Munk professor Dan Breznitz wins Donner Prize for ‘Innovation in Real Places’

TORONTO – Munk School professor Dan Breznitz has won this year’s Donner Prize for the best public policy book.

He collected the $50,000 award for “Innovation in Real Places: Strategies for Prosperity in an Unforgiving World” at a gala dinner in Toronto on Tuesday.

The jury says the book, published by Oxford University Press, eschews the “fetish” of focusing on high-tech solutions and instead urges communities to think innovatively so they can “realize their own advantages.”

Breznitz is the chair of innovation studies at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, and co-director of its innovation policy lab.

The Donner Prize was established in 1998 and the winner is selected by a six-member jury.

The runners up each receive $7,500 and they are:

– “Value(s): Building a Better World for All” by Mark Carney, published by Signal

– “Stand On Guard: Reassessing Threats to Canada’s National Security” by Stephanie Carvin, published by University of Toronto Press

– “Indigenomics: Taking a Seat at the Economic Table” by Carol Anne Hilton, published by New Society Publishers

– “Neglected No More: The Urgent Need to Improve the Lives of Canada’s Elders in the Wake of a Pandemic” by André Picard, published by Random House of Canada

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 31, 2022.

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