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Category: Innovation

Better Arguments for Superclusters

[the_ad id=”12142″] A couple of weeks ago, the Globe and Mail published an op-ed “Beyond “the Next Silicon Valley”: Why Many Kinds of Economic Superpowers Matter” by Dalhousie University President Richard Florizone and MIT’s Scott Stern. It is, in my opinion, a better explanation of and argument for superclusters than anything the government itself has published, but it’s also a rebuttal (I think) to naysayers (like me) of the Supercluster concept, so I thought it worth reviewing some of the arguments

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April 23, 2018 1 Comment

Superclusters, Cold Fusion and Perpetual Motion

When writing last week about superclusters, I neglected to go through the actual “economic impact statements” that were being touted by the clusters themselves. It seems that the Industry Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED), has to some degree accepted the statements.  And I think this is important because some of what is being suggested is pretty close to a national scandal. So, let’s take a quick look at what, allegedly, we’re getting for our $950 million in Supercluster investments.

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February 23, 2018 3 Comments

La Nausée des Supergrappes

So, yesterday, the Government of Canada ended two years of tediousness by announcing the winners of the supercluster process. To briefly recap.  At some point in 2015 or early 2016, the Liberals became enamoured with the idea of technology superclusters, mainly because they got to spend money on hip-sounding industries in a spatially-restricted manner, which meant they could claim points on both the economic growth and regional development scorecards.  To this end, they invited groups of businesses (large, medium & small

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February 16, 2018 1 Comment

Less Nonsense about Technological Change, Please

University leaders have to put up with a lot of crap from politicians and business people.  There’s a lot of genuflecting to whatever the fads and feelings of the day are, just so they can appear “relevant” and “in tune”.  Superclusters? Oh yeah, superclusters are a great idea, Minister, really terrific, why has no one thought of them before?  When you are after public money, saying soothing things about the delusions of the powerful is just part of the game.

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February 9, 2018 2 Comments

Some Quick Naylor-related Federal Budget Advice

I see from this CTV story that Federal Budget Trial Balloon Leaking Season has begun.  This is the time of year when Liberals decide they would like to get applause for a decision more than once, and so they pre-announce various bits of the budget so they can have good news spread over more than just budget day (the Tories, whatever you think about the news management policies generally, tended to be much more fastidious about budget secrecy).  And the first leak

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February 8, 2018 1 Comment

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One Thought to Start Your Day is our founder and CEO Alex Usher’s popular daily blog, brimming with up-to-the-minute insights and informed opinions on today’s higher education industry.

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