Posts tagged with ‘Innovation’
Want to clean up the patent mess? Start by admitting government can’t know everything. Then put the public on the task.
Bell Labs, birthplace of technological breakthroughs like the transistor, the laser, and communications satellites, may have arrived at the end of its storied history. Industry support of basic research has been on the wan for years, but federal policies can bolster public and private R&D.
Federal legislation that would enhance the Environmental Protection Agency’s role in protecting our most valuable resource advances to the Senate.
With a concerted push by policymakers on research, development and deployment of solar technologies, solar renewable energy could dot our landscape.
After every voting machine failure in recent election years, it has become more and more clear that proper oversight of voting technology is critical to the preservation of our democratic system. The Senate is currently considering bipartisan legislation to support innovation in voting machines.
In a recent paper in
Technology and Society, Neal Lane discusses the impact of the Mansfield Amendment and Bayh-Dole Act on federal R&D in the United States and the need for forward-looking innovation policy for the 21st century.
A report released today by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation analyzes the evolution of the innovation ecosystem in the United States over the last four decades and argues that in order to encourage innovation most effectively, policymakers must better understand where new ideas come from.
Five factors influence biotechnology transfer—university policies, economic development agencies, venture capitalists, strategic partners, and financial markets. Understanding each of them is crucial to building regional centers of innovation.
Rep. Rush Holt explains how science informs policy that improves the lives of Americans, builds opportunity, and creates a fair and equitable society.
Governor Schwarzenegger touts California’s biotech prowess and Governor Patrick signs legislation for a $1 billion Life Science Initiative in Massachusetts. The rivalry continues between two major biotech states.
We can spur scientific innovation by revising our green card immigration policy for highly educated foreigners studying in the United States.
As Congress considers the supplemental funding request and the spending earmarks that will accompany it, it’s worth looking at what states themselves spend on R&D.
Yesterday, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel (D-NY) introduced H.R. 6049, the Energy and Tax Extenders Act of 2008. Among other extensions, the bill would renew the Research and Development Tax Credit for the 13th time since its inception in 1981. But extending the R&D tax credit for one more year is insufficient; it should be made permanent.
Part 2 of a break down of Tuesday’s House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on the Renewable Fuel Standards, with a look at what witnesses had to say about the economic and environmental concerns.
Thousands of scientists, engineers, corporate executives, and college presidents across the country have mobilized in an effort to convince Congress to set aside a small piece of this year’s wartime supplemental funding bill to boost science research funding.
The U.S has no national innovation policy. 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.
Are the growing ranks of well-educated and increasingly well-financed scientists in other countries bad for U.S competitiveness and ultimately the economy? In a “post-scientific” society, not necessarily.
Americans invented quality assurance procedures, those prosaic yet indispensable steps that insure ever-incremental innovation. It’s time we upgraded government for the 21st Century, relying on the insights of Joseph Juran.
“In a weak economy, we should be doing everything we can to spur on innovation and the type of family-wage jobs that increased research and development will create,” said Congressman Jerry McNerney (D-CA) when he introduced legislation that would streamline the R&D tax credit and make it permanent.
The Senate Subcommittee on Energy Oversight held a field hearing in Bismarck, North Dakota on Wednesday on carbon capture and sequestration technology. Two panels presented the current and projected future development of CCS technology, the outlook ranging from very cautious optimism to an almost cynical pessimism. But the lack of an objective scientific voice among those testifying was conspicuous.
Education Week released a report today on the state of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education in U.S. schools.
British politician Gordon Brown has always been keen on creating innovation in his nation’s economy, convinced that U.K. universities and businesses together can create new technologies and services that will boost economic growth. Now that he’s prime minister of the United Kingdom, he’s moving swiftly to act on those inclinations—with possible lessons for the United States.
Last summer, the United Kingdom Government created the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills. The new Department has an ambitious goal, outlined in a new report: to turn the United Kingdom into an “Innovation Nation” that is the world’s most attractive country for innovative businesses.
