Proactive Labour Market Policy as a Step Towards New Regional Innovation Policy: The Case of Tampere Region

Abstract

Like in all countries, the notion of innovation was, in Finland, interpreted to pertain mainly to industry, technology and the physical characteristics of products. In recent years, however, a reorientation has taken place. All of the most important innovation policy formulators — the Science and Technology Policy Council, the Finnish National Fund for Research and Development (SITRA) and the National Technology Agency (TEKES) — emphasize the need for a balanced development of technological and social innovations, and the need to accelerate the development of social innovations. When, in 2007, the Ministry of Employment and Economy began work on new National Innovation Strategy, they sought inputs from many actors by organizing open consultations, expert workshops and, finally, a high profile conference. The resulting proposal for Finland’s innovation strategy recognizes that the policies that supported Finnish industrial success in the past are no longer sufficient in an increasingly competitive, global environment. It calls for economic growth by moving beyond the sector-based and technology-oriented strategies of the past and towards strategies that support broader, more diversified sources of innovative capability, including the idea of ‘demand-based’ innovation (Sabel and Saxenian 2008, p. 120).