• To implement the libraries plan approved by Barcelona City Council
• To articulate actions to improve cultural provision in the districts and neighbourhoods of the city

Access the Barcelona Strategic Plan for Culture here.

SmartManuakau - Towards a Knowledge Society Strategy for Manukau

Manukau, a city in the Auckland region of New Zealand, adopted in 2002 the SmartManukau initiative, which aims at transforming Manukau City into a ‘knowledge city’ that adopts new technologies, educates its youth and generates knowledge-led economic growth. Manukau City thus achieves sustained economic growth and improves well-being by:

• Developing opportunities for all citizens to attain the highest possible level of training, education and lifelong learning;
• Attracting and growing knowledge-based entreprises;
• Demonstrating exemplary practice in the application of knowledge strategies in business and community activities.

Access the SmartManukau strategy here.

Creative Partnerships

Creative Partnerships is the English Government’s flagship creativity programme for schools and young people. It aims to develop:

• the creativity of young people, raising their aspirations and achievements;
• the skills of teachers and their ability to work with creative practitioners;
• schools' approaches to culture, creativity and partnership working; and;
• the skills, capacity and sustainability of the creative industries.

More information here.

Zaragossa Towards Knowledge City

Launched in 2003, Zaragoza Ciudad del Conocimiento (Zaragossa Towards Knowledge City) is the Zaragossa municipal government's strategy for the economic promotion of the city and its advance towards the Knowledge Society. Focusing mainly on ICT and digital networks, the action plan has the following main objectives:

• Carry out the establishment of innovating companies, to boost economic growth and the creation of skilled jobs.
• Use of new technologies to give more efficient public services.
• Guarantee to every citizen, entity, company and institution the full exercise of the right of access to communication networks.
• Take advantage of the technological change to develop a new urbanism to consolidate the city and create economic opportunities.
• Turn Saragossa into a national and international reference thanks to its attitude facing the phenomenon of innovation and new technologies.

More information here (in English) and here (in Spanish).

London: Cultural Capital - Realising the potential of a world class city

Launched in April 2004, the City of London Mayor's Culture Strategy 'London: Cultural Capital - Realising the potential of a world class city' is a ten-year plan to develop London as a centre of cultural excellence and creativity which includes arts, sport, heritage and creative industries in London. The Culture Strategy has four key objectives focused on: excellence, creativity, access and value. Underpinning each of these objectives is the principle of diversity. The recognition that the excellence and quality of culture in London will only be achieved by ensuring that London’s diverse communities are reflected, and active, in the cultural life of the city.

Culture Strategy highlights PDF here.
Full Strategy here.
Other documentation here.

Provisional dates for call for proposals in Environment Programme of FP7

If all goes according to planned, the second FP7 call for proposals in the Environment programme is expect to be published in the Official Journal on November 30th. The deadline for receipt of proposals will likely be February 25th 2008, but it may be a week earlier. Evaluations are currently scheduled to start on March 10th. These are provisional dates subject to change, but they may work as pointers for those planning on applying for FP7 funding.

More information on FP7 here.

Innovation to Connect the Lisbon Strategy to People: Launch of the 2nd wave of the European Network of Living Labs - Brussels 17th October

In a Portuguese Presidency event, to be held October 17 in Brussels, the European Network of Living Labs announces the enrollment of 32 new members, expanding the network from from 19 to 51 members. Living Lab is a new concept for R&D and innovation to boost the Lisbon strategy for jobs and growth in Europe, engaging the stakeholders in the innovation process, including companies, citizens, researchers and public institutions. Through this engagement, open innovation is possible, resulting from the interaction between, for instance, the needs of consumers and the development of new technical possibilities. Small and medium enterprises are engaged in these communities, as well as large corporations, such as Nokia, IBM and SAP.

Press release and programme here.
More on the European Network of Living Labs here.

Peer-to-Patent Project

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Britain's Intellectual Property Office (IPO) and the European Patent Office have launched the pilot scheme Peer-toPatent, a radical approach to reforming the complex international patent system. The scheme will open 250 pending patent applications in Computer Architecture, Software, and Information Security to internet-based collaboration, soliciting comments and applying a system of peer review, in contrast to the one-examiner-per-patent process approach. The efficency of a patent system is critical to innovation, but there is still fierce debate surrounding the patenting of software, businesses processes and especially human and animal genes. The outcomes of the project are uncertain, but it can also show the way for other kind of e-Democracy projects.

