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Title: Jir


1
Regional innovation strategies - implications of
European experience for new and future member
states Zagreb, June 2008
  • Jirí Blažek
  • Dept. of Social Geography and Regional
    Development,
  • Faculty of Science,
  • Charles University in Prague,
  • e-mail blazek_at_natur.cuni.cz

2
Structure of presentation
  • 1) Analysis of current situation in the sphere of
    innovation policies
  • a) on European level
  • b) on a national level (Czech Republic)
  • c) on a regional level (case of city-region of
    Prague and its RIS)
  • 2) Possible implications of Constructing Regional
    Advantage project
  • 3) Conclusions and possible solutions

3
European context for innovation
  • The failure of Lisbon strategy to catch up with
    the US in innovation and technology creation is
    well known the gap between USA and EU even
    widened
  • Five priority objectives were proposed for public
    action to encourage an effective, pan-European
    innovation system
  • (a) coherent innovation policies
  • (b) a regulatory framework conducive to
    innovation
  • (c) encouragement for the creation and growth of
    innovative enterprises
  • (d) improvement of key interfaces in the
    innovation system
  • (e) a society open to innovation

4
Main activities on the EU level supporting
innovations
  • linking the EU cohesion policy and Lisbon
    strategy (allocation of at least 60 of fin.
    resources in programming period 2007-2013 on
    Lisbon priorities compulsory for EU-15,
    recommended for EU-10)
  • 2) doubling of financial resources on EU ST in
    new financial perspective

5
Main EU activities supporting innovations on
regional level
  • Creation of innovation extremely regionally
    concentrated (share of Czech Rep. on patents in
    EPO just 0,07!)
  • Therefore, EC supports
  • 1) increase RD expenditure in less successful
    regions
  • 2) creation of regional innovation systems
  • Initiatives European Research Area, Innovating
    Regions of Europe , Regions of Knowledge, etc.
    and cooperation of regions in this sphere
  • Inspiration for particular projects
    http//cordis.europa.eu/era/regions.htm

6
Regional context for innovation
  • M. Porter (2000) What matters is not the
    industrial structure, but the position of the
    firms in the region within the particular
    industrial branch, i.e. low-road vs high road
    strategy of competitiveness (e.g. production of
    shoes and textile in Bavaria)
  • In current global economy more and more important
    are local/regional factors of competitiveness as
    globalisation eliminates advantages gained from
    mobile sources
  • 2 types of knowledge are distinguished codified
    and tacit difficult to transfer and/or imitate
  • Tacit knowledge is the key source of
    competitiveness in current world

7
Regional context for innovation
  • Local/regional factors of competitiveness
    local know-how, particular relations to suppliers
    and customers, knowledge of regional market,
    level of trust, access to local technologies,
    flexibility given by existence of a key supplier,
    cultural context and atmosphere within the
    region

8
Regional innovation systems
  • Aim identification and stimulation of
    cooperation of key relevant actors, reflecting
    tradition, regional resources, problems,
    opportunities and designing a regional innovation
    strategy
  • Several different types of regional innovation
    systems
  • (grassroots, dirigiste, .)
  • regional innovation strategy identification of
    barriers and of a potential (personalities,
    research teams), clear commitment to specific
    tasks and time schedule

9
National context for innovations in the Czech
Republic (1)
  • The overall lagging of NMSs in innovation
    creation and implementation is well known
  • The current unsatisfactory situation is a result
    of several key factors
  • Fundamental among them was the separation of RD
    in communist countries from the democratic world
    which lasted for 4 decades
  • But also many other factors like a strict
    separation of basic research pursued in
    Institutes of the Czech Academy of Sciences and
    in Universities which were not expected to come
    up with the results that would be commercialized

10
National context for innovations in the Czech
Republic (2)
  • The Czech Government has started to deal with
    innovations only recently, also due to European
    pressure connected to Lisbon strategy
  • Therefore, recently, several governmental
    materials dealing more or less explicitly with
    innovations were elaborated
  • Especially The National Innovation Policy was
    adopted by the Czech Government in July 2005
  • Consequently, on the basis of preparation of
    several strategic documents there is a growing
    agreement among experts and decision-makers on
    key weaknesses of Czech innovation system

