TRE Networks: A Uniquely American Solution to Regional Innovation

8/8/2019 TRE Networks: A Uniquely American Solution to Regional Innovation

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TRE Networks:

A Uniquely American

Solution to Regional

InnovationA whitepaper produced by the Office of Public Partnerships and Engagement

at Penn State University

by Penn State Office of Public Partnerships and Engagement:

Timothy FranklinLiz Nilsen

Meredith Aronson


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TRE represents a uniquely American answer to regional innovation activities

going on around the world. Instead of top down policy, it is bottom up and

regional; it plays to the strengths of regional economies; it lifts efforts beyond

regional boundaries; it is built upon public-private partnerships; and it spans

the rural-urban continuum. (Ed Paisley, Center for American Progress, 2010)

What Happened To The American Economy? - Needs and Directions

The United States is, itself, an innovation theworlds first representative democracy, viewed as

an experiment at its founding but now emulated worldwide. Innovation and creativity is in our

national DNA an advantage reflected not just in our political history, but in our economic

story as well. Despite recent challenges, the United States economy remains the wealthiest in

the world largely because of its capacity to invent and brand new and competitive products.

(Nelson, 1993; Lopez-Claros, 2010; CIA Factbook).

The global economy in 2010 finds numerous first world economies (China, India, EuropeanUnion countries, Brazil, and others) whose relative wealth is growing in part because of

ambitious policies directed at strengthening their capacity to innovate. The advantage we have

long held is being challenged by unprecedented worldwide competition; in the most recent IMD

World Competitiveness Yearbook, Singapore and Hong Kong passed the US in their annual

rankings of national competitiveness factors (IMD, 2010).

The demands of an increasingly vibrant global economy are being felt not just at the level of the

national economy. In small industrial cities and rural regions, and in specific industries (such as

manufacturing), Americans are falling behind. While individual stories of decline may differ in

certain respects, one common thread is that innovative ecosystems at the regional and industrial

level are underdeveloped or have competitive gaps.

The route to a turnaround is both breathtakingly simple and astonishingly complex: the US

needs both policy and practice that change the equation at the national level by strengthening

regions and industries ability to innovate.

The National Picture: Sowing Public Policy Seeds to Accelerate Private

Economies through Regional Innovation Clusters

The past two years have seen the Obama administration laboring to enhance and/or reprioritize

federal investments to jumpstart an economic revival. How can these public investments to

seed a private economy be made in the most effective and efficient manner? There are four keyconsiderations for policymakers:

Networks are the locus of increasing innovation. Maximizing the interactions betweenknowledge suppliers (individuals or organizations that do innovation) and knowledgeconsumers (those who need the innovations) is the keyto quickening the pace by

which the innovation process takes place as well as the volume of the knowledge createdand deployed. (Hagedoorn, 2002)


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Place-based prosperity is related to a regionally-focused transformation strategy. Thereasons for distress within a particular community lie within the specific challenges ofthe region; likewise, transformation efforts must build on the assets (geographic, social,or industrial) of the region rather than relying on one-size-fits-all national solutions.(Partridge & Rickman, 2006)

Current innovation capacity is concentrated in large metropolitan areas (BrookingsInstitution, 2008). This creates an issue of equity as smaller cities and rural areas findthemselves struggling to strengthen their local economies. Because metropolitan areasnow represent two-thirds of the nations population and, by extension, its voting citizens,the distribution of innovation capacity also creates a political challenge for policymakersas they make decisions about funding allocations.

Investment dollars can be maximized by creating a national network that will leverageavailable funding. This networks efforts can best be directed toward helping regionscreate the needed hard and soft innovation infrastructure, as well as seeding replicableefforts that can be deployed in multiple regions.

Creating a System: Characteristics of a National Framework that is RegionallyDriven, Customized to Area Strengths and Focused on Results

There is clearly much that can be accomplished on the national level to better use federal

investments to drive innovation, particularly in a fashion that encourages the formation and

growth of regional economic clusters. But as the last policy consideration suggests, spending is

not enough. Resources need to be deployed within the region in ways that will create actual

transformation. Simply writing checks to regions in hopes that they will know how to grow an

innovation ecosystem doesnt guarantee that it will happen.

A national framework that can assist regions would function as an intermediary layer between

funders and regions, helping regions best use investments based on proven strategies and

detailed knowledge of how to make innovation happen. What would that intermediary role look

like?

