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To deepen the understanding of how OECD countries can move towards a broad‑based form of innovation policy, the OECD worked with the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy in bringing together academic and policy experts in a series of five high‑level expert workshops on “Broadening innovation policy – New insights for regions and cities”. This publication provides a summary of the discussion, building on background papers prepared by academic and policy experts.
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There is an increasing awareness that a narrow – purely excellence‑oriented – approach to innovation policy misses the opportunities that innovation diffusion and upgrading of regional innovation systems provide to support regional and national growth. A broad-based approach can help unlock this potential. Taking the capacity of the regional innovation system into account, it aims to improve and grow the innovation system through learning and by leveraging opportunities that other policy areas provide. A broad-based approach is not meant to forego the support of excellence in innovation policy but rather acknowledges that different places have different needs to fully unlock their potential. This report establishes six principles that help broaden innovation policy to benefit all types of regions and cities.
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Innovation is key for growth in all types of regions but many regions are struggling to transition towards new growth opportunities and reap the benefits that a constantly expanding global pool of knowledge offers. Traditionally, “innovation” carries the notion of scientific and technological breakthroughs and this aspect remains a crucial component of most innovation policy. Patenting activity and research and development (R&D) spending are, however, highly concentrated. Ten large (Territorial Level 2, TL2) regions account for about 45% of global patents and private sector spending on R&D among 34 OECD countries with available data. The same 10 regions produce a sizeable share (approximately 18%) of OECD-wide gross domestic product (GDP) but far less than their contribution to frontier innovation. This does not mean there is no frontier research activity elsewhere: many regions have frontier activities in certain sectors or academic disciplines. It does, however, mean that a purely frontier-focused approach to innovation policy will exclude a large number of places, firms and people and will miss out on their potential.
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This chapter discusses the need to move from a narrow focus in innovation policy to a broad-based approach that adapts to the needs of different regions and cities. A broad-based approach requires taking capacity of the regional innovation system into account and adapting efforts of all levels of government to working with and upgrading that capacity. As regions and cities across the OECD have to face today’s grand societal challenges, business-as-usual approaches are unlikely to deliver innovation in all places.
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This chapter takes a brief look back across the first three waves of industrial transitions to draw lessons on how regions and cities can ride the current fourth wave. It discusses key elements of the regional innovation system that support a successful transition, as well as different development paths including specialisation and diversification of economic activity. The chapter concludes with a more general discussion of disruptive innovations and how regions and cities can prepare to benefit from their impact.
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This chapter highlights the need to go beyond a research- and patenting‑oriented approach to innovation policy in regions that do not (yet) have broad-based capacity for frontier research. It highlights the external nature of knowledge flows and the different skill needs in regions that are not at the innovation frontier. The chapter provides guidance on a sequential approach to upgrading regional capacity, building and developing existing strengths.
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Complexity and uncertainty are core features of most policymaking today and innovation policies are no different. This chapter describes and analyses how policy learning can address these challenges. It reviews two core learning mechanisms – learning through interaction and learning through experimentation – and discusses their application to innovation-led regional development and policies. The chapter also explores how policy learning can work in less-developed regions and the barriers to overcome for successful network implementation and experimental governance in regions with low institutional capacity. It concludes by considering how to preserve and embed the impact of learning and experimentation over time.