11
Key weaknesses of the Czech innovation system (1)
  • insufficient links between public research
    institutes and businesses, poor opportunities for
    mobility between industry and academia and even
    insufficient mutual awareness (large RD foreign
    investor in Brno with whom could we cooperate
    in the region???)
  • overcomplicated and improper general legislative
    framework (including tax system) plus poor law
    enforcement
  • low share of university educated people (only 60
    of EU average), low share of RD employees (ca.
    half of EU avg.), low share of GDP allocated to
    RD by public and private sector

12
Key weaknesses of the Czech innovation system (2)
  • insufficient evaluation of results of public RD
    institutions with clear implications for their
    financing
  • missing financial instruments conductive to
    innovations (venture capital funds etc.)
  • unclear competence over innovation policy among
    governmental bodies (20 bodies involved)
  • insufficient marketing of both options opened by
    the existing governmental and EU support
    programmes for innovative actors and of the
    results of innovative processes (innovations,
    patents)
  • Insufficient evaluation of results of RD
    institutions and projects with clear implications
    for future financing (completely new system of
    financing of science including universities as of
    2010).

13
Bohemian Regional Innovation Strategy (BRIS) -
developed for the City of Prague
  • Profile of the city
  • - 1,2 mil. inhabitants, 156 European avg. of
    GDP per capita, unemployment rate 2
  • - The city is relatively attractive for foreign
    investors (new arrivals DHL, Accenture,
    Siemens).
  • - Prague has a highly skilled workforce. The
    share of the total population holding a
    university degree is almost 20 (twice the
    national average)
  • - In Prague, there are about 80,000 university
    students, 40 Institutes of the Academy of
    Sciences and 50 other research institutes
  • Consequently, about a half of the
    scientific and research potential of the Czech
    Republic is concentrated in Prague

14
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15
Bohemian RIS
  • The BRIS has been elaborated on the initiative of
    Technology Centre of Czech Academy of Science
    which wanted to use the opportunity offered by
    the EU funding available for elaboration of
    regional innovation strategies
  • Therefore, its clearly product driven, not
    demand driven
  • In order to identify the requirements and
    specific features of Prague, an extensive
    field-study at 490 enterprises and at 60 research
    organizations in the field of innovation
    generation was conducted

16
Key priorities/problems to be addressed from the
city (regional) level
  • Strengthening the links between public research
    institutions, private firms and other actors
    relevant for innovations (bottom up approach)
  • Establishment of links among research branches of
    MNCs located in Prague with the endogenous firms
    as up to 60 of RD private expenditures are
    provided by foreign firms in the Czech Rep.
  • Marketing of both BRIS and innovations created in
    Prague

17
Key weaknesses of BRIS (1)
  • Not sufficiently developed analytical part, there
    is no serious attempt to identify the sectors
    with the largest innovation potential
  • Missing clear priorities, the strategy is to
    improve everything
  • Completely missing link to budget of City of
    Prague
  • Excessive focus on SMEs despite the fact that
    most relevant innovative actors are (research)
    branches of large foreign firms

18
Key weaknesses of BRIS (2)
  • Unjustified focus was put on building of a new
    innovation infrastructure (to establish Prague
    RDA, centres of excellence, science and
    technology park, incubators for new enterprises)
    instead of forcing the existing institutions to
    fulfil their role more effectively
  • Improper selection of priority areas for support
    (for example, among the priority projects is
    support to Pragues educational gastronomic
    cluster which potential role in innovations is
    rather dubious)
  • Missing clear responsibility (and time-schedule)
    for implementation of actions and for monitoring

19
Key concepts of Constructing Regional Advantage
project (1)
  • Current thinking on approaches towards
    stimulation of innovative potential of the
    regions has been recently elaborated by CRA
    project (DG Research)
  • Key concepts of CRA project
  • 1) regional advantage can be actively
    constructed/designed which implies a new and more
    dynamic role for public sector (including
    universities)
  • 2) region is a proper platform for mobilising
    innovation creation as its invention is a highly
    localised process, but local buzz should be
    complemented by non-local connections
  • 3) innovation, talent formation attraction and
    entrepreneurship are the key components to
    construct regional advantage (P.Cooke)

20
Key concepts of CRA project (2)
  • 4) the 4 key dimensions for assessing the regions
    are (P. Laredo)
  • - institutional - governance capabilities,
    policy path dependency,
  • - economic - infrastructure, activity/sector mix
  • - reg. knowledge base higher education,
    research institutes, firms capabilities
  • -connectivity- collaborative patterns,
    intermediating structures, mobility of LF,
    spin-offs)
  • 5) away from one size fits all to provision of
    methodologies instead of recipes (A. Piccaluga),
    as copying of best practices is impossible when
    it concerns regional-specific assets that are
    soft and result of long histories (R. Boschma).
    Therefore, approaches and tools might and should
    differ for different regions

