The United States continues to fall further behind world leaders in funding for university research. To reverse course, it should increase support by $45 billion per year and provide stronger incentives for businesses to increase their investments.
For the U.S. government to restore National Institutes of Health funding to a level comparable to 2003, it would have had to allocate an additional $11.6 billion dollars last year, writes John Wu in Innovation Files.
The number of technology-based start-ups surged 47 percent in the last decade. These firms still account for a relatively small share of all businesses, but they have an outsized impact on economic growth, because they provide better-paying, longer-lasting jobs than other start-ups, and they contribute more to innovation, productivity, and competitiveness.
Technology-based startups are key drivers of America’s economic growth because they make outsized contributions to employment, innovation, and productivity. Unfortunately, policymakers tend to focus indiscriminately on helping small business startups without specifically targeting technology-based startups that have high growth potential. How can policymakers support the formation and success of new technology firms at the national and local level?
The average technology-based Italian businesses located in a science park cluster produced 5 additional patents when compared to a similar business not located in a science park, writes John Wu in Innovation Files.
While private investment in ICT per Canadian worker has been lower than U.S. levels since the 1980s, it has dropped to new lows in recent years, writes John Wu in Innovation Files.
Adding 10 more bank branches per 100,000 adults in developing economies increases the probability that businesses will invest in R&D by 7.6 percent, writes John Wu in Innovation Files.
The United States used to dominate the world in R&D investment, with its federal funding alone exceeding the rest of the world’s public and private spending combined. But no more. Today, the U.S. government accounts for less than 10 percent of the global R&D pie. Rob Atkinson explained whither and why at the Atlanta Conference on Science and Innovation Policy.
Stephen Ezell gave a keynote presentation on “Localizing the Economic Impact of Technology Transfer and R&D” to the annual meeting of the Western conference of the Federal Labs Consortium in Pasadena, California.
Driving the transformation of the federal enterprise through innovation is central not just to improving the lives of Americans and boosting productivity, but also to restoring faith in government.