Assessing the Effectiveness of Innovation Grants – Evidence from the Irish Innovation Panel

Innovation grants are a ubiquitous feature of industrial support regimes across the industrial world. Evidence on their effectiveness is less widespread, however, due to a lack of consistent longitudinal or panel data on innovation outcomes and company performance. In this paper we investigate the effectiveness of R&D and innovation grants support in Ireland and Northern Ireland using panel data and a sample selection approach to the modelling of grant impacts. The study is based on the Irish Innovation Panel which provides panel data on the innovation activities of manufacturing firms in Ireland and Northern Ireland over the 1991-2002 period. The use of panel data allows us to investigate the medium to long-term effect of innovation grant support. In other words, we are able to identify whether the receipt of an innovation grant merely increases innovation activity in the short-term or has any lasting effect on either innovation capability or firms’ technological trajectory. The latter outcome is clearly desirable for any region or nation seeking to use innovation grants as a means of boosting long term competitiveness. The use of a sample selection approach allows us to identify separately the ‘selection’ and ‘assistance’ elements of the impact of any innovation grant. In other words, it allows us to control for the positive effects of any targeting of assistance on more innovative or better performing companies and isolate the ‘true’ effect of any innovation grant. To our knowledge this is the first time this approach has been used to assess the impact of innovation grant support although the technique has been used by the authors in a previous analysis of small business assistance. Our results suggest very different time profiles in terms of the benefits from product and process innovation grants suggesting alternative managerial and regional development strategies. Grant support is also found to have strong positive effects on innovation activity even allowing for a wide range of conditioning effects. Our results therefore suggest the continued value of innovation grant support as an element of regions’ industrial support regimes.

Closing the knowledge gap in Irish manufacturing - a north-south comparison

Knowledge, however defined, is perceived as firms "key" source of competitive advantage and a central determinant of productivity and wealth creation. The value of knowledge as a competitive asset is not intrinsic, but depends instead on its application, i.e. innovation or the transformation of knowledge into new technologies, products and, or services. Therefore, the extent of innovation within an economy depends crucially on the rapid diffusion of new technology and best practice, which it is argued depends in turn on building strong regional networks. So, knowledge, its distribution and diffusion - particularly through the supply chain - form the central focus of this paper. For some economies (e.g. Finland, Israel) with high levels of domestic R&D spending much of the ''new'' knowledge driving local business competitiveness is created domestically. For Ireland, both North and South, however, historically low levels of domestic R&D spending mean that inward technology transfer - primarily associated with inward investment - has been crucial to recent economic development. This suggests two main questions. First, how does the knowledge transferred to Ireland, North and South, through international inward investment compare to international best practice? And, second, to what extent does this knowledge then diffuse to other manufacturing businesses located in Ireland? A third, and related, question concerns the contrasting experiences of Ireland, North and South, particularly given the very different history of inward investment in the two areas. The analysis in the paper is based on data collected through face-to-face interviews with 94 Multi-national enterprise (MNE) plants in the South and North of Ireland. The relatively high response rates achieved and the fact that the final sample coverage resembles relatively closely that of the underlying population suggests that the sample is likely to provide results which are representative of the whole population of large MNE plants in both the South and North of Ireland. The research findings demonstrate that the potential to transfer knowledge from MNE plants to local firms through the supply chain is higher in the South of Ireland than in the North. Yet, Northern suppliers' adoption of a range of best practice techniques lags further behind their MNE plants than in the South. Therefore, larger average knowledge gaps suggest a greater potential benefit from knowledge transfers in the North of Ireland. Yet, while general contact as part of normal trading relations between MNE plants and their suppliers is more common in the North, contact in the South of Ireland is characterised by developmental interactions such as collaboration on product developments and quality assurance systems. Furthermore, southern MNE plants report having had a significantly greater impact on both the performance and the competitiveness of local suppliers than their Northern counterparts.

Platypalpus aliterolamellatus Kovalev (Diptera, Hybotidae) new to Britain and Norway

The hybotid Platypalpus aliterolamellatus Kovalev, 1971 is recorded as a species new to the British Isles and Norway based on material obtained from exposed riverine sediments. The key to British Platypalpus is modified to accommodate this species. Whilst collecting flies from river shingle on the River Tummel in 2015, I swept two female specimens of Platypalpus aliterolamellatus Kovalev, 1971, which were identified using the key by Grootaert and Chvála (1992). This is the first record of this species in Britain. Both specimens were swept from the vegetated sand and shingle toe of Ballinluig Shingle Island (NN9753, MidPerthshire V.C. 88) on 9.vii.2015. Ballinluig Island is an extensive deposit of cobble, shingle and sand with various stages of vegetational development from bare substrate to closed canopy woodland. The site is well-known for its diverse assemblage of specialist insects of exposed riverine sediments. Other species of Platypalpus collected from the immediate area were P. candicans (Fallén) and P. interstinctus (Collin), whilst a single P. optivus (Collin) was swept off thinly vegetated loose sand higher up the bar; P. minutus (Meigen), P. notatus (Meigen), P. pallidiventris (Meigen), P. albifacies (Collin) and P. interstinctus were collected off nearby cobbles with scattered vegetation

Platypalpus ochrocera (Collin) (Diptera, Hybotidae) from exposed riverine sediments with a description of the female

