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Clustering Around a National Innovation Foundation
The U.S has no national innovation policy. Instead, a patchwork of federal offices and programs spread across disparate agencies aim, in one way or another, to foster innovation. To respond to the changing landscape of a global innovation economy, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and the Brooking Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program released a report yesterday proposing the creation of a National Innovation Foundation.
“The way you get growth is through innovation,” explained Rob Atkinson, president of ITIF, speaking at the launch held at the National Press Club. He pointed out that in FY 2006, the federal government invested $2.7 billion, or 0.02 percent of national GDP in its primary innovation development programs. In comparison, Sweden invests 0.07 percent of GDP; Japan 0.04 percent, and South Korea 0.03 percent.
In addition to the lack of a comprehensive federal policy, Atkinson said that existing policy fails to focus on the commercialization of new technologies, advances in services innovation, and does not collaborate with state-level programs. He and his co-author, Howard Wial, an economist with the Metropolitan Policy Program, suggested three possibilities for the structure of the NIF: as an agency within the Commerce Department, as a public-sponsored corporation analogous to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, or as an independent agency like the National Science Foundation. Regardless of structure, they outline six primary responsibilities for the the Foundation:
- Catalyze industry-university research partnerships through national sector research grants.
- Expand regional innovation-promotion through state-level grants to fund activities like technology commercialization and entrepreneurial support.
- Encourage technology adoption by assisting small and mid-sized firms in implementing best practice processes and organizational forms that they do not currently use.
- Support regional industry clusters with grants for cluster development.
- Emphasize performance and accountability by measuring and researching innovation, productivity, and the value-added to firms from NIF assistance.
- Champion innovation by promoting innovation policy within the federal government and serving as an expert resource on innovation to other agencies.
The NIF proposal launched simultaneous with a companion report on regional innovation clusters, which Wial said are “among the most under-recognized contributors to economic growth in the nation.” Karen Mills, co-author of the cluster report and a principal in the private equity and venture capital industry, said that federal economic development currently focuses only on inputs and lacks an emphasis on collaboration within regional clusters. She explained that the market will tend to under-invest in cluster initiatives because firms are busy developing their business. Moreover, states tend to under-invest because clusters can spill across state lines.
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