21
Some implications of CRA project for BRIS
(Prague) (1)
  • Analytical part of BRIS is rather of traditional
    nature without focusing on softer issues related
    to connectivity dimension
  • i.e. missing analysis of interactions among the
    key actors, missing identification of potential
    leaders, no answer why some of existing
    institutions are not functioning properly, what
    are the routines that prevent standard support
    mechanisms to operate effectively, etc.
  • Summarising in other words focus "not only on
    benchmarking but also on better knowing and
    understanding ourselves including the question
    where are right people?
  • Moreover, issues like development of talents and
    development of entrepreneurship capabilities and
    talent retention or even talent attraction were
    either not elaborated at all or only partially

22
CRA implications (2)
  • Using the 4 criteria outlined above
    (institutional, economic, reg. knowledge base,
    and connectivity) it seems from the before
    mentioned facts that Pragues main weakness is
    the lack of connectivity among relevant actors
  • Therefore, from this point of view, perhaps the
    largest merit of elaboration of BRIS is
    initiation of a mutual communication among
    relevant partners and putting the issue of
    innovations on the agenda
  • In this context one has to regret, that the main
    part of the BRIS survey among Prague's innovative
    firms and research institutes has been outsourced
  • so a unique opportunity for using this as an
    instrument for building a consensus and
    developing a partnership with key players and
    esp. with the business community was missed

23
CRA implications (3)
  • A need to shift the focus of public support from
    the institutions to the projects aiming at
    delivering the desirable changes
  • (as in the Czech Republic, public support is
    often oriented to institutions with correct
    name like Science and Technology Park or SMEs
    incubator instead of on support of desirable
    activities leading to measurable changes)
  • In addition, a clear need for instruments that
    would help the firms to acquire new routines, and
    esp. enhancement of their capability to
    articulate their need for innovation (B. Asheim)

24
3) Conclusions (1)
  • Relatively modern conception of National
    Innovation Policy and of BRIS versus real
    implementation
  • Many problems of systemic nature (improper
    legislative framework but also soft factors like
    inclination towards economic individualism or
    even egocentrism (P. Cooke) reflecting low
    level of trust and of mutual respect among key
    actors and in society in general
  • Positive development is a plan of Prague
    authorities to integrate BRIS into the city
    Strategic Plan which would guarantee that issues
    related to innovations would be put into the
    mainstream policy and as such regularly monitored
  • Another positive feature of BRIS is the fact that
    this document is coherent with Programming
    Documents financed by EU SFs

25
Conclusions (2)
  • For example, with the support from SFs, Charles
    University established its Centre for Transfer
    of Technologies and Knowledge which was among
    the priority projects identified by BRIS
  • Moreover, there is continuing enthusiasm of key
    personnel of Technology Centre of Academy of
    Science which resulted in obtaining the support
    (within the EU 6. FP) for follow up project
    Evaluation of impacts of regional innovation
    strategy
  • This helps to keep the BRIS on the agenda of
    decision-makers as well as of other relevant
    actors
  • Another significant contribution of BRIS is the
    fact that it helped to stimulate and inspire the
    debate about innovation policy on a national
    level
  • Therefore, BRIS is a learning exercise aiming at
    enhancement of institutional capacity to cope
    with change

26
Possible solutions (1)
  • In principle, there are just 2 basic types of
    positive solutions for regions lagging in
    innovation creation
  • 1) to enhance innovation creation (highly
    demanding both financially and for human
    resources, in many spheres unrealistic, requires
    high concentration of resources within the given
    state)
  • 2) to enhance the capacity for creation of less
    demanding innovations and esp. strengthening the
    capacity for dealing with already developed
    innovations
  • In both cases the concept of Triple Helix might
    be useful

27
Government/public administration
Triple Helix (B.Asheim, 2006)
Universities
Firms
Innovation system
Narrow definition of RD system
Broader definition Human and social capital,
clients
28
Possible solutions (2)
  • Each of the actors is having its role
  • Jointly they should create suitable conditions
  • - Quality human resources (qualification,
    motivation)
  • - Legislation
  • - Infrastructure (not only transport but also
    access to information, databases,
    libraries).
  • - Financial instruments for innovations
  • - And atmosphere in the region (Cambridge x
    ..) requires respected leader, personalities
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