{"id":214508,"date":"2016-03-24T15:15:28","date_gmt":"2016-03-24T18:15:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/?p=214508"},"modified":"2016-03-24T15:42:04","modified_gmt":"2016-03-24T18:42:04","slug":"the-dna-of-innovation-in-the-metropolises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/the-dna-of-innovation-in-the-metropolises\/","title":{"rendered":"The DNA of innovation in the metropolises"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"028-032_Clusters_237\"<\/a>The S\u00e3o Paulo Metropolitan Region, which is smaller than only the megalopolises of Shanghai and Beijing in China, and Seoul in South Korea, ranks fourth on a list of urban clusters in which the volume of knowledge generated by their universities has soared in recent years, multiplying interactions with companies and organizations in their societies and changing the economy and environment of their cities.\u00a0 This ranking was presented in June 2015 by M\u00e9ric Gertler, a professor in the Department of Geography and Planning and currently chancellor of the University of Toronto, Canada, at the Glion Colloquium, in Switzerland, a biennial forum attended by leaders of research universities.\u00a0 FAPESP Scientific Director Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz, who participated in the event, commented: \u201cI was pleasantly surprised when I attended M\u00e9ric Gertler\u2019s lecture, which took place the day after my own, and heard him highlight S\u00e3o Paulo as a cluster of scientific production.\u201d<\/p>\n

An international leader in studies on innovation geography, Gertler compiled data on scientific production in regional clusters, extracted from the Web of Science, a Thomson Reuters website, and analyzed networks of collaborations connected with that production.\u00a0 He then compared the performance of each region between 1996 and 2013.\u00a0 In that ranking, which illustrates the evolution of scientific output in the last two decades, S\u00e3o Paulo (with an increase of more than 400%) and the Asian metropolises (Shanghai grew by 1000%) appear at the top, ahead of regions like Munich, in Germany, Boston, in the United States, and London, in England.\u00a0 Gertler also ranked regions based on volume of scientific production between 2011 and 2013.\u00a0 On that list, S\u00e3o Paulo appears in 32nd<\/sup> position, with about 40,000 publications, behind more consolidated regions like San Francisco, Tokyo, and Berlin but ahead of major regions like Munich and Manchester-Liverpool.<\/p>\n

The data suggest that research universities imprint a dynamic spirit on their home regions, jump starting the economy, innovation, and creativity.\u00a0 Gertler showed that among the 50 highest regarded universities on the Times Higher Education<\/i><\/em> World University Rankings, only seven are situated in urban centers that have a population of less than one million.\u00a0 In the other 43, the presence of a world-class university is always tied to some major metropolitan region where companies and institutions benefit from the knowledge and human resources generated by academia while at the same time making demands that challenge the academic community.\u00a0 The S\u00e3o Paulo urban cluster is defined, in Gertler\u2019s analysis, as the megalopolis of more than 30 million residents formed by the state capital and the cities of Campinas and S\u00e3o Jos\u00e9 dos Campos, where there are institutions like the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (USP) and the University of Campinas (Unicamp), the federal universities of the ABC region (UFABC) and of S\u00e3o Paulo (Unifesp), and the Technological Institute of Aeronautics (ITA), as well as three institutions that are part of S\u00e3o Paulo State University (Unesp). USP, which whose main campus is in the state capital city, is itself responsible for 22% of Brazilian scientific output, according to figures from the Web of Science.\u00a0 \u201cThat Brazilian hub is part of a remarkable story.\u00a0 As recently as 25 years ago, it was little known and highly specialized.\u00a0 Now it is a global force,\u201d M\u00e9ric Gertler told Pesquisa FAPESP.\u00a0 <\/i><\/em>\u201cAccording to bibliometric data from Thomson Reuters, in 1990 USP was collaborating with 350 institutions in 28 countries.\u00a0 By 2014, it was working with more than 6,500 institutions in 145 countries.\u00a0 That is simply extraordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Gertler, partnerships with universities play a crucial role in the economic reinvention of cities.\u00a0 He cites as example the U.S. city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which managed to make the transition from the leading U.S. steelmaking hub to a prosperous and diversified region, a model in education, technology, health care and financial services.\u00a0 \u201cPittsburgh has benefited tremendously from the impact of Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh, and 35 other universities and colleges.\u00a0 Similarly, metropolitan areas like Boston, San Francisco, Raleigh (North Carolina), and Austin (Texas) have benefited from the influence of MIT, Harvard University, Stanford, University of California San Francisco, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke University, the University of Texas, and dozens of smaller, less famous schools,\u201d Gertler observes.\u00a0 \u201cThis is equally true across Canada, in places like Toronto and Vancouver, and the same is true around the world.\u00a0 Think of Singapore or the S\u00e3o Paulo region, including S\u00e3o Jos\u00e9 dos Campos and Campinas, for example.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many countries, recognizing the value of participating in global networks of knowledge, have selected some of their leading research universities as targets for concentrating investments.\u00a0 This helps attract and retain talented students and researchers.\u00a0 \u201cThis is resulting in huge increases in publications, citations, and collaborations\u2014it is good news for all,\u201d says Gertler.<\/p>\n

