Boosting Productivity, Innovation, and Growth Through a National Innovation Foundation

There is disturbing evidence that America’s innovation lead is shrinking. Moreover, expanded support for basic research and science education, while important, will not be enough to respond to this challenge. Without a more robust, targeted, and explicit federal innovation policy, U.S. competitiveness will continue to slip and economic growth will lag. One key step in that direction, as called for in a new report by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and Brookings’ Metropolitan Policy Program (MPP) is the establishment of a National Innovation Foundation.

On April 22, 2008, from 8:30 – 10:00 A.M. ITIF, MPP and the Council on Competitiveness will host a briefing. The event will preview two major new reports on federal economic policy: Boosting Productivity, Innovation, and Growth Through a National Innovation Foundation, by ITIF President Robert Atkinson and Howard Wial, a Brookings economist; and Clusters for Competitiveness: A New Federal Role for Stimulating Regional Economies, by venture capitalist Karen Mills; Liz Reynolds, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology doctoral student; and Andrew Reamer, a Fellow at Brookings.

MPP Director Bruce Katz, along with Council President Deborah Wince-Smith, will open the briefing with an overview of the innovation policy landscape. Atkinson, Wial, and Mills will follow by offering an overview of the two reports’ findings and policy recommendations. Following that Randall Kempner, Vice President, Regional Innovation at the Council on Competitiveness, will moderate a discussion of the proposals with Ron Blackwell, Chief Economist, AFL-CIO; Emily DeRocco, President, National Center for the American Workforce, National Association of Manufacturers; Ernest Dianastasis, Managing Director, CAI, Inc.; and Ray Scheppach, Executive Director, National Governors Association. Time for questions and answers from attendees will round out the morning.