Clustering for 21st Century Prosperity Summary of a Symposium (2012) / Chapter Skim
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Overview: The New Federal Role in Innovation Clusters
Overview: The New Federal Role in Innovation Clusters
Pages 3-36
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For a review of selected state strategies to develop innovation clusters, see National Research Council, Growing Innovation Clusters for American Prosperity: Summary of a Symposium , Charles W Wessner, Rapporteur, Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2011.
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Indeed, economists have studied industrial concentrations for over a century.b Open global markets, rapid transportation, and high-speed communications of the 21st century should allow any company to "source anything from any place at any time." Nonetheless, economic growth and employment continue to be strongly associated with successful clusters.c Recognizing this, regional and national govern ments have sought to pursue policies that actively create and nurture technology clusters within their borders.d Muro and Katz distinguish the phenomenon of innovation or industry clusters in general from specific Regional Innovation Cluster (RIC) initiatives, which they call "formally organized efforts to promote cluster growth and competitiveness through collaborative activities among cluster participants." Led in many cases by regional or national governments in partnership with universities and industry, these cluster initiatives often "sponsor education and training activities, encourage relationship building, or facilitate market development through joint market assessment and marketing, among many others."e Muro and Katz note that since RIC initiatives are a relatively new phenomenon, they do not yet have a sufficient empirical record, leaving the effectiveness of these cluster building strategies to be established.
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111-358, the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010. Section 603 of this act authorizes $100 million annually for the Commerce Department to implement a "Regional Innovation Program." 7National Economic Council, Council of Economic Advisers, and the Office of Science and Technology Policy, A Strategy for American Innovation: Securing Our Economic Growth and Prosperity, Washington, DC: Executive Office of the President, February 2011.
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'" Keynote Address by Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, National Academies Symposium on "Clustering for 21st Century Prosperity," February 25, 2010 To better understand ways in which the public sector can most effectively advance innovation clusters, the National Academies' Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy (STEP) partnered with the Association of University Research Parks (AURP)
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11For a critique of the Obama Administration's Regional Innovation Cluster policy, see Junbo Yu and Randall Jackson, "Regional Innovation Clusters: A Critical Review," Growth and Change, 42(2)
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in the proceedings section of this volume. For a review of the growth of science parks in China, Singapore, India, Mexico, and Hungary, see National Research Council, Understanding Research, Science and Technology Parks: Global Best Practices -- Summary of a Symposium , op.
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20See the summary of the presentation by Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development John Fernandez in the Proceedings section of this volume. 21PriceWaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association provide a region-by-region breakdown of venture capital investment on a quarterly basis.
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Reynolds, and Andrew Reamer, Clusters and Competitiveness: A New Federal Role for Stimulating Regional Economies, Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program, April 2008. See also Ed Paisley and Jonathan Sallet, The Geography of Innovation: The Federal Government and the Growth of Regional Innovation Clusters, Washington, DC: Center for American Progress, 2009.
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Lew suggested that the new Energy Regional Innovation Cluster effort, led by the DoE, therefore represents an important initial effort to coordinate these policy tools. In her presentation, she presented a diagram depicting how federal agencies are working together on the E-RIC.
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for projects in carbon-capture sequestration, $4.5 billion for smart grid technologies, $12 billion for energy efficiency, and $2.4 billion for production of electric-vehicle batteries and components. To accelerate basic scientific breakthroughs, the DoE is supporting 46 "engineering frontier research centers" with $140 million allocated under the Recovery Act.
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Johnson said. One major DoE initiative is to establish "energy-innovation hubs," or regional innovation clusters in solar power, energy-efficient buildings, nuclear energy, and batteries for storing energy.
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The SBA's New Role in Clusters SBA Administrator Karen Mills noted that her agency is broadening its traditional role of providing advice, loan guarantees, and grants to small businesses. 30 The agency is now a partner in initiatives such as the Energy Regional Innovation Cluster and is organizing new cluster efforts.
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Ms. Mills said the SBA will fund at least three more robotics clusters, and is studying five to seven more.31 Expanding the EDA Role John Fernandez, Assistant Commerce Secretary for Economic Development noted that a key mission of the Economic Development Administration is to "prepare American regions for growth and success in the worldwide economy."32 To promote regional innovation, now the agency's top priority, EDA is investing $50 million of the $150 million it received under the Recovery Act to support regional clusters.
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Recent MEP awards support the development of regional innovation clusters in Colorado and Kentucky, among other regions. See NIST news release, "NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership Awards $9.1 Million for 22 Projects to Enhance U.S.
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Box B A Leadership Role for the Regions What role can federal agencies play to enhance local initiatives to develop innovation clusters? Addressing this issue at the symposium, Secretary of Com merce, Gary Locke emphasized that regions must take a leadership role in this process.
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From this process, MEDC selected the advanced energy-storage systems, equipment for wind and solar power, and bio-fuels industries as key emerging industries for Michigan. These sectors were seen to leverage Michigan's strengths in manufacturing, natural resources, parts and materials suppliers, and extensive university and corporate R&D.
