Innovation — the 21st century gold rush

by Tim Lougheed

Not since the get-rich-quick days of the Klondike has a single region seen so many millionaires created in short order as California's famous Silicon Valley. In fact, many politicians and entrepreneurs now regard high technology parks as a model of choice for any future development, seeking clusters of research intensive businesses that can transform a local economy — sometimes in places where any traditional economic prospects were dim.

However, the emergence of such parks is not spontaneous. Innovative enterprises rely on a system that depends on a co-ordinated effort between three "pillars" — private sector firms, public sector bodies and voluntary or not-for-profit agencies. For example, do competing businesses have a neutral forum for discussing and debating matters of common interest, such as local by-laws? Does the organization that manages that forum in turn have the ear of the local government, so that requests can receive a fair hearing? And finally, does the government respect the needs of local industry, so that politically rooted policies do not necessarily interfere with economic development?

Reconciling these questions can be far from straightforward, and even success stories like Silicon Valley have encountered many problems in this regard. However, the failure to recognize and address such problems could doom the prospects of even the most promising collection of high tech endeavours.

The University of Ottawa's Centre on Governance, a multidisciplinary group that studies how organizations respond to these kinds of challenges, is now taking a closer look at the intricate dynamics that sustain a regional system of innovation. Funded by a three-year, $450,000 grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, members of the Centre will analyse the formal initiatives — lobbying strategies, industry organizations or communications mechanisms — that can be used to link the three "pillars" required for success. Moreover, the researchers will be drawing conclusions and making recommendations based on a detailed description of the experience of three well established high technology centres — Ottawa-Carleton, Silicon Valley and Glasgow, Scotland.

Each of these regions evolved in a unique way. In California, the driving force was a critical mass of private companies working in the computer industry. In Scotland, the government created direct incentives to promote investment in Glasgow's now-burgeoning bio-technology sector. Here in Ottawa, the process was driven by the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation (OCRI), a non-governmental organization that helped create conditions within which both the private and public interests could flourish.

"What we,re trying to do is to find out the best practices," says Centre director Gilles Paquet. "What we want to have is a how-to kit. If other cities want to establish the kind of activity we have here or in Glasgow or in Silicon Valley, we should be able to show them how it works."

The Centre is therefore enlisting the help of partners — including OCRI — to determine what kinds of organizational structures help or hinder innovation. They will also work in conjunction with representatives of McGill University, the National Research Council, Statistics Canada, the Conference Board of Canada, the Community Foundation of Ottawa-Carleton, the University of San Francisco and the Glasgow Education Business Partnership.