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Ernest Beck reported in BusinessWeek, July 16, 2008, the National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts [NESTA], the independent British organization, is working on a new index to assess the state of innovation within specific industries.

" Since the 1970s, Britain's economy has made a dramatic shift from manufacturing to services, ranging from banking and finance to advertising and film production. But to date there's been no way to take stock of how innovative the companies and the industries actually are. Traditional methods of measuring innovation, such as the level of investment in research and development, don't tell the entire story.

" In an effort to more adequately measure innovation — and its impact on Britain's entire economy — NESTA, a nonprofit organization that promotes innovation, wants to create a new index, one that will be industry-specific and include what NESTA Executive Director Richard Halkett calls the changing, unreported face of innovation. "

NESTA's new Innovation Index is due in 2010.

More on >> BusinessWeek Jul.16, 2008.

On the basis of intense stakeholder consultations, six markets have been identified against a set of objective criteria : 

e-Health,
Protective textiles,
Sustainable construction,
Recycling,
Bio-based products,
Renewable energies.

More >> Lead Market Initiative for Europe

Published every two years, the OECD Science, Technology and Industry (STI) Scoreboard brings together over 200 internationally comparable quality indicators to explore the progress of national innovation strategies and recent developments in science, technology and industry.

Its goal is to inform policy makers on questions of high policy interest, including:

• The international mobility of researchers and scientists
• The growth of the information economy
• Innovation by regions and industries
• Innovation strategies by companies
• The internationalisation of research
• The changing role of multinational enterprises
• New patterns in trade competitiveness and productivity

By providing a wide array of indicators for policy analysis, the STI Scoreboard has become a widely used reference which combines statistical rigour with easy access and readability. The key findings are presented as bullet points alongside graphs highlighting the relative importance of countries. In addition, brief technical notes provide further methodological details on the indicators, along with links to useful references and data sources.

Regarding innovation and economic performance, large firms tend to introduce more novel innovations than small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). For product innovation, this ranges from more than 50% of all large firms having introduced a new-to-market innovation in Iceland, Austria and Luxembourg [44% in Belgium], to less than 20% in Australia, Germany and some of the recent EU member countries.

More on OECD Science, Technology and Industry Scoreboard 2007.

The term ‘city region’ has been in use since about 1950 by urbanists, economists and urban planners to mean not just the administrative area of a recognizable city or conurbation but also its hinterland that will often be far bigger. Conventionally, if one lives in an apparently rural area, suburb or county town where a majority of wage-earners travel into a particular city for a full or part-time job then one is (in effect) residing in the city region [10]. As explained above, this is the Brussels’ existing situation for around 30 % of the persons.

A city region is an official realization that a municipality’s economic, cultural and demographic reach can extend beyond the political or administrative boundaries of the city itself. The role of a city region is clearly pointed out by J. Homan of the Birmingham City Council[11] :

• The ‘economic’ city : a bigger footprint ;
• Adding value : a critical mass of people, talent, businesses, transport connections, gateways ;
• Better joining up of urban assets, e.g. integrating employment, housing and transport ;
• Providing a strategic urban vision for the long-term ;
• Twin track approach : improving liveability and competitiveness.

Since several years, many city regions have been created in Europe initially to counterpart the extensive influence of the capital of the country : Barcelona, Bilbao, Bologna, Dublin, Lille, Munich, Randstad, Stuttgart, etc…[12]. One good example – less than 100 kilometers from Brussels - is the Communauté Urbaine de Lille which is today seen as the dynamo driving the whole of the economy of the north east of France[13].

Are citizens ready to this ? A recent web-pool – although such survey cannot be considered as scientifically valid - organized by the French-speaking newspaper Le Soir showed that only 8 % of the responders chosen this option from Brussels [14].

Are politicians ready to this ? Last month the Reformator Party asked the Brussels’ Region Presidency to evaluate the future of Brussels as a “ Communauté Urbaine “[15].

Recently Van Wynsberghe discussed the Brussels metropolis[16]. She proposes minimalist versions , which can be envisaged without requiring institutional reform and without touching the geographical borders of the BCR.

<< Part 2

Sources

[10] Wikipedia.

[11] Metrogov : Urbact working group.

[12] More details on the Improvement and Development Agency's (IDeA's) web site.

[13] Lille city was devastated by the collapse of its textile industry in the second half of the last century. This caused crippling unemployment, especially in the immigrant communities that had come to work in the mills. In the late 60s, a citywide authority was set up to reverse its decline. It is elected by the 88 councils covering the built up area; and shares with them both income from local taxes, and powers over transport, economic development and housing. Lille's development is based on two territories: the urban community that groups municipalities and the metropolis that transcends state borders.

A key element in Lille’s transformation was the city leadership’s powers to do deals and ability to overcome parochial local rivalries. The results have been impressive. The centre has been transformed and new office developments; an expanded university and a booming financial services sector have boosted jobs.

[14] On 5182 votes to the question « What kind of future for Brussels in case of scission of Belgium ? [Quel avenir pour Bruxelles en cas de scission de la Belgique ? ]» the answers were : a city region 7.9 %, independency 10.7 %, capital of Brussels 12.5 %, capital of Wallonia 30.6%, an European district 38.3%. Pool Le Soir, September 2007.

[15] Le MR demandeur d’un grand Bruxelles, Le Soir Oct. 16, 2007.

[16] C. Van Wynsberghe - The Brussels metropolis : developments between Lille and Berlin ? Brussels Studies - 5/11/2007.

The attractiveness of the BCR is not limited to work positions. Around fifty percent of the students enrolled in the Brussels Higher Education Institutes are coming from Flanders and Wallonia. For example, 53%, 36% and, 11 % of the students of the Free University of Brussels (the largest French-speaking university of the BCR) are respectively coming from the BCR, Wallonia and Flanders[7]. Its Flemish counter-part (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) reports quite similar figures.

From a social/geographical point of view; Van Hecke recently evaluated the Belgian urban regions. An urban region is a sociological “set” – a quite homogeneous social and economical area – taking into account the housing, the people flow (travel), the work place and the exchanges between the center and the periphery. He pointed out that the Brussels’ urban region in facts covers 62 communes[8].

 

The corporate and cultural significance of Brussels stretches far beyond its administrative limit.

<< Part 1                                                                              Part 3 >>

References 

[8] Selon la KUL, la région bruxelloise compte 62 communes. La Libre Belgique Aug 2, 2008.

[9] Bruxelles, Capitale digitale de l'Europe "The Iris(h) Plan" (2005).