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NorTech -- an organization funded by foundations and business associations-promotes development of the high-technology economy in a 21-county region that contains 42 percent of Ohio's population, including the cities of Cleveland, Akron, and Youngstown. As NorTech's CEO, Rebecca Bagley noted that her organization sets the long-term vision and strategy for the region's efforts to build innovation clusters.
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To avoid a repeat of that experience, she said, NorTech's FlexMatters program is working with established companies, universities, and regional agencies to build a flexible electronics manufacturing base in Northeast Ohio. Betting on Research Universities in Texas In his presentation, University of Texas (UT)
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, "Now it is up to us to learn from their lessons in how to modernize our systems here in the United States." A "New Paradigm" in Regional Policy This interest in regional innovation clusters has been accompanied with a new perspective on how they should be developed.
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Instead, governments increasingly are getting regions to identify their comparative advantages and are focusing on strengthening university research, workforce training, and small-business mentoring. These investments are viewed as infrastructure that communities can use to build innovation-driven economies.
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Dollars 15 10 8.7 5 0 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Year FIGURE 4 R&D expenditure in Brazil. SOURCE: Francelino Grando, Presentation at February INTRO_Figure04_and Proc25, 2010, National Academies 14.eps Symposium on "Clustering for 21st Century Prosperity."
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SIMI also is building an outreach program to bring new technologies and design help to small companies around the state, an extensive network of workforce training centers, an entrepreneurial training program, and a Web 2.0 portal connecting Minas Gerais researchers with entrepreneurs and potential investors. Hong Kong's Innovation Push Hong Kong's innovation strategy also illustrates the new paradigm for regional development described by Mario Pezzini.
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A NEW ROLE FOR NATIONAL LABORATORIES Participants at the symposium also discussed how National Laboratories in the United States, rich reservoirs of scientific and applied technological research, have still to reach their full potential as regional economic catalysts. In the 1980s, Congress began encouraging federal laboratories, most of them established after World War II to meet national defense and energy needs, to commercialize their technology and encourage regional growth.44 Provisions of the 2005 Energy Policy Act have further sought to promote technology transfer by national laboratories.45 44In addition to universities, the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 made it easier for national laboratories to transfer technology.
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Box C Conflict of Interest and Technology Transfer from Federal Laboratories The success of Sandia Science and Technology Park notwithstanding, efforts to transfer technology from national laboratories have often stalled over concerns about conflict of interest and bureaucratic red tape. In his presentation Jonathan Epstein, an aide to Sen.
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at Kennedy Space Center as an innovation cluster. According to Robert Cabana, director of NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Explora tion Park has the potential to draw on the significant specialized talent found at the Kennedy Space Center to commercialize research out of the Center as well as to maintain and attract the knowledge base that is essential to advance NASA space missions.
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cit. 50 Battelle Technology Partnership Practice and the Association of University Research Parks, October 2007, |
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53Brian Darmody, "The Power of Place 2.0: The Power of innovation -- 10 Steps for Creating Jobs, Improving Technology Commercialization and Building Communities of Innovation," Association of University Research Parks, March 5, 2010, |
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Stevens, Presentation at February 25, 2010, National Academies Symposium on "Clustering for 21st Century Prosperity." Intro now Figure 05 (Percent) · Academic invenons are embryonic · Average success rate 25.6 · Median success rate All instuons 21.7 More than $200 million research 22.9 Over 100 disclosures 19.7 MIT 18.8 Stanford 24.3 WARF 19.7 FIGURE 6 Why is this so hard?
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West Virginia's Mix of Models West Virginia University (WVU) is developing three complementary approaches to growing innovation clusters, President James Clements explained in his presentation.
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Clements, West Virginia's energy innovation cluster leverages the state's traditional endowments of coal, gas, and timber. Morgantown also is home to the National Energy Technology Laboratory.
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, they also compete against committed national and regional governments that are executing comprehensive strategies that seek to create regional innovation clusters in many of the same high-potential, emerging industries being pursued in the United States. Indeed, governments around the world are backing up these strategies with heavy investment in state enterprises, new and renewed universities, public-private research collaborations, workforce training, early-stage capital funds, and modern science parks, all reinforced by strong policy attention from top leaders.
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However, producing compelling data proving direct links between public spending on science parks, industrial investment incentives, and research consortia and positive economic outcomes, remains a challenge.58 In part, this is because Regional Innovation Cluster initiatives are relatively new and do not yet have a record that can be empirically validated. Another problem is that "a wide swath of America" does not see how innovation clusters will improve their lives, Mr.
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regional innovation cluster initiatives is the lack of policy consensus regarding their benefits at the state and especially the federal levels with the attendant risk that the necessary continuity of policy and funding will not be maintained. This comes at a time when America's competitors are mounting sustained efforts and great policy continuity to enhance their innovation capabilities and national competitiveness.
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