Call for papers.
19-21 November 2008, Marburg, Germany

Objective:

The main focus of this workshop is on policy measures in the context of regional and sectoral systems of innovation. The relevant questions are what kind of policy measures can be taken, what effects do different policy measures have, and how can policy measures be evaluated.

Innovations and regions are nowadays important topics for policy makers. Many policy actions are focused directly or indirectly on regional innovation systems or local clusters. While there is a huge amount of theoretical and conceptual discussion about innovation systems and clusters in the scientific literature, besides many case studies, there is much less scientific work done on a general understanding of the policy impact.

Three topics are discussed in the existing literature. First, and most intensively, the contribution of policy to regional innovation systems and clusters is analysed. This literature examines the role of policy and public institutions in innovation systems and clusters and their influence on the innovativeness of firms. Second, some literature deals with the question of how specific policy measures can be designed to support innovation systems or the emergence of clusters. Many different programs have been set up in Europe in recent years. Examples in Germany are the BioRegio contest, the EXIST program and the measures located within the InnoRegio family. However, still little is known about the best design of such measures. Third, most of these specific measures are evaluated. Causality, time-lags and the impossibility of counterfactual situations pose problems on these evaluations. Furthermore, evaluations for single programs exist, but these are often internal and only for a short time with a more quantitative character.

The intention of this workshop is to gather theoretical and empirical contributions from the above different fields in the greater context of regional or sectoral innovation systems, the effects of policy measures and the aspects of evaluation, addressing one the following questions:

• What is the role of policy and public institutions in regional innovation systems and/or the emergence of local clusters?

• How should policy measures be designed to support the innovativeness in regions and/or the emergence of local clusters?

• What are the problems in evaluating policy measures and how can they be solved?

• What do we learn from existing evaluations of policy measures?

Deadlines:

• Abstract submission: August 25, 2008
• Papers/notes acceptance: September 12, 2008
• Submission of final paper: November 3, 2008

Scientific Committee:

• Thomas Brenner, Philipps University Marburg
• Charlotte Schlump, Philipps University Marburg
• Uwe Cantner, Friedrich Schiller University Jena
• Holger Graf, Friedrich Schiller University Jena
• Hariolf Grupp, Universität Karlsruhe (TH)
• Dirk Fornahl, Universität Karlsruhe (TH)

Travel and accommodation costs of the participants will be covered according to standard DIME arrangements for one author per paper from DIME-partners and for invited speakers.

Submissions:

Please send extended abstracts (max. 1,000 words) and contact details to schlump@staff.uni-marburg.de and specify whether you are eligible for funding by DIME.