"Knowledge Clusters and Entrepreneurship as Keys to Regional Economic Development."

The State and Local Policy Program of the University of Minnesota’s
Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs has just released a report on
"Knowledge Clusters and Entrepreneurship as Keys to Regional Economic
Development."

The report provides economic developers with an
understanding of the latest research on the issues surrounding
entrepreneurship and knowledge clusters as economic development
strategies, along with practical new ideas and tactics.

The report is available on the web at
http://www.hhh.umn.edu/img/assets/9140/knowledge_clusters_final_report1.pdf.
To request a printed version of the report, please send your mailing
address to Janice Young at [email protected].

The conference on Knowledge Clusters and Entrepreneurship in Regional
Economic Development was held at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of
Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis on
September 13 and 14, 2004. The conference was staged by the Humphrey
Institute’s State and Local Policy Program, the Carlson School of
Management’s Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, and the Freeman
Center for International Economic Policy, with support from the US-UK
Fulbright Commission, the United States Department of Agriculture,
Invest Northern Ireland, the Northern Ireland Bureau, and the University
of Minnesota Extension Service.

The concept for the conference was developed by Senior Fellow Lee
Munnich and Fulbright Fellow Paul Brush, with an eye toward seeking an
intersection between Munnich’s research on knowledge clusters and
regional economic development and Brush’s research on entrepreneurship
in both the United States and in his native Northern Ireland.

The
conference itself brought together academics and practitioners from both
sides of the Atlantic to examine the relationship between clusters,
entrepreneurship, and economic development strategies. For more
information on the conference, visit http://www.knowledgeclusters.com.

The conference stimulated intense dialogue around innovative approaches
to regional economic development, and led to the creation of this
report. The report seeks to provide a synthesis of the concepts and
insights discussed and developed at the conference, while also providing
practitioners with tangible, actionable ideas for integrating cluster,
entrepreneurship, and economic development strategies. We hope that
academics and practitioners alike will find this report to be
accessible, enlightening, and useful in their work and in their
research.

Lee W. Munnich, Jr.
Senior Fellow and Director
State and Local Policy Program
Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs
University of Minnesota
157 Humphrey Center
301-19th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Phone: (612) 625-7357
Fax: (612) 626-9833
E-mail [email protected]
Web: http://www.hhh.umn.edu/centers/slp/