Innovation Policies for the 21st Century Report of a Symposium (2007) / Chapter Skim
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Panel II: New National Models
Panel II: New National Models
Pages 68-98
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From page 68... ...
Kuhlmann expressed gratitude at being offered a chance to participate in what he characterized as an interesting and challenging event being held in an environment that was impressive both institutionally and architecturally. He said that he had been asked to speak about the status of research in Germany and the country's research innovation system, whose development is increasingly becoming part of a European research system.
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From page 69... ...
Part one laid out the strengths and weaknesses of the German innovation system. Part two briefly introduced the governance structure of innovative research in Germany and the related institutional landscape.
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From page 70... ...
Still, there are exceptions according to sector: In information and communications technology (ICT) in Germany, where national programs had not been very strong, EU funding has played a more important role than in other areas.
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From page 71... ...
The leading category, at nearly 47 percent of the total, is "institutional funding," which goes to such nonuniversity research organizations as Max Planck, Helmholz, and Fraunhofer. Project funding, routed through programs at the federal level, represents 40 percent; its share, greater in the 1980s, decreased through the 1990s as institutional funding rose.
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From page 72... ...
, which, as mentioned earlier, is to some extent in competition with the BMBF. Heading the list is a program focused on innovation in East Germany, followed by the largest program in monetary terms, FoKo/Pro Inno, which targets collaborative work in innovation by SMEs.
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From page 73... ...
Pro Inno II 2004-2008 IGF - Promotion of Joint ¸ Since 1954 97 m Subs. Industrial Research European Recovery Since 1996 95 m Loans Innovation Program ¸ InnoNet 1999-2005 13 m Subs.
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From page 74... ...
The program receives a high number of applications -- even though there is no guarantee of funding due to budget constraints and despite significant problems, during market entry. Program Anatomy: InnoRegio The second example, BMBF's InnoRegio program, is aimed at strengthening the endogenous innovation potential of weak regions in eastern Germany by setting up sustainable innovation networks.
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From page 75... ...
Nevertheless, he noted that "in East Germany there is still a tendency to expect public funding to be the main source of stimulus towards innovation." Moreover, although there is scant disagreement that networking is a basic precondition for innovation, the question of whether the impact of such initiatives will be sufficiently long-term, stable, and robust to justify the investment they require remains unanswered. Germany's "Partnership for Innovation" Taking up a theme that Dr.
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From page 76... ...
And its labor force remains highly qualified, at least in comparative terms. The Potential of European Integration Finally, Dr.
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From page 77... ...
THE TEKES EXPERIENCE AND NEW INITIATIVES Heikki Kotilainen Tekes, Finland Dr. Kotilainen expressed his appreciation for the opportunity to present Finland's "small-country approach to innovation policy." His presentation began with a very brief statistical overview, and continued with descriptions of Finland's innovation system.
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From page 78... ...
. Even though Finland's science policies have been in place since the 1950s, technology policy formulation did not happen until the mid-1980s, following the establishment of Finland's Science and Technology Policy Council.
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From page 79... ...
Kotilainen identified the two main public organizations in the domain of R&D: the Academy of Finland, operating under the country's Ministry of Education and charged with basic research; and his own institution, Tekes, operating under the Ministry of Trade and Industry and charged with applied research. Public-sector R&D actors also included universities; VTT, a large and multidisciplinary research institute under the Ministry of Trade of Industry; and other ministries, such as Agriculture and Forestry, that had their own research facilities.
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From page 80... ...
In Finland, R&D funding is considered to be an investment rather than an expenditure. Money that goes directly from funding agencies to companies is seen as short-term investment; money that flows through universities and research institutes, creating technology and new skills that then contribute to companies' competitiveness, is seen as long-term investment.
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From page 81... ...
fig 12 Tekes's Funding Strategy, Operations Tekes itself has a steadily if gradually rising budget that reached 430 million euros in 2005. Research funding in the form of grants and company funding in the form of both grants and loans is distributed through a variety of instruments, such as national technology programs, direct company R&D funding, direct research funding of universities and research institutes, as well as equity funding for start-up entrepreneurs.
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From page 82... ...
In 2004, Tekes funded projects under 23 existing technology programs covering a wide range of emerging technologies having an overall value of 1.2 billion euros; such programs typically were of 3 to 5 years long and, in any given year, drew 800 separate "participations" from public research units and 2,000 from companies.9 That Tekes provides no more than 60 to 80 percent of the funding for university projects indicates that it always requires matching funds from industry, Dr. Kotilainen explained, adding that it generally refrains from funding projects at 100 percent even though it has the ability to do so.