Microsoft Corporation Chairman Bill Gates advised Congress to reform both the United States education system and immigration policies during a hearing yesterday honoring the 50th anniversary of the House Committee on Science and Technology.
The President’s plan to slash two highly successful National Institute of Standards and Technology programs drew the ire of Subcommittee members during a hearing on NIST’s FY 2009 budget request yesterday.
Applying the tools of 21st century technology and innovation to the science of governing offers a wealth of opportunities to promote the common good.
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates will appear before the House Science and Technology Committee tomorrow in what will be the first of a series of hearing on challenges to our nation’s innovation agenda. A look at recent findings, including the National Science Foundation’s biennial report on the state of science and engineering research and education, shows that there is cause for concern.
Preserving the U.S. competitive edge in science requires many things to happen, but most immediately we must maintain English as the lingua franca of science, and open the doors to all who want to study science in our country.
Jeffrey Sachs helped launch a new student-led journal of sustainable development,
Consilience, on Monday by detailing a vision of goal-driven innovations that cross the public-private line. He advocated an “organizational ecology” approach to addressing global challenges.
The improbability of an HIV vaccine, possibilities for improving scientific communication, and cheap laptops all made news at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting held this past weekend in Boston.
Last week, the House authorized funding for a new learning center dedicated to researching and developing innovative digital learning and information technologies for the nation’s education system. The Higher Education authorization bill includes a provision to create the National Center for Learning Science and Technology Trust Fund which will provide public funding for research in educational technology.
The techniques of computer gaming could reform our classrooms and our education system and test 21st century skills.
President Bush’s final Federal budget for FY 2009 contains significant boosts for physical sciences and programs supported by the Administration’s American Competitiveness Initiative, but proposes flat lining funding for National Institutes of Health, the largest source of funds for life sciences research. Today, the American Association for the Advancement of Science releases its preliminary analysis of R&D in the budget.
“The answer to the question of how the U.S. manages its great scientific resources and potential,” wrote Dan Greenberg this week at the Chronicle’s Brainstorm blog, “is that it doesn’t.” The Federal government has a responsibility to support scientific and technological research, and the President must lead the way.
Market forces alone are not enough to expand the research and innovation initiatives that will drive a competitive U.S. economy. To bolster the economy, science and technology policy must return to the national priority list, said Science Progress advisory board member Tom Kalil, speaking yesterday at the Congressional Intern Caucus “State of the Net” conference.
Progressives can get behind the president if he supports in words and deeds his calls for a doubling of federal spending on critical basic research, writes Ed Paisley.
The decline in basic scientific research in the United States is verifiable, writes Tom Kalil, but easily reversible with the right set of policies in place.
Tonight, President Bush offers the final State of the Union address of his presidency. Saying that science has gotten short shrift during the Bush years is nothing new. Science Progress takes a look at some of the key terms in science and tech policy that have, and have not, appeared in the previous six State of the Union addresses.
Three stories focusing on innovation and on the impact of climate change demonstrate the difficulty of fairly distributing the costs, risks, and benefits of technologies.
A design flaw in the gusset plates joining steel beams may have been the culprit in the I-35 bridge collapse outside of Minneapolis that killed 13 people last August.
Scientists on Capitol Hill; National Science Board reports on the state of U.S. science; interview with the Department of Energy Undersecretary Orbach; risks to U.S. leadership in biotech; Columbia Journalism Reviews announces The Observatory.
New helmet sensors will improve army body armor; the disorganization of state stem cell initiatives; acute stress spikes after 9/11; think tanks for developing nations.
Tracking broadband speeds for the FCC; bioterrorism sensors in NYC; China revises its patent policy.
The Minneapolis bridge collapse underscores the need to modernize infrastructure monitoring.
Economic research on the creative power of groups demonstrates that teams composed of smart people alone may not generate innovative solutions to technical problems. According to Scott Page, diversity within those groups leads to a diversity of problem-solving approaches and drives the power to innovate.