Focusing funding and leadership energy so as to avoid the ineffectiveness of

fragmentation;

Offering effectiveness across the rural-urban continuum so to be politically attractive;

Providing a national scope for developing and vetting high quality, locally customized

solutions with high regional relevance so as to ensure the national strategy results in

globally competitive quality;

Increasing interactions between universities and private sector so as to accelerate the

critical input to an innovation economy: knowledge transfer;

Repositioning existing assets and infrastructure in a region by linking them with national

university and innovation capabilities so as to be cost-effective;

Customizing a theory of regional change to the specific needs of individual regional

economies across the United States so as to implement effective and efficient policy;


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Increasing national programmatic capacity for creating additional regional innovation

clusters so as to compound success and reduce the cost of participation;

Developing regional infrastructure and strengthening anchor institutions so as to

create regional governance and program capacity capable of sustaining long-term

progress.

The nations universities are uniquely positioned to be at the center of development efforts,

playing the critical intermediary role that is so needed.

Why Universities?

Despite what is sometimes viewed as an ivory tower culture of impracticality, in fact universities

are still the epicenter of learning and research in the US. In 2006, they contributed more than

70 percent of the top 100 innovations (Litan, 2010; Power & Malmberg, 2008). Land-grant

institutions, in particular, have more than a centurys worth of outreach to communities

throughout their home states, and a shared understanding of their responsibility to extend

knowledge to local settings.

The role of universities in development can and should be multi-faceted:

At the most basic level, universities provide talent, through access to degree, certificate and

professional development programs to build or enhance a regions workforce, and often offer

enrichment programs to children, youth and adults.

Talent development serves as a base for three other important roles in development:


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Technology development: universities are involved in commercialization, technology

transfer, and industrial research, and create entrepreneurs as students graduate with

valuable knowledge and skills

Firm development: universities provide corporate training, business and management

education, and technical assistance to companies in need of field-specific expertise

Industrialcluster development: university innovation parks, incubators, accelerators

and distributed research programs provide a focus for emerging clusters

As universities fulfill these functions, they help drive a new economic base, a 21 st century

workforce, and reshaping the area as a quality, connected place with a high quality of life.

Universities can also play an important role in encouraging civic collaboration, and helping the

areas leadership develop new networks and a new community identity. As all these threads

converge, regional developmentis well underway.

Universities also play an important role not just for individual regions, but in their states. Theyinform policy discussions and provide advice to state leaders.

For an individual university, their role in development ends at the state level. TRE Networks

extends this model based on the tremendous capacity in these institutions to envision a coalition

of universities playing the critical intermediary network role that is needed to ensure prosperity

in all regions not just in the metropolitan areas that are already centers of innovation, but

nationally, including smaller struggling industrial cities and far-flung rural regions.

TRE Networks The New Model

A new coalition of exceptional universities including Penn State, Purdue, Arizona State, the

University of Michigan and the University of Akron are stepping out as pioneers in the effort

to again become relevant to the thousands of communities that need practical assistance in

navigating the rapids of economic change.

The land-grant and public research university system represents a uniquely American invention.

This current coalition grew from the desire to harness the power of these universities in a

collaborative and synergistic model that was both systemic and systematic in its approach to

supporting current US economic needs. TRE Networks leverages the existing investments in

these great institutions the crown jewels of public US innovation capacity and provides a

structure to combine those strengths into a much broader national capacity.

The new coalition goes beyond universities. Also engaged are highly-regarded organizations

such as the Council on Competitiveness, Center for American Progress, Association for Public

and Land-grant Universities (APLU), and the National Association of Manufacturers.

TRE Networks will have two primary areas of activity: the TRE Roundtable and TRE Practice.


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TRE Roundtable

TRE Roundtable is the network development arm of TRE Networks. By creating forums for

dialogue, the TRE Roundtable serves as a gathering place for the so-called quadruple helix of

business, government, universities, and non-profits to develop approaches to unleash university

assets in innovation-based regional development strategies. Policy makers and practitioners intransformative regional engagement share ideas, build agendas, and take collective action.

University and private sector leaders and development practitioners gatherphysically and

virtuallyto exchange knowledge and shape policy recommendations to foster effective regional

innovation initiatives nationwide.

The TRE Roundtable has been active for two years, with participation from national policy

organizations and universities. Roundtable activities include:

Annual meetings of the TRE Roundtable community to facilitate dialogue about the kinds of

policy needed to advance key TRE objectives

Fora for online tools and resources, including TREpedia, the TRE Toolkit, and Web 2.0

connections for the community

Roundtable partners include:

Arizona State University

Association of Public and Land-Grant

Universities

Association of University Research

Parks

Center for American Progress

Council on Competitiveness

The Greater Milwaukee Committee

Greater Louisville, Inc.