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From page 83... ...
Coinciding with Tekes's investment of 409 million euros in 2004, Dr. Kotilainen stated, 770 new products have reached the market and 190 manu
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From page 84... ...
This study also concluded that Tekes funding allows for the expansion or acceleration of projects, the latter being of particular importance in sectors where the first company to market takes all. A study by Finland's National Audit Office dating to 2000 found that Tekes funding allowed not only broader and more rapid implementation of projects, but also surmounting of risk barriers: 57 percent of projects considered in the study would simply not have been undertaken without support from Tekes.
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From page 85... ...
Nicholson expressed his desire to clarify at the outset that, as chief of policy in the office of Canada's prime minister, he is not specifically charged with management of science and technology. Although experienced in the field as a former faculty member at the University of Minnesota, he had never administered science and technology programs in government.
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From page 86... ...
, Technology Partnerships Canada (TPC) , and the Industrial Research Assistance Program
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From page 87... ...
fig 13 Return on Investment (Schematic) Social Return Private Return Public Private Sector Sector Domain Domain Potentially "Orphaned" Domain Basic Applied Technology Production Marketing Research Research Development • Research • Granting • Business • Export • NRC • TPC Chairs Councils Develop- Development • IRAP • Centres of Corp ment Bank • CFI Excellence • R&D Tax Credit FIGURE 14 Canada's support programs span the innovation continuum.
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From page 88... ...
Partnerships 1996 $255 Annual high-risk R&D commercialization Build innovation capacity of SMEs IRAP 1962 $135 Annual thru technical advice & assistance Seed investment to leverage private BDC Early -Stage 2004 $210 Invested Venture Capital VC in new technologies *
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From page 89... ...
CFI's board, although it includes some government appointees, operates at arm's length from the government. The objectives of the Canada Foundation for Innovation are fourfold: • to transform research and technology development in Canada; • to foster strategic research planning in universities, which Dr.
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From page 90... ...
"Or do you keep following this bootstrapping process to higher and higher levels? " Canada Research Chairs: Complementing Infrastructure with Talent A human-resource complement to CFI is the CRC, whose objective is to develop a cadre of world-class researchers to exploit the infrastructure built up under CFI.
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From page 91... ...
"To some extent that may be a factor of age demographics still," he speculated, adding, "It's something the program managers are very concerned about." Assistance to Industry: IRAP Moving from support for basic research to support for industry, Dr. Nicholson next described the IRAP, which he called "the classic one in Canada for smallbusiness innovation." Its funding, about $135 million a year, underwrites the activities of 260 Industrial Technology Advisors operating from 90 sites across the country who are available to all small businesses engaged in technology.
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From page 92... ...
TPC: Risk-Sharing and "Repayability" The purpose of Technology Partnerships Canada, which has functioned as the Defense Industry Productivity Program until 1996, is to risk-share industrial research and precompetitive development across a wide spectrum. Designed to address a "persistent and frustrating" gap in Canadian firms' development of new technology, it covers from 25 to 30 percent of the costs involved in R&D, development of prototypes, and testing.
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From page 93... ...
to the extent that one once could." Summing up, Dr. Nicholson expressed the opinion that Canada has rapidly built a strong basic research capacity that is paying off in terms of reputation and reversal of the country's brain drain.
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From page 94... ...
Sudden integration caused a breakdown of the existing East German research system, which had not been compatible with that in the West. A marked brain drain resulted from salary discrepancies between the two regions: Especially early on, industrial researchers from eastern Germany found work with companies in western Germany and made their way there.
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From page 95... ...
be helpful on the demand side of the equation," he said, "none is easy politically." Germany: Trying To Go Beyond Classic Recipes Dr. Kuhlmann also pronounced himself in agreement with the statement that far more elements of public policy have an impact on innovation than those included within the "narrow notion of innovation policy." As understanding of this area grew, European governments were more frequently becoming the object of criticism that their innovation programs did not take account of broader economic issues.
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From page 96... ...
Wessner said he had observed that while Europeans enthused over the creation of a European research space and innovation system, they often had barely concluded when they began speaking about their own national programs. He asked Dr.
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From page 97... ...
, Dr. Kotilainen emphasized its philosophical similarity to Finland's national innovation programs.
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From page 98... ...
Dr. Kuhlmann said he had speculated in a paper published just two weeks before on how "this very contradictory relationship," so fraught with tension at that moment, might develop in the future.10 There were some government officials who are opening up to collaboration across borders; there is, in fact, a program called ERA-net that funds only those intergovernmental collaborations aimed at developing joint national programs on a European platform.
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