The Brookings Institution launched a new guide to help local leaders assess their innovation districts.
“Assessing your innovation district: A how-to guide,” provides a framework to audit the assets that comprise local innovation ecosystems. The document is designed to aid in targeting resources toward innovative and inclusive economic development based on an area’s unique strengths and challenges.
The framework is centered on a set of key questions:
1. Critical mass: Where are the region’s highest concentrations of innovation assets?
2. Innovation capacity: Is the district leveraging and aligning its distinctive advantages to grow and strengthen firms’ innovation capacity?
3. Diversity and inclusion: Does the district have an inclusive, diverse, and opportunity-rich environment?
4. Quality of place: Does the district have physical and social assets that attract a diversity of firms and people, increase interactions, and accelerate innovation outcomes?
5. Leadership: Does the district have the leadership necessary to succeed?
The guide provides sample methods and data that can be used to answer these questions. It also includes advice on the indicators that innovation district stakeholders can track to gauge their district’s success, along with suggestions for how additional measures could be used to further fuel district growth and development.
Related Stories
Codes and Standards | Dec 14, 2016
Cities must invest $375 billion to avoid catastrophic global climate change
C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group advocates low carbon infrastructure.
Codes and Standards | Dec 14, 2016
Resilient construction techniques pay for themselves over lifetime of buildings
Spending $340,000 for resiliency would pay for itself over the lifetime of a $10 million structure.
Codes and Standards | Dec 12, 2016
Dept. of Energy launches program to advance zero energy school design
Six school districts and two states are among the first to mainstream zero energy schools.
Codes and Standards | Dec 9, 2016
California city’s plan for net zero building includes net zero water usage
Santa Monica city services building aims for highest level of sustainability.
Codes and Standards | Dec 8, 2016
WELL and BREEAM to align standards
The goal is to make it easier for projects pursuing both standards.
Codes and Standards | Dec 7, 2016
U.S. lumber industry pushes for import duties on Canadian softwood
The industry claims the product is being sold below fair market value.
Codes and Standards | Dec 5, 2016
International Construction Measurement Standards draft released
The goal is to improve consistency for calculating costs and reducing risk.
Codes and Standards | Dec 2, 2016
D.C. Council passes bill to reduce number of blighted properties
The new legislation reduces the amount of time a vacant property can qualify for a lower tax rate.
Codes and Standards | Dec 1, 2016
Passive House standard gaining influence in commercial sector
Some industry watchers predict it will become the base building code.
Codes and Standards | Nov 30, 2016
Researchers finding solutions to bird/building collisions
Glass facades pose a serious risk to birds and cause millions of avian deaths each year.