Building Competitiveness: Local Realities and Innovation

Credit: Unsplash

Place-based innovation has become a buzzword among policymakers and business leaders across the globe. It refers to combined efforts to address community needs and leverage local assets, supporting the development of entrepreneurial systems and economic activity.

On Thursday (21), at 10 am EST, the GFCC hosts a conversation on place-based innovation. The second in the online series, Building Competitiveness: From Local to Global. The session will survey how the infrastructures, people, natural resources, and business assets that are geographically localized impact the local innovation economy with a focus on harnessing local and regional assets to stimulate economic activity and drive innovation.

Implemented in partnership with the Council on Competitiveness of Greece and the Delphi Economic Forum, this series of events will provide a platform for new ideas and connections that will be further advanced during the Global Innovation Summit in November in Athens, Greece.

The “Place-based Innovation” session will feature speakers from around the world, including Dr. Saurab Biswas, the Executive Director of Commercialization and Entrepreneurship at Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station; Dr. Georgios Doukidis, Professor of eBusiness at the Department of Management Science and Technology at Athens University of Economics and Business; Mr. Hasri Hasan, Chief Operating Officer at Northern Corridor Implementation Authority (NCIA); Mr. Dimitris Papastergiou the Mayor of the City of Trikala; Hon. Deborah Wince-Smith, the President of the GFCC and President and CEO of the Council on Competitiveness; and Dr. Roberto Alvarez (moderator), the Executive Director at the GFCC.

What is Place-based Innovation?

Place-based innovation refers to efforts to leverage a region’s existing research institutions, universities and industries to:

· Establish clusters of innovation.

· Address community needs.

· Spur regional economic development.

Place-based innovation has the unique potential to spur productive, inclusive, and sustainable economic development. It can provide a foundation to create and expand businesses and jobs by helping companies, entrepreneurs, universities, researchers, and investors to create connections and leverage resources. It also offers the ability to boost employment and educational opportunities for underrepresented populations.

To achieve this, all actors, including but not limited to government, industry, academia, and civil society, need to think critically about their role in the local economy and how they can support the transition to an innovation-based economy. Early adopters of a new way of thinking will play a far more transformative role in their cities and regions.

Importance of Place-based Innovation

Recognizing the importance of harnessing the innovation potential of local and regional assets, in 2021, the GFCC hosted an online conversation on local development. During this session, speakers listed the factors that create an enabling environment for innovation and innovators and the importance of collaborative leadership for advancing local agendas. Check out the post-event report and the video to see how the GFCC has engaged in place-based innovation in the past.

To build national competitiveness, a nation must first focus on building its local competitiveness. The first step is understanding what “the local” offers. This includes evaluating a region’s natural resources, infrastructure, business structures, talent pool, and present industries. Once there is an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of a locality, policy changes can be considered as well as ways to connect people, industry, and university. Addressing the needs of a region by bringing policy support, new infrastructure, outside investments, and upskilling opportunities can transform a region’s competitiveness and productivity.

Creating place-based innovation requires policies that build an entrepreneurial ecosystem with context-specific policy objectives. These policies should support local institutions in their efforts to address community needs and focus on the existing strengths of a specific region, which can stimulate economic activity in the area.

Innovation infrastructure is a critical determinant in a nation’s ability to be competitive. This includes all the elements of traditional infrastructure networks like roads, bridges, and transit. Additionally, it includes various and growing innovation networks like smart grid, broadband and wi-fi, and the most powerful and efficient wireless networks.

Many innovation efforts begin with a diverse and talented workforce. Broadening and diversifying the talent pool by making the region more attractive for locals to stay and foreigners to come is essential for a thriving innovation economy. This means creating a community that values active, iterative learning, risk sharing, and collaborating to compete. To achieve this, local planners can try to:

· Strengthen connections between people and firms by creating a walkable city,

· Design and manage public spaces to enhance interaction, learning, and networking,

· Locate university, company, and start-up spaces nearby.

· Concentrate on programming that helps to accelerate learning and strengthen networks between people and firms.

Building Competitiveness: The Local

The global landscape is changing quickly, calling for an update of competitiveness strategies and innovative ideas. To understand the different innovation economies of local realities from across the globe, register for the “Place-based Innovation” online conversation here.