Guest Column
21st Century Innovation
- By Ing. Karl A. Rüggeberg
- Associate Director of Paramount BioCapital, Inc.
- Treasurer and Member of FUMEC Board of Governors
The National Innovation Initiative Summit took place in Washington DC in December 2004. Over 400 leaders of industry, academia, government and labor analyzed how the United States can create win-win solutions that increase its own innovation capacity while collaborating actively with other nations.
The National Innovation Initiative was launched by the Council on Competitiveness. The present text summarizes part of the “National Innovation Initiative Report”.
Innovation generates productivity and leads to economic growth. The nature of innovation has changed. New times demand dynamic processes of competition and collaboration, new intellectual property arrangements, and a fusion of talents and cultures. Equally important, the relationships among innovators have changed and nowadays they are complimentary and even symbiotic.
Intellectual property (IP) protection has become more important in the global economy and it is essential for start-up companies. Traditional IP models and strategies are being threatened by the innovation advancement. At present, several public and private entities are contributing patented research into publicly accessible databases, which makes progress in the innovation field and therefore in economic development.
Likewise, capacity for innovation increases with the overlapping of disciplines creating new offsprings such as nanobiology, network science or bioinformatics. While disciplinary expertise will still be relevant, isolated knowledge is not enough. The changing nature of innovation as a multidisciplinary phenomenon requires increased communication and close collaboration between academia, industry and government.
For example, states and regions have created innovation synergies by providing incentives for interaction between small business and academia. Silicon Valley, the Pacific Northwest and Greater Austin continue to be successful stimulating entrepreneurship, because they have linked intellectual, financial and human capital.
The US government’s contribution should not be underestimated. The government participates directly in innovation beyond its role of administrator and infrastructure provider. The US defense and the NASA are taking technology to new horizons, although perhaps the most significant is the government’s ability to take on long-term projects that require substantial capital or entail greater risk.
Large firms are often not the source of leading edge technologies, as smaller firms are more likely to invest in breakthrough innovation. Innovation from small firms is twice as likely to be related to scientific research and is more effective in producing high-value innovation. Small and large firms have increasingly complimentary roles in the innovation economy. In the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, the small and large companies partake in hundreds and hundreds of collaborations and associations to share risk and reward.
Finally, it is essential to have a global perspective, in order to increase national innovation capacity. One third of today’s US scientists and engineers were born outside of this country, but new immigration controls have resulted in a 32% drop in the number of student applications in 2004. Research is also affected by these new regulations. Therefore, finding the right balance between US historic scientific openness and homeland security concerns will be crucial in years to come.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed by HispanicVista.com (www.hispanicvista.com) without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)