The survey adopted a methodology used by other research groups, according to which bibliometric indicators also serve to point out, albeit indirectly, the vigor of the economic activities and elements of civil society that naturally are connected with universities.\u00a0 \u201cScientific research is, by definition, a creative and innovative activity\u2014and is itself an engine of urban development,\u201d writes Christian Wichmann Matthiessen, a researcher from the University of Copenhagen, with Annette Winkel Schwarz and Soren Find from the Technical University of Denmark, in an article about world cities published in 2009 that used the same methodology as Gertler.\u00a0 \u201cThe manager of a venture capital fund made the point explicitly when he said: \u2018ultimately, money flows where ideas flow\u2019,\u201d Gertler observes.\u00a0 He warns, however, of the acknowledged limitations in the use of bibliometric indicators, which usually say a lot about quantity but not necessarily much about quality.<\/p>\n

Gertler has dedicated much of his academic career to the study of the economies of urban regions and the role that large institutions like universities play in their development.\u00a0 He says there are several ways in which universities that are intensively engaged in research spur regional innovation, prosperity and reinvention of the economy.\u00a0 First, he says, universities provide sources of energy and resilience for the economies of urban regions.\u00a0 They generate huge budgets and partner with industries, institutions, and non-profit organizations.\u00a0 \u201cResearch based on partnerships often leads to new findings in basic and applied science.\u00a0 When local partners work with a university, faculty and students are both try out new ideas and benefit from them.\u00a0 Furthermore, much of the research conducted within our institutions ultimately finds its way into the marketplace through a variety of channels as measured by technology licensing agreements, patents, and startups.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"University

University of Toronto<\/span>University of Toronto Chancellor M\u00e9ric Gertler: international leader in studies of the geography of innovation.University of Toronto<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Gertler observes that universities contribute to their regions and countries mainly by forming human capital.\u00a0 \u201cEducating students is by far the main form of technology transfer on the part of universities.\u00a0 University graduates provide a powerful injection of creativity, engagement, and energy into a community,\u201d the chancellor says, and this is true for all fields of knowledge.\u00a0 \u201cWe often hear that our nations need more graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.\u00a0 Of course those fields are crucial.\u00a0 Nevertheless, it must be said that graduates in humanities and the social sciences engender dynamism and resilience as much as STEM grads do.\u00a0 The humanities and social sciences enable us to think broadly and deeply about our problems and the values that guide us in forging solutions.\u201d\u00a0 In the digital era, he argues, it is vital to be able to analyze information critically and creatively, to arrange the key points so as to build persuasive arguments, and to listen and learn from other perspectives.<\/p>\n

Research universities also function as gateways that connect their regions to the world, and vice versa.\u00a0 \u201cCollaboration among researchers and publications in co-authorship are becoming more and more important, and increasingly international.\u00a0 Moreover, these international partnerships are not randomly distributed around the globe, but are most frequently found among elite institutions located in other major urban regions.\u00a0 To quote a recent editorial in the journal Nature<\/i><\/em>, \u2018excellence seeks excellence, so elite national universities are also leading international collaborators\u2019,\u201d Gertler says.\u00a0 This is important because the present and future prosperity of our universities depends on their ability to access and use not only locally-produced knowledge but also the knowledge developed in other leading centers of research and innovation around the world.<\/p>\n

Lastly, universities exercise a stabilizing influence on their neighborhoods.\u00a0 \u201cTo borrow a term from retailing, our institutions are the \u2018anchor stores\u2019 of their communities.\u00a0 The size of our institutions has a substantial economic impact throughout the region\u2014creating jobs, boosting tax revenue, and fostering the entrepreneurial spirit,\u201d says Gertler, who also points to the positive local impact the extension activities offered by his teaching staff, employees, and students are having on neighboring communities and districts.\u00a0 One example: dental students from the University of Toronto treated 78,000 patients in 2014 as part of their extension work.<\/p>\n

