New study on innovative strength in the canton of Zurich – location promotion strengthens networking
In the increasing competition between locations, innovative power is a decisive competitive advantage. The canton of Zurich does well in this regard and is known far beyond the national borders as a location for innovation. As the new edition of the Zurich Economic Monitoring of the Office for Economics and Labor (AWA) shows, it ranks 51st in a comparison of 250 European regions and thus only misses the top 20 percent.
Potential for improvement despite high innovative strength
50 regions have an even higher innovative power than the canton of Zurich – this also includes important competing locations such as Munich or Stockholm. The study also shows that the canton of Zurich was still in 18th place in 2014. It has therefore lost compared to other places.
If the Canton of Zurich wants to strengthen its innovative power, it must continue to improve the key influencing factors. These include the areas of research, human capital, entrepreneurship and regulation: An ideal innovation ecosystem has high research investments, provides a well-trained workforce, benefits from innovative companies and aspiring start-ups as well as favorable government framework conditions.
As the study in Zurich Economic Monitoring shows, the Canton of Zurich has invested a lot in research, but has implemented fewer innovations than other locations with similarly high research expenditures. Thanks to its advanced education system and attraction to foreign talent, there is a large, well-trained workforce available, although recruitment can be difficult. In the field of entrepreneurship, Zurich supports a large number of innovative companies and active start-up scenes. However, there is room for improvement in the networking of companies. In terms of the state framework, the Canton of Zurich comes off differently. While it is more in the middle internationally when it comes to taxes and regulations, it achieves top marks when it comes to physical and digital infrastructure, mainly thanks to the high level of accessibility through the airport and the density of broadband connections. There is room for improvement in e-government.
Location promotion strategy starts with networking and trust
The findings of the study underpin the new strategy for location promotion in the Office for Economics and Labour. The aim is to strengthen the competitiveness, innovative strength and sustainability of the business location.
The promotion of the location has three main priorities: With the promotion of innovation, it strengthens Zurich’s innovation ecosystems by networking and initiating collaborations. In order for this to succeed, it supports innovation hubs such as the Innovationspark Zürich, the newly founded Digital Health Center Bülach or the Health Tech Park Zürich-Schlieren, where companies can exchange information and cooperate. In addition, she is launching the innovation platform “Innovation Zurich” today, which ensures networking and orientation in Zurich’s innovation ecosystems.
Secondly, location promotion manages regional entrepreneurship and thus strengthens the diversity of industries throughout the canton. Thirdly, when developing the location, it relies on a trusting dialogue between business, science, politics and administration in order to anticipate challenges such as the acute shortage of skilled workers or topics such as artificial intelligence and tackle them strategically together. An example of this is the recently launched “Innovation Sandbox”, with which the location promotion wants to promote responsible artificial intelligence together with partners from business, science and administration. With these three focal points, she wants to strengthen the location so that Zurich can move up the rankings in the international location competition.