The Manufacturing Institute (National

Association of Manufacturers)

Michigan State University

National Outreach Scholarship

Conference

North Carolina State University

Northern Illinois University Outreach,

Center for Governmental Studies

The Pennsylvania State University

Purdue Center for Regional

Development

Rural Policy Research Institute (RUPRI)

Regional Research Institute (West

Virginia University)State Science and Technology Institute

(SSTI)

The University of Akron

The University of Georgia, Public

Service & Outreach

University of Maryland

University of Michigan

TRE PracticeTREPractice is the implementation arm of TRE Networks. TRE Practice cultivatestransformation efforts in small and medium-sized industrial cities, in the urban core, and in

micropolitan/rural regions. TRE Practice is, as the name indicates, a setting in which actual

transformation takes place as regional leaders and TRE Networks experts work together. A

comprehensive portfolio of solutions - workshops, tools, and services - has been assembled from

best-in-class approaches throughout the nation and can be customized for each regions needs.


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Work in individual regions is based on a framework for change illustrated to below. At the

center of the circle are two processes that are critical to development: enhancing the degree of

civic collaboration in a region, and working with regional leaders to build new networks and

promote new narratives - stories that the region tells about itself and where it is going. Moving

out from the center are the three sectors

which development efforts need toaddress:

Brainpower and talent development:

Regions that grow need to attract and

develop a talent pipeline and a workforce

that produces innovation and thinks on

the job.

Innovation and entrepreneurship: The

regional economic base grows by

innovating to compete and growing newcompanies and jobs through

entrepreneurship.

Quality connected places: high-

performing schools, healthcare, housing,

non-profits, amenities, and a flow of

visitors contribute to attracting and

retaining innovative firms and the

brainpower they hire.

The sectors also intersect with one another, shown in the arrows moving out from the center

for example, as talent and entrepreneurship are both addressed, a growing number of innovative

businesses (the red arrow) are created.

In each region, an anchor regional institution a university or college leads the work and

guides the developing competitive strategy, in partnership with a TRE Senior Advisor. The

anchor institution knows the region best and has existing relationships with local leaders. At the

same time, the anchor institution may not have all the expertise and resources the region needs

gaps that can be filled by the network of other institutions involved with TRE Networks.

How does this process works over time?

Civic collaboration, at the bottom of the conebelow, is the starting place for regional work.Some regions may already have a high degree of civic collaboration; others may need to address

years of discord and develop new social systems and disciplines that align, support and craft

regional strategy and direction.

Related to this growing dynamic of cooperation, new networks and narratives will develop over

time as leaders work together. Regions in transition need to communicate their vision in a

compelling narrative, as well as build the social, financial, and technological innovation


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networks that bring resources and connections into a place-based strategy. As the

transformation effort develops, the anchor institution and TRE Networks will play three critical

roles:

First, they can analyzea regions assets and needs and legitimize the initiative to drive change.

Second, they can convene all sectors of a community, and lead a process to align the manyprograms and initiatives that already exist. Finally, very few regions have all the pieces that are

needed to compete globally. The anchor institution can draw on the expertise of all the

universities and other partners in TRE Networks to delivernew programs and solutions,

customizedas needed to the regions needs.

There have been many efforts to involve higher education in regional development. Most use a

push model; that is, a particular program is designed and marketed as the solution to the

needs of the state or region. In contrast,

TRE Practice offers a pull model: the

foundation of the work is a partnership

with existing regional institutions andother assets. New tools or programs are

introduced only as they fill in identified

gaps in a comprehensive strategy. This

bottom up approach is designed to

respond to specific regional gaps from a

set of products, tools and services are

customized to the regions and are

delivered by participating higher

education or other partners.

These new tools take two forms. The firstis a series of webinars, workshops and

interactions that help regions increase

their skills in civic collaboration and

developing new narratives and networks.

Most are based on an approach called

strategic doing which quickly matures regions ability to do transformative work together.

TRE Networks has partnered with Ed Morrison at Purdues Center for Regional Development

(PCRD) to develop this set of offerings; Ed is nationally-known for his work throughout the

country helping communities and regions build their collaborative abilities.

In addition to these foundational tools, a portfolio of leading-edge certified programs offered

through TRE Practice supports specific transformation initiatives. When regions have ideas of

where they are going strategically, they are often in uncharted territory as to how to do that

themselves for example, how do you start an incubator, a venture fund, a program to reduce

high school dropout rates, a regional institute of collaboration, a network to grow strong

regional supply chains? TRE Networks paves the way, identifying programs to serve as models

to accelerate a regions progress. But just sharing a website of a successful program is clearly


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insufficient. TRE Networks also develops the resources that will allow regions to implement the

approach for themselves toolkits, technical assistance, and implementation guidance, all

tailored to the specific profile of the region, be it a small or mid-sized industrial city, a

metropolitan area, or a micropolitan region.