The most recent Technology Quarterly issue of The Economist highlights emerging technologies, several of which present new challenges to regulators and policymakers.
The latest scientific workforce debate underscores the importance of science graduates learning about something other than science.
Presenting at a policy summit last Wednesday, Dr. Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, offered recommendations for tax policies that offer “enterprise-focused” tax credits for Research & Development.
Maine voters recently voted to support targeted investment in the state’s technology sector through the Maine Technology Initiative. Technology investments have yielded significant gains for the state economy since the 19th century.
The Center for American Progress today releases the first pieces of
Progressive Growth, its Economic Plan for the Next Administration, which includes a chapter on expanding growth and opportunity through science and technology.
Entrepreneurial, venture capital-backed innovation industries require a deft public policy hand to find the financing they need to help boost economic prosperity.
Researchers working independently in Japan and the U.S. published papers this week announcing the creation of non-embryonic pluripotent stem cells. The method side-steps the ethical concerns over the destruction of embryos and could open the doors for federal funding of research on stem cells and the medical breakthroughs they promise.
Researchers who can move around dense regional clusters of colleagues have more opportunities to share new ideas about their work. A new study focuses on Boston as a prime example.
“It is much easier to say we need more scientists and engineers than to talk about equity issues,” explained David Goldston yesterday at an Urban Institute on science and engineering education, quality, and workforce demand.
With water conservation and reuse entering public debate on the heels of drought season, the House Science and Technology Subcommittee on Energy and Environment spoke with experts about gray water, conservation, and how to dispel the fear of “toilet to tap.”
The America COMPETES Act is open-ended legislation, paving the way for future innovation to flourish. In contrast, life sciences and information technology firms are lobbying to shape pending patent reform that will benefit their particular industry. Where are the groups thinking about innovation in the public interest?
Andrew A. Rosenberg on how “emphasizing what we don’t know often drowns out what we do know.” Also, a new Urban Institute study claims that the U.S. has more than enough scientists and engineers.
The Bush Administration continues to censor scientists. The AP has the latest on extensive revisions made to the testimony of CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding, who testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Tuesday on the health impacts of climate change.
“People are either thinking about civil rights or they are thinking about climate change. Rarely are they thinking about both.” The two issues are inextricably linked, argued Majora Carter at a panel on “green collar jobs” at the Center for American Progress this Monday.
WWII contracting out of scientific inquiry in the interest of national security was the springboard for mid-20th century reform of American government that yielded great successes but has lost its moorings. It’s time to re-envision the role of private contractors in the public service.
The U.S. is pursuing new approaches to nurture science and technology innovation—and so is the UK. This week’s National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship newsletter sets the two plans next to one another. Perhaps each government could learn from the other.
At a hearing before the House Science and Technology Subcommittee on Research and Science Education on Wednesday, University of Miami President Donna Shalala said that the country needs “an organization like the NCAA that holds us accountable” in the national effort to promote more women into the upper ranks of science.
In a markup session this morning, the House Science and Technology committee passed two bills focused expanding research on energy storage technologies.
The Guardian reported this past weekend that J. Craig Venter will soon announce that he has created artificial life. But even his spokesperson is saying that’s not the whole story.
More private- and public-sector investment, collaboration and talent creation are essential for broadly shared future economic prosperity.
Getting good science from university labs and startup companies to the marketplace requires plenty of risk capital. Problem is, institutional investors are putting more and more of their money into late-stage venture capital firms, which disparage what they call the “spray and pray” venture financing model.
Fifty years after Sputnik’s launch, America must once again be spurred to focus on prioritizing policy initiatives in funding science and technology education in the pursuit of inspired scientific inquiry and a high standard of excellence.
Scientific inquiry proceeds most fruitfully when sufficient funding is spread across a complexity of disciplines to a diversity of researchers.
