Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
5 Creating an Innovation Ecosystem
When I started to write this chapter, as an urban and regional development specialist
by training, I was wondering whether the competitiveness cluster policy is a con-
tinuation of the French regional policy, that was instigated in the topic by the famous
author Jean-François Gravier, published in 1947, entitled Paris et le desert français
(Paris and the French Desert). In his topic Gravier argued that the excessive growth
of Paris was resulting in the ''desertification'' of the rest of France and urged for the
necessity to achieve a better balance between infrastructure, industry, and agricul-
ture of modern France. The French Government took heed of Gravier's warnings
and created a Division responsible for regional policy in the Ministry of Recon-
struction and Urbanism, in 1950, and established DATAR (Délégation à l'Amén-
agement du Territoire et à l'Action Régionale), a State agency responsible for
regional planning and policy in 1963. DATAR was assigned three essential objec-
tives: ''devolved'' industrialization, the pursuit of large-scale regional development
projects, and the promotion of the creation of regional centers (métropoles
d'équilibre). This regional policy was very influential up to the mid1980s.
When I conducted the analyses on the French competitiveness clusters, I
realized that the regional policy has not been applied to the competitiveness
clusters for the following reasons. First, half of the 71 competitiveness clusters
have been created in three leading regions: Greater Paris (Ile de France), Lyon/
Grenoble (Rhône-Alpes) and the French Riviera (Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur).
Second, 3 out of 7 global clusters are located in Greater Paris. Third, According to
the cluster evaluation report published in 2012, 33 % of the public funds allocated
for the project went to 6 clusters (4 global clusters and 2 global vocation clusters)
and half of the funds accumulated are only in 12 clusters. Therefore, the com-
petitiveness cluster policy has no specific measures to improve the regional bal-
ance of distribution of the knowledge-based economic activities.
I do come back to the basic idea behind the creation French competitiveness
clusters. The main objective of the competitiveness clusters initiative is to constitute
geographical concentrations of actors from the spheres of business, research, and
education, inside a structure which is mostly not-for-profit institutions with specific
financing mechanisms for collaborative R&D projects involving at least two private
companies and one research institution which are expected to bring an innovation to
the market within period of 5 years. The competitiveness clusters policy shares a
common framework to that of the Triple Helix model, in which the government puts
in place the necessary measures to promote cooperation between enterprises
(productive sector) and academia (including other research institutions).
The initiators of the French competitiveness clusters understood very well that,
one of the key points that can guarantee the success of this policy is to develop
networks and networking opportunities between the clusters and other actors from
outside the clusters. The collaborative R&D project, involving at least to private
enterprises and one research laboratory, was chosen as a strategy to initiate the
networking.
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