Summary: The female of the hybotid Platypalpus ochrocera (Collin, 1961) is described and the relevant British and European keys are modified to take account of newly recognised characters. Distributional and ecological information on P. ochrocera is presented, and an apparent association with exposed riverine sediments discussed. Platypalpus velocipes Frey, 1943 is newly recorded for Slovakia. Introduction: In 2015 I operated emergence traps set on exposed riverine sediments on the King Water (NY525635), a tributary of the River Irthing in north Cumbria. Four standard soil emergence traps with a footprint of 60cm by 60cm were each set on different substrate types. A valance around the base of each trap was buried in the substrate, ensuring that all insects emerging from the soil surface within the trap were retained. At the apex of each trap, a collecting bottle containing 50% antifreeze was used to kill and preserve emergent individuals. The traps were operated from 7 June to 19 July and serviced on a weekly basis, apart from the final sample which covered a two week period. One trap was installed on loose, vegetated sand deposited on the riverbank and in the sample from this trap for the period 3-19 July were 30 specimens of Platypalpus ochrocera (14 males and 16 females). There were also seven specimens of P. interstinctus (Collin), two of P. niger (Meigen) and a single female P. articulatoides (Frey). I also swept 10 specimens (5 males and 5 females) of P. ochrocera from vegetated sandy shingle on the Ettrick Water, Selkirkshire (NT275144) on 15.viii.2015. Whilst the male specimens of P. ochrocera keyed out readily enough using Grootaert and Chvála (1992), the females were more problematic, running to P. articulatoides by dint of their darkened postpedicel, pale palpi and coxae, but lacking the distinctly annulated tarsi of that species. It is apparent that the key does not take account of the darkened postpedicel of female P. ochrocera and consequently female specimens of this species will not key out satisfactorily. Collin (1961) described P. ochrocera new to science from just a single male and a later account of the species (Chvála 1989) also appears to be based on male specimens only. There are no female specimens of P. ochrocera in the Chvála Collection at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, or in the collection of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow (I. Shamshev pers. comm.). It seems worthwhile to provide here a description of the female of P. ochrocera and to adapt the relevant parts of the British and European keys to take account of this new information on the characters of female P. ochrocera

An Ex Ante Evaluation Framework for the Regional Impact of Publicly Supported R&D Projects

This paper draws on the knowledge-base implicit in ex post evaluations of publicly funded R&D and other related conceptual and empirical studies to suggest a framework for the ex ante evaluation of the regional benefits from R&D projects. The framework developed comprises two main elements: an inventory of the global private and social benefits which might result from any R&D project; and, an assessment of the share of these global benefits which might accrue to a host region, taking into account the characteristics of the R&D project and the region?s innovation system. The inventory of global benefits separately identifies private and social benefits and distinguishes between increments to public and private knowledge stocks, benefits to R&D productivity and benefits from commercialisation. Potential market and ?pure? knowledge spillovers are also considered separately. The paper concludes with the application of the framework to two illustrative case-studies one relating to a collaborative company-university project and one relating to a university only research centre.

Building health into our plans from the start: Report and review of the health impact assessment workshop on the Knowle West Regeneration Strategy; Wednesday 21 July 2010

Knowle West in South Bristol has a population of about 15,000 and was mostly built in the 1920s and 1950s. Although for many Knowle West is a great place to live and there is a strong sense of community, it has high levelsof deprivation, with some parts of it being in the poorest 1% nationally. Filwood, in the heart of Knowle West, has the second lowest score under the Bristol Quality of Life Survey Liveability Index and there are significant healthchallenges. Life expectancy is the second lowest in Bristol, with high levels of cancer mortality and heart disease mortality. The level of obesity is one of thehighest in Bristol, as is the level of smoking.Work started on the Knowle West Regeneration Strategy in September 2009 and the vision for the area was agreed as “A community full of confidence and pride, skilled and healthy, living in a thriving Bristol neighbourhood that isgreen and well connected and low in living costs” – known as the ‘Knowle West Vision 2030’.With major change proposed for Knowle West, the Healthy City Group of the Bristol Partnership considers it vital that health and well-being in its widest sense is integrated into the regeneration plans. Therefore the group has initiated a health impact assessment (HIA) process to review potential health impacts. This report is based on a participatory workshop for the draft Knowle West Regeneration Strategy. The workshop looked at the wider social, economic and environmental foundations for health and well-being – how housing, transport, employment, open space etc impact on people’s health – rather than being limited to the provision of health services.The workshop took place on 21 July 2010 and was attended by 36 people, including local residents, local workers, strategic policy makers, service providers and a local councillor. Marcus Grant and Hugh Barton from theWHO Collaborating Centre for Healthy Cities and Urban Policy at the University of West of England (UWE) facilitated the process.The workshop used the Spectrum Approach for participatory HIA. This provides a quick but holistic overview of a particular development project from a health and sustainability standpoint. It does not weight one criterion against another (which implies trade-offs), but rather identifies an acceptable bottom line in relation to each criterion. It involves a set of agreed health criteria,systematic evaluation and a colour-coded grading system

Tachydromia calcarata (Strobl) (Diptera: Hybotidae) new to Britain, with redescription of both sexes, and its correct classification within the T. interrupta group of species

First record of Tachydromia calcarata (Strobl) (Diptera: Hybotidae) from the British Isles, and outside the Continental Alpine region, is reported here. Both sexes are redescribed, female for the first time, and the species re-classified within the predominantly mountain T. interrupta group (formerly assigned as a member of the T. connexa group)