Coller Institute of Venture at Tel Aviv University
As the United States slowly emerges from the Great Recession, a remarkable shift is occurring in the spatial geography of innovation. For the past 50 years, the landscape of innovation has been dominated by places like Silicon Valley—suburban corridors of spatially isolated corporate campuses, accessible only by car, with little emphasis on the quality of life or on integrating work, housing and recreation, stated in Brookings recent report on innovation districts.
Apparently, the “innovation districts” is a new emerging contemporary urban model, and these geographical areas are leading-edge anchor institutions and companies cluster and connect with start-ups, business incubators and accelerators. What’s more, they are the manifestation of mega-trends altering the location preferences of people and firms and, in the process, re-conceiving the very link between economy shaping, place making and social networking. In a listing of these innovation districts, we could see some familiar cities in doing innovation such as Berlin, Seoul, etc.
According to the “innovation districts” report, innovation districts have the unique potential to spur productive, inclusive and sustainable economic development. This is because of their brilliant form and function. It points out that all innovation districts contain economic, physical, and networking assets.
Based on the form, innovation districts are spread in three models geographically.
The “anchor plus” model
The “anchor plus” model
The “re-imagined urban areas” model
The “re-imagined urban areas” model
The “urbanized science park” model
The “urbanized science park” model
Early in 2009, a report has already been published entitled The Geography of Innovation: The Federal Government and the Growth of Regional Innovation Clusters. It shows how significant the innovation of its region is for public policy makers.
To read the full report, please visit here.
