This occasional newsletter focuses on the practical issues of economic development with a cluster focus.
A special greeting goes to those I met on my most recent round-the-world trip, which included:
cluster training workshops in Canada and Tanzania
a series of activities in Rwanda, Mozambique and Sweden
a meeting of the Pan African Competitiveness Forum in Maputo
1. Universities & Cluster Development
Around the world, the focus is on building ‘knowledge intensive’
clusters. For a cluster to be internationally competitive within its
field it must be innovative and ‘high-tech’. The active development of
clusters demands alignment and commitment by the three triple helix
partners:
business
government
academia (universities)
However, many universities have
yet to fully appreciate their opportunity to take a central role in
their region's economic development. Universities have the opportunity
and can choose to be central stakeholders. They can move beyond
providing leading-edge research, knowledge creation and training.
Universities need to be humble enough to open up to a two-way flow of
tacit (informal) information, the critical information that has
important spatial dimensions.
From a university’s perspective, a clustering initiative can:
Facilitate the development of
specialised competencies within the university. The alignment of the
university’s assets, skills and expertise with the region’s traded
clusters maximises the regional benefit. The knowledge created needs to
be absorbable by the local community.
Build links with the business community; provide ‘wholesale’ access to SMEs (small to medium enterprises).
Enable the university to keep
up-to-date with changing environments. This provides early feedback for
new curricula. It builds a community of support for technology and
research.
Provide opportunities for technology transfer...more than patenting and licensing:
spinning off emerging capabilities
focussing on needs-driven research
developing cluster specific incubators and research parks
providing consultancy services
establishing research consortia for pre-competitive research
Enhance revenue generation.
This includes tuition fees from international students attracted by the
specialist competence and also from generating real-life research
contracts.
For the cluster and the community, a university can:
Attract new talent and knowledge into the community
Adapt knowledge originating elsewhere to local conditions
Provide a neutral space for local conversations that are specific to the cluster
For a university that takes on this
more central role it requires a broad engagement from across the
university, not a compartmentalised, silo approach. Porous boundaries
are needed between academia and business. It is motivated,
externally-orientated individuals from the business school, economics,
technology faculties, law... who will make the difference in the end.
Examples of local specialisation at universities include:
Tuttlingen, Germany has a lead
cluster in medical devices. The local university offers an MBA in
‘Medical Devices & Healthcare Management’ which is possibly the
only one in the world.
On Western Australia’s surf coast and England’s southern coast, the local universities offer graduate programmes in ‘Surf Science & Technology’
Amongst the proactive universities I have been in contact with are:
Tallinn’s University of Technology (Estonia)
Dar es Salaam (Tanzania)
Makerere (Uganda)
Rwanda's National University
There are many more exceptional universities around the world. Please send me your nominations -
.
2. Pan African Competitiveness Forum
My recent trip included Maputo, Mozambique. The development of an initiative to ‘Light 1,000 clustering fires across Africa by 2010’
is underway. It is supported by Sweden’s international development
agency, the African Union and The Competitiveness Institute. This
initiative took root in Addis Ababa in April and is now gathering
momentum.
In order to stimulate the uptake of clustering initiatives within
Africa, a major competition is being explored. Substantial funding is
being offered over a 10 year period to the winners within each
participating country. Even more substantial funding is available to
winners on a “whole of Africa” scale. The next Competitiveness
Institute's conference in Cape Town will be taking this initiative
forward, under the umbrella of the Pan African Competitiveness Forum.
3. Forthcoming conferences
Ifor Ffowcs-Williams is participating at these two immediate conferences...
The Competitiveness Institute’s 11th
Global Conference in Cape Town, South Africa, 29-31 October. This is
the premier event annually for cluster practitioners, with the theme
this year of “Clusters: Meeting the Challenge of Globalisation”. In
keeping with the theme, speakers will be from 23 countries with
breakout groups focusing on Africa, India and Latin America. See http://www.competitiveness.org for details.
Desert Knowledge Symposium in Alice
Springs, Australia, 3-6 November. Theme: “Developing Desert Directions:
Rethinking the Future”. International experiences will be shared on the
development of clusters in remote communities. This conference is in
part a follow-on from the Rural Clusters conference held in Iceland
last year (and is scheduled to be followed by a Rural Clusters
conference in Denmark in 2009...more later) www.desertknowledge2008.com
4. Cluster training workshops in Europe
Copenhagen will be the location for
further cluster training workshops that are being organised by Oxford
Research early next year. These courses cover the practicalities of
cluster development using a Twelve Step process and have been presented
in over 30 countries. Attendees at past training workshops have come
from across Europe.
For information on the Copenhagen training, or to explore the possibility of hosting a training workshop elsewhere, email
Comments are welcome on the content of
this newsletter. The next one will reflect on the themes emerging from
the Cape Town and Alice Springs conferences.
You are welcomed to pass this newsletter on to others. If it has been forwarded to you in error, please accept our apologies.
