It Takes More than a Bridge to Make a Region
The Øresund Contracts as Instruments for Cross-Border R&D Cooperation
Isabelle Collins and Erik ArnoldAEA Toronto
October 2005
Background
• The Øresund link connects Denmark and Sweden across the entrance to the Baltic Sea
• After years of environmental opposition, the two governments decided that the opening of the link in 2000 should be celebrated by 10 cross- border cultural events
• The Øresund Contracts were one of these - intended to bring together the innovation systems of the Copenhagen and Skåne regions
Background
Common Innovation Systems perspective on R&D policy
The potential reachof public policies ...
Framework ConditionsFinancial environment; taxation andincentives; propensity to innovation
and entrepreneurship ; mobility ...
Education andResearch System
Professionaleducation and
training
Higher educationand research
Public sectorresearch
Industrial System
Large companies
Mature SMEs
New, technology-based firms
IntermediariesResearchinstitutesBrokers
Consumers (final demand)Producers (intermediate demand)
Demand
Banking,venture capital
IPR andinformation
Innovation andbusiness support
Standards andnorms
Infrastructure
PoliticalSystem
Government
Governance
RTD policies
Policymakers have responded by using more complex measures
Multiple
Single
MultipleSingle
Development measures MAPs and network measures
Activity promotion or subsidy measures
Linkage or ‘bridging’ measures
Measures
Actors
Tackling both market and systems failures
Multiple
Single
MultipleSingle
Intra-organisational learning, capability development and performance improvement
System strengthening• Within actors• Between actors• Reducing bottlenecks
Point or step change in organisational performance
Inter-organisational learning, network development and strengthening
Measures
Actors
Under political pressure to move quickly, policymakers seized on the Danish Centre Contracts model
Centre Contracts Programme Logic
Group of SMEs
identifies a common problem
A GTS* institute offers to
exploit the solution
University and institute do
research to find a generic
solution under a Centre Contract
Problem solved!
Re-exploitable intellectual
capital provides spillovers
New knowledgeUniversity provides research capability
.. and simply added a regional, cross-border dimension, with each project to have a full set of stakeholders on each side of the Øresund
Increased critical mass
and adequacy of regional knowledge
infrastructure
Increased competitiveness of the Öresund economyIncreased integration of the Öresund region
Overall Objectives
Increase innovation in companies
Obtain externalities through re-
use of intellectual
capital
R&D results meeting
company innovation
needs
New intellectual
capital for the research institutes
Increased knowledge
and innovation networking
Newknowledge
Öresund contracts: joint R&D projects
Goals
Results
Activities
We used multiple methods to tackle the evaluation
Telephone survey
Group interviews
Document analysis
Peer review
Instrument portfolio analysis
Initial findings Final report
Stakeholder reference group
Participant perspective • Increased cross-border networking - especially
extending established networks, as the contracts were launched too quickly to establish new ones
• Provided a unique source of cross-border funding
• Allowed networks with clear objectives to make technological progress, largely developing instrumentalities and other ‘intermediate’ research results rather than products or processes
• Rigid rules requiring reciprocity across the Øresund made networks hard to construct and sometimes too big to be inclusive
• No cultural or language obstacles to cross-border cooperation
Instrument perspective • Network innovation instruments have
strong theoretical justification• The cross-border implementation
created unwieldy, inefficient networks• Swedish institutes were barely present
in Skåne, so their participation was difficult
• Universities play different roles in Sweden and Denmark
• Lack of an equivalent to GTS in Sweden meant spillovers were hard to capture
Regional innovation system perspective • Integration of the Copenhagen and Skåne
regions should strengthen both and is an established policy objective in both countries
• The regions share a strong food and pharma focus
• However, there are few cross-border institutions and those that exist are weak
• Regional governance differs strongly between across the sound
• Øresund contracts were ‘parachuted’ in from the national level, bypassing both the regional networks and regional authorities
• The programme clearly caused additional activity - but with only 6 projects and a 3-year horizon, few noticed the splash
Conclusion
mechanism + context = impact (Pawson and Tilly)
A bridge too far?