More info on the porject here.

Imagine a Toronto... Strategies for a Creative City

The "Imagine a Toronto... Strategies for a Creative City" research projects aimed at developing a strategy that addresses the current needs of Toronto's creative economy, The project built on empirical evidence from 6 six: Toronto, New York, San Francisco, London, Barcelona and Berlin (coming soon). For the purposes of the report, the research team has grouped the areas of study into five broad categories (people, enterprise, space, connectivity and vision & voice) and analyzed Toronto’s strengths and weaknesses in each of the first four categories above, identifying strategic opportunities for action and sugesting policy actions for those four areas.

Full report here.

CLOE - A European Network of Excellence for Cluster Experience, Management, Matching and Promotion

The Interreg III C Project Clusters Linked Over Europe - CLOE is a co-operation project between seven European regions which aims at exchanging experience and information concerning the management and development of successful clusters. The project website serves as a competence platform giving access to information on the competences of cluster companies and participating regions, as well as being the main information source concerning all CLOE activities. The Cluster Competecence Finder provides the opportunity to search for competences, products and services within the CLOE-network and its more than 25 connected clusters and the Cluster Links section provides links to sector-based clusters. The Cluster Management Guide is a must-read document for those interested in cluster-based innovation policy.

INTERREG IVC project database

Officially approved by the European Commission on 11 September 2007, the INTERREG IVC Programme is part of the European Territorial Cooperation Objective. It is a EU programme that helps regions of Europe work together to share their knowledge and experience and will run until 2013. Meanwhile, in the project database one can start browsing all current project ideas, and sort by project priority, type of operation, country or region to find the project idea which one can be interested in. The project ideas have not been screened nor approved in any way by the INTERREG IVC secretariat, but one can start searching for partners now or even submit a project idea. It's never to early.

IRE - Innovating Regions in Europe

The Innovating Regions in Europe (IRE) network was created by the European Commission in the mid-1990s and aims at facilitating exchange of experience and good practice among European regions that are enhancing their capacity to support innovation and competitiveness among regional firms through the development and implementation of regional innovation strategies and schemes. Around 235 member regions are gathered in the IRE network which has generated quite some knowledge in regional innovation schemes and activities. The Library section allows to search or browse some of this knowledge. The Regional Innovation Strategies section provides information on most of the member regions' innovation strategies. The Schemes section presents regional innovation schemes implemented by the IRE members in the framework of their innovation policies and strategies, and much more is available in the network's website.

ConnectKentucky - Connecting rural America

The 2006 Winner of the United States Economic Development Administration's Excellence in Innovation Award ConnectKentucky programme is a public-private partnership charged with carrying out Kentucky's 'Prescription for Innovation' (page 22&23) comprehensive plan to accelerate technology growth. The partnership has now been recognized as the national leader in technology acceleration in rural communities, recognition gained due to the diverse ICT-based initiatives launched, of which the provision of inexpensive broadband services is the most visible. The outcomes are impressive: broadband availability has increased from 60% to 94%, broadband use at home has increased 73% and broadband use among Internet connected businesses rose from 65% to 85%.

Examples of regional innovation projects

With a foreword by EU Commissioner for Regional Policy Danuta Hubner, the document contains summaries of case studies of good practice from the regional programmes of innovative actions, 2000-2006. These case studies, in English or in French, present the objectives and activities of the projects, the strategic context, the innovative aspects, partnership, obstacles in terms of design or implementation, results and impacts. The full case studies can be found on the InfoRegio website.

Local Innovation Systems Project

The MIT-based Local Innovation Systems Project gathers a remarkable research team in trying to address issues of economic prosperity of local communities in the rapidly changing global economy, focusing on innovation as promoter of productivity growth and competitive advantage. 23 locations in the United States, Finland, Japan, the United Kingdom, Norway, Ireland, India, Taiwan and Israel have been used as case studies. The Working Papers sections provide strong theoretical and empirical research on innovation promotion policy.