Robin Gaster
Dr. Gaster is Director of Research at CCEI, president of Incumetrics Inc., and a visiting scholar at George Washington University.
Dr. Gaster’s primary interests lie in economic innovation metrics and assessment, small business and particularly startups, regional economic development, transformation in education, and the rise of the big technology companies. He is editor of the Great Disruption blog.
Between 2004 and 2017, Dr. Gaster was lead researcher on the National Academies multi-volume study of Small Business Innovation Research awards. He was responsible for drafting for 10 interrelated volumes of reports, as well for conducting the underlying primary research. He was also lead researcher theNational Academies study of the Manufacturing Extension Partnerships, and built a data analysis engine for the National Institute of Standards and Technology for comparing the innovation capacity of states and regions.
Consulting clients include the European Commission, the Saudi government, Deloitte and Touche, the Economist Intelligence Unit, TEKES (the Finnish National Technology Agency), VINNOVA (the Swedish National Technology Agency), and the Electric Power Research Institute, as well as many corporate clients such as Philips, Olivetti, Mitsubishi Research, and Dataquest, and think tanks and publications such as the Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy, Education Week, and the Economic Strategy Institute. His work has been published in Foreign Policy and The Atlantic
Dr. Gaster has founded several companies, primarily focused on aggregating and deploying electronic information, targeting local and industry-specific information services. These have involved extended partnerships with Deloitte and Touche and with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI).
Dr. Gaster received a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in 1985, an M.A. from the University of Kent (U.K.) in 1978, and a B.A. from Oxford University (U.K.) in 1976. His doctoral thesis won a national academic prize. He also won a congressional fellowship at the Office of Technology Assessment, and has been a fellow at the Economic Strategy Institute. A full biography is available on LinkedIn.
Recent Publications
Let’s Be Realistic About Green Hydrogen
Like any new technology, green hydrogen must meet three related challenges: production, distribution and adoption. But it faces far higher-than-advertised hurdles at every stage.
The Blue Hydrogen Bubble Must Burst
In order for blue hydrogen to decarbonize hard-to-reach sectors like aviation, heavy trucks, shipping, steel, and cement, blue hydrogen must slash costs and effectively capture and either store or use the carbon that’s generated.
A Realist Approach to Hydrogen
Clean hydrogen is expensive to produce, difficult to transport, and a second- or third-best clean energy solution in almost all proposed markets. To help drive the global green transition, a realist approach to hydrogen policy must address all these practical challenges.
What COP28 Missed: A Realist Climate Policy
Instead of magical thinking that starts with a conclusion and works backward, we need a strategic framework that encourages smart decisions on priorities and maximizes the return on scarce political capital—a strategy that connects the economics, technology, and politics of the green transition.
Price Over Performance: Why Green Energy Is Different From Previous Technology Revolutions
The drivers that accelerated every transformative innovation since the industrial revolution won’t work for green tech.
A Realist Pathway Through the Green Transition
The harsh reality is that until clean energy is as cheap and performs as well as dirty energy, the world will not adopt it at anything like the needed scale. So, governments must focus on developing clean energy sources at price and performance parity with dirty fuels — “P3.”
Beyond Force: A Realist Pathway Through the Green Transition
Trying to force adoption of clean energy with subsidies, regulations, and exhortations will fail. The only realistic way to spur the green transition is to develop clean technologies that can reach effective price and performance parity with dirty ones. Then markets will adopt them at scale.
The Hydrogen Hubs’ Success Relies on Proper Management
It is vital that the hydrogen hubs (H2Hubs) program prioritizes the delivery of commercially-viable low-carbon hydrogen and develops the market ready to buy it, which can be achieved through proper management of the program.
It’s Critical to Prioritize Commercial and Market Readiness for H2Hubs
Effectively managing the Energy Department’s hydrogen hubs program in the face of formidable challenges will be vital for the success of developing hydrogen-based economic ecosystems.
OCED Observatory Newsletter, Issue 5: H2Hub Competition Narrows
DOE has received 79 applications for hydrogen hubs (H2Hubs) funding and recommended that 33 submit a full proposal. This edition of the newsletter also includes two special sections: a review of major hydrogen investments and the outlook of European hydrogen efforts.
Joint Letter to DOE Regarding Transparent Implementation of the H2Hubs Program
ITIF, Third Way, the Nuclear Innovation Alliance, and the National Resources Defense Council expressed concern to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm about the transparency practices that the Energy Department will adopt in implementing its H2Hubs program.
OCED Observatory Newsletter, Issue 4: Hydrogen Sector Activity Ramps Up
Activity in the hydrogen sector continues to ramp up, as more governments jostle to offer subsidies and incentives. In the U.S., the deadline for concept paper submission to DOE for the H2Hubs program has passed and many credible hubs are emerging.
Recent Events and Presentations
A Realist Climate Policy: Driving Clean Tech to Price/Performance Parity
Watch now for the release event for the important new report and panel discussion on why P3 must be the new lens governments that governments must use to decide which clean energy technologies to support and how to support them.