These model programs are not necessarily the ones that have made the biggest splash. Instead,

TRE Networks vets candidate programs carefully with three criteria in mind: Is the program

replicable in a setting different than its original incarnation? Is it scalable that is, will it work

in multiple locations, or does its success lie in its limited deployment? Is it sustainable does it

rest on a business model that is feasible over the long term? Only programs which meet thesetests become TRE Practice offerings nationwide, allowing for multiple programs to come from a

given region and then be offered nationally, and for a national offering to be customized to

multiple regions, as indicated in the figure above.

What Success Will Look Like

Universities have been engaged in regional development for many years in many cases

beginning with cooperative extension efforts, and more recently with technology transfer

initiatives. While these efforts have been valuable, TRE Networks represents a fundamental re-

imagining of the role of postsecondary education institutions to meet a new set of challenges,placing the institutions in the center of a national framework focused solely on regional

economic competitiveness.

Such a model must be accompanied by specific outcomes that will demonstrate the extent to

which the new structure is in fact bringing about effective change in regions around the country.

Those outcomes must encompass shorter-term and activity-based measures (examining the

degree to which regions are implementing the kinds of programs needed) in the three critical


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areas of talent, innovation, and quality connected places. Outcomes must also include long-term

and impact-based measures to which these programs, when deployed in an integrated fashion,

leadthat is, the extent to which region is becoming more competitive. Specific metrics that

TRE Networks will monitor in regions are based on the three sectors that make up the model of

change described above:

Sector Shorter-term/activity-baseduniversity metrics

Long-term/impact-basedmetrics

Brainpower and talent Doctoral Degree Programs Masters Degree Programs Baccalaureate Degree

Programs Summer College Internships Associate Degree Transfer

Programs High School Internships Community College

Cert./Terminal Programs Intro & Prerequisite College

Courses High School Certificate

Programs STEM Outreach Programs STEM Teacher Prep

Programs

Per Capita Income Population Ages 25-40 Baccalaureate Degrees Post-secondary

Participation

Innovation andentrepreneurship

Technology Transfer # Commercialization Support

Services

# Patents # Licenses # Publications

$ Contract R&D $ Research Expenditures $ Competitive R&D Awards

# Faculty # Technicians # Post-docs # Grad Students

High Wage Jobs Business Starts Business Expansion

Business RecruitmentsVenture CapitalInvestments

Quality connected places R&D Prospect/Client Visits

Cluster-Focused GraduateStudents Cluster-Focused Faculty &

Staff Entrepreneurship Support

Services Testing & Engineering

Services Companies

Relocation Leads

Real Estate Sales Housing Construction Hotel Bookings


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Sources Cited

To read more about the ideas included in this paper, see:

Brookings Institution (2008).MetroPolicy: Shaping a New Federal Policy for a MetropolitanNation.

CIA Factbook 2010.

Hagedoorn, J. (2002). Inter-firm R&D partnerships: an overview of major trends and patterns

since 1960.Research policy,31(4), 477-492.

IMD (2010). World Competitiveness Yearbook, 2010. Switzerland: IMD World Competitiveness

Center.

Litan, R. (2010). FuelingLocal Economies: Research, Innovation and Jobs. Testimony to US

Joint Economic Committee, June 29, 2010.

Lopez-Claros, A. (2010).Innovation for Development Report: Innovation as a Driver of

Productitvity and Economic Growth. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

Nelson, R. R. (1993).National innovation systems: a comparative analysis. Oxford University

Press, USA.

Partridge, M. D., & Rickman, D. S. (2006). The geography of American poverty: is there a need

for place-based policies?Kalamazoo: WE Upjohn Inst for Employment Research.

Power, D., & Malmberg, A. (2008). The contribution of universities to innovation and economic

development: in what sense a regional problem? Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy andSociety, 1(2), 233 -245. doi:10.1093/cjres/rsn006

Learn More

For more information on TRE Networks or explore how TRE Practice can help your

region, email us [email protected], or visitwww.trenetworks.org.

TRE Networks, Inc.

c/o Office of Public Partnerships & EngagementPenn State University

Building 329, Suite 416B

University Park, PA 16802
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.trenetworks.org/http://www.trenetworks.org/http://www.trenetworks.org/http://www.trenetworks.org/mailto:[email protected]

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TRE Networks: A Uniquely American Solution to Regional Innovation