10 September 2008
The official reception, which was hosted by the Regional Council of Gipuzkoa, was attended by Angel Mª Irastorza on behalf of the Department of Innovation and the Knowledge Society, the chairman of Orkestra, José Luis Larrea, and the dean of ESTE faculty, Victor Urcelay, as well as Mari Jose Aranguren and James Wilson, senior researchers at Orkestra and lecturers at ESTE faculty, who organised and presided over the conference.
According to Ángel Mª Irastorza, who gave participants a warm welcome on behalf of the institution, this conference is aimed at the study of regional industrial policies. In addition, it will examine one of the key issues related to competitiveness in Gipuzkoa, which is highly dependent on this sector, and a determining factor for its welfare, given the specific organisation of the Basque institutional structure.José Luis Larrea, on his part, stressed the importance that international networks like the EUNIP network have for Orkestra, a knowledge centre for the analysis of regional competitiveness and economic development.In turn, Victor Urcelay underlined the research lines developed by ESTE in the last few years, strongly linked to the areas of work of the EUNIP network, and of high interest not only from a strictly academic standpoint but also for corporate competitiveness and the economic development of our regions.
Finally, the organisers gave a brief outline of the economic policy adopted by the Basque Country since the 80s which, if compared with other European economies of the time, explicitly rejected the idea that ??the best industrial policy is the one that does not exist?, developed a number of initiatives geared towards scientific and technological policies and the support to the development of industrial clusters.According to many experts, the prosperity of the Basque Country nowadays is due to the proactive approach that was then adopted. In addition, special mention was made to the fact that, nowadays, the approach to industrial policy in the Basque Country is focused on achieving a ?second transformation? based on innovation and on development promoted by ideas. An example of this is considering the year 2008 as ?the year of innovation?, and having promoted the creation of Innobasque, an association to coordinate and encourage innovation among individuals and companies in the Basque Country.
This opening event marked the beginning of two sessions, where this global network of experts in economics and industrial policy presented their most recent contributions and shared experiences and knowledge.
Nearly 100 papers were presented in 26 parallel sessions and three plenary sessions
Due to the large number of applications received, the parallel sessions were structured around ten sub-themes on technology, R+D and innovation systems, development of creative regions, entrepreneurship, productivity, innovation and alliances, regulatory policy and public/private mix, roles and impacts of transnational companies, SMEs, clusters and networks, governance and regional development, evaluation of industrial and economic development policies, and the role of scholars in economic analysis and public policy.
During the 17 parallel sessions that were held on Thursday 11 September, two of them specifically examined the topic of technology, R+D and innovation systems.At the session chaired by Joost Heijs, from the Complutense University of Madrid, experts Helena Lenihan from Limerick University (Ireland) and Stephen Roper from Warwick University (United Kingdom) presented their work on the improvement in effectiveness of policies to subsidise R+D.Then, Elvira Uyarra, from the University of Manchester (United Kingdom), presented a research paper on the impact of public contracts on regional innovation, and Javier Carrillo Hermosilla (Enterprise Institute) examined the topic of industrial policies to promote eco-innovation.
The plenary sessions were attended by experts of international renown.The first, held on Thursday, was a unique opportunity to share the experience of the Basque Country in the development of regional policies and to present future challenges.
Andrew Davies, an expert on regional policy at the Regional Competitiveness and Governance Division (OECD), opened the session with an institutional and international perspective on the topic under discussion. Then, Jon Azua examined the different elements involved in the regional policy in the Basque Country compared to other strategies developed at a national or global level.Jon Azua is chairman of the Advisory Board of Orkestra and chairman of e-novating lab, a networked company aimed at creating competitive alliances between innovative companies, governments and regions. He has extensive experience both in the private and the public sector, where he held a variety of important posts including Vice-President of the Basque Government, among others.Miren Larrea, senior researcher at Orkestra and lecturer at ESTE, served as chair.
Philip Cook, founder of the Centre for Advanced Studies at Cardiff University, and a great expert on the topic, brought the session to an end with an academic perspective on the current state of research on regional policy and the future challenges of regions like the Basque Country.
On Friday, 12 September, two parallel sessions were held, where experts continued to present their contributions and discussed about the abovementioned topics, including a round-table discussion on the role of scholars in economic analysis and public policy. In addition, two plenary sessions were held.The first session examined learning processes and the policy of economic development. It was attended by Björn Asheim, from Lund University (Sweden), Knut Koschatzky, from the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (Germany), and Joost Heijs, from the Institute for Industrial and Financial Analysis of the Complutense University of Madrid, who acted as chair.
The closing session focused on the emerging tendencies in industrial policy. It was conducted by Roger Sudgen, from Birmingham University (United Kingdom) and it was attended by Marco Bellandi from Firenze University (Italy), Helena Lenihan from Limerick University (Ireland), Anne Lorentzen from the University of Aalborg, Eleanor Morgan from Bath University (United Kingdom), and Mari Jose Aranguren and James Wilson, organisers of EUNIP 2008.