Universities also help rebuild the physical infrastructure of their cities and frequently play a leading role in regenerating the urban fabric.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s one reason why so many municipalities around the world have pursued post-secondary institutions as sources of new vitality for aging urban centers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city of S\u00e3o Paulo was formed by the convergence of favorable economic movements such as coffee-growing and industrialization, the cultural diversity promoted by migratory movements, and the scientific development fostered by major universities, observes Leandro Medrano, a professor at the USP School of Architecture and Urban Studies.\u00a0 \u201cIts regional leadership is tied to that unique situation that transformed a town into Latin America\u2019s biggest megacity within less than a century.\u00a0 Such diversity and economic clout have driven continual cycles of innovation in various areas, such as science, culture, and the arts,\u201d he says.\u00a0 In Medrano\u2019s opinion, the greatest threat to this structure is urban violence and the desire of part of society to close itself off from the community.\u00a0 \u201cThe proliferation of gated communities and commercial centers could split the city into walled-off microsystems.\u00a0 And that would impair their potential as a center of innovation.\u00a0 Fortunately that trend we saw in the 1980s and 1990s seems to have run its course.\u00a0 S\u00e3o Paulo may be embarking on a new cycle of progress with regard to its urban potentials,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Renato de Castro Garcia, a professor at the Institute of Economics at Unicamp, recalls that there was a time when the S\u00e3o Paulo region experienced a flight of industries to regions where costs were lower and logistical facilities better.\u00a0 \u201cBut the technological solutions employed by the companies are harder to decentralize because those businesses attach a lot of importance to remaining physically and geographically close to the places where knowledge is generated,\u201d he says.\u00a0 Garcia was the advisor on a master\u2019s thesis defended at USP by economist Ariana Ribeiro Costa that analyzed the dynamics of information technology companies in the S\u00e3o Paulo Metropolitan Region.\u00a0 \u201cThe companies that are concentrated in the city and nearby regions are knowledge-intensive,\u201d she says.\u00a0 She concluded that those companies continue to settle in the vicinity of the state capital because, despite the costs, they identify links that help them become stronger and offer opportunities for exchanges of knowledge.\u00a0 \u201cFace to face contact and diversification of production play a vital role in that concentration and the exchanges of knowledge that occur in those environments,\u201d says Costa, who uses the concept of tacit knowledge that was extensively explored by M\u00e9ric Gertler in his studies on economic clusters.\u00a0 Tacit knowledge, as opposed to the codified knowledge found in books, is the kind of knowledge that is not easily transferable and depends on personal contact, regular interaction, and trust in order to be passed on.<\/p>\n

Costa\u2019s thesis helps explain why the S\u00e3o Paulo capital city was the only metropolis in Latin America listed in the latest edition of Global Startup Ecosystem Ranking 2015, <\/i><\/em>which assesses the environment for development of the infant technology companies known as startups.\u00a0 S\u00e3o Paulo ranks 12th<\/sup>, behind such locations as Silicon Valley (California), New York, Los Angeles, and Boston, all in the United States.\u00a0 In referring to S\u00e3o Paulo, the study cites as strong points the fact that it is the economic capital of Latin America, in addition to the financing available to technology startups already in business, whose numbers are estimated at 2,700.\u00a0 Investments by venture capital funds in S\u00e3o Paulo technological startups in 2014 exceeded those made in companies in Seattle, in the United States.\u00a0 \u201cS\u00e3o Paulo has more talents than any other startups ecosystem in South America,\u201d the authors of the study emphasize.<\/p>\n

The clout wielded by innovation clusters challenges the idea that because of globalization, the world has become flat, as argued by U.S. journalist Thomas Friedman in his book The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century.<\/i><\/em>\u00a0 Veneziano de Castro Ara\u00fajo, a professor of economics at Unifesp argues that \u201cWhile it is true that globalization has led to a convergence that enabled countries like India and China to join the global supply chain of goods and services, there still exist points inside those countries where competence will cluster.\u201d\u00a0 In 2013 Ara\u00fajo, also advised by Renato Garcia, defended a doctoral dissertation at USP, in which he addressed the effects of proximity on the local dimensions of innovation in Brazil.<\/p>\n

He cites the example of creativity at Unicamp.\u00a0 \u201cThe university began graduating well qualified engineers and adapting its surroundings to attract companies, which expanded demand for those professionals.\u00a0 The needs expressed by companies also required engineers to study technologies that were not available and promoted collaborations with the university.\u00a0 Furthermore, other companies that wanted to come to Brazil, interested in the excellent interaction between the university and industry, chose Campinas as their home,\u201d he explains.\u00a0 \u201cEmbraer, a Brazilian aircraft manufacturer, is another example; it originally relied on engineers trained by ITA, but now absorbs graduates of USP and Unicamp.\u00a0 Proximity to the technological expertise and knowledge of the region makes this possible,\u201d he says.\u00a0 Those factors do not, according to Ara\u00fajo, prevent interactions from intensifying between researchers and companies in distant regions but they do not flow as swiftly as the collaborations within those clusters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Universities influence the economy and environment where they are situated ","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[166],"tags":[225,265],"coauthors":[98],"class_list":["post-214508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-policies-st-en","tag-economy","tag-urbanism"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214508\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214508"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=214508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}