The market-oriented reforms of the S&T management system and industrial sectors initiated twenty years ago brought about a fundamental transition of China’s innovation system. The innovation system is now entering a second phase of transition. It is now a major challenge to enhance endogenous innovation capacity in the economy and in domestic firms.

Having been exposed to ‘feather-bedding’ many firms have not developed an in house R&D-capacity to develop genuine innovations. These firms could grow safely in the past two decades with cheap labor and with a big home market where shortage of supply was inherited from the planning economy era. In this context buying ‘second-hand’ technology from abroad was sufficient and the incentive to develop in-house technology was weak. With the access of China to WTO, competition from multinational companies becomes tougher and low-wage exports are confronted with trade disputes not only with advanced countries but also with developing countries. The speed-up of technical change, the new IPR-regime and the growing presence of MNEs in China also undermine a strategy based upon imitation.

Facing the fallout of the international financial crisis and sweeping changes in international and domestic landscapes, the central government of China proposed the transformation of the economic growth mode and strategy of developing strategic emerging industries.

For China, the major targets for economic and social development in the next five years are: to maintain stable and relatively fast economic growth; to achieve major development in economic restructuring; to universally raise people's incomes at a relatively fast pace; to remarkably enhance social construction; to continuously deepen reform and opening-up; to achieve substantial progress in transforming the economic development pattern; to remarkably strengthen the country's comprehensive national power, international competitiveness and capability in shielding against risks; to make notable progress in meeting people's living and cultural demands; and to further consolidate the foundation for the making of a better-off society in an all-round way.
Strategic emerging industries would lead social and economic development in the future. Developing strategic emerging industries have been the strategy for most of the developed countries in the world. China would grasp opportunities to accelerate the cultivation and development of strategic emerging industries.
Besides developing strategic emerging industries, China is planning to put efforts into the establishment of a modern industrial system and enhancement of the core competitiveness of industries by transforming and upgrading the manufacturing sector, and accelerating the growth of the service sector.
The transformation of the economic growth mode would challenge both the adjustment of industry structure and innovation system and competence building at country, industry, regional, firm level. So, the general theme will be organized according to sub-themes and panels such as:
1.Economic long wave, financial crises and solutions
2.Demand-side Innovation policies
3.Opportunities and threats in strategic emerging industries
4.service sector, service innovation in the transformation of economic development mode
5.Technological capability and core competitiveness of industries
6.Innovation management and management innovation in corporations
7.Innovation policies and innovation management in a global economy
8.Cross-country comparisons of innovation systems
Submission and acceptance
Please submit an extended summary about 1000 words to the organization committee before June15, 2011.
The scientific board of CICALICS 2011 will review all the abstracts and make an acceptance decisions. The authors of the accepted abstract would be required to submit full papers before the workshop and present the paper at the workshop.
The extended summary is submitted to Dr. Yi WANG (wangyi@sem.tsinghua.edu.cn) via email.
Workshop Date: 27~28 August, 2011
Workshop Site: Tsinghua university campus, Beijing, China
Contacts: Ms Junmei MA, Email: majm@sem.tsinghua.edu.cn

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Anthony Arundel, Benjamin Coriat, Bart Verspagen, Franco Malerba, Maureen McKelvey, Hiro Odagiri have confirmed their keynote speeches.


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CICALICS: the China Innovation Circles and Academy - Learning, Innovation and Competence Systems

Background
The initiative of CICALICS is built upon the experience by academia in Europe and North America. The experience shows that innovation studies can be greatly strengthened when scholars form national and international networks and organise research and training together. The topic of innovation studies has received increasing support from the political level, from policy makers and business managers. But it is not always easy to build innovation studies at the single university and sometimes the scale of the activity is too limited at the single university.

The formations of the network CCC in the US, of EUNETIC-ETIC-DIME in Europe and of DRUID in Denmark have played a crucial role in moving innovation studies into a stronger position in academic studies and, as well, giving better quality for policy advice. One purpose of these initiatives has been to establish meeting places but another major purpose has been research training. In research training a minimum scale of the activity is important to create high quality.
What is CICALICS?
The mission of CICALICS includes the following:

1 Invite a limited number, about 25, of outstanding international innovation scholars to become CICALICS members which form the outer circle.

2 Create an open national-level network of Chinese innovation scholars – and public administrators / policy makers which form the inner circle.

3 Become a new centre for innovation research at School of Economics and Management (SEM), Tsinghua University, which will be the central node in both the inner and outer circle in alliance with the strong groups at other Chinese Universities.

4 The network organises two annual events between late August and early September.

A An annual CICALICS Workshop, connecting both inner and outer circle around some selected topics within innovation research. The workshop normally invites 10-20 international, 40 Chinese scholars and 20 Chinese Ph.Ds. It is sometimes combined with some public lectures on management and policy issues.

The 2011 CICALICS Workshop will be held from 27 to 29 August in Tsinghua University.

B An annual CICALICS Academy, delivering research training to Ph.D. students from China and from abroad as well. CICALICS Academy invites both international and Chinese scholars as lecturers, some of whom would be invited from among the participants in CICALICS Workshop.

The 2011 CICALICS Academy will be held from 24 to 30 August, in Tsinghua University.