Localizing the Economic Impact of Research and Development: Policy Proposals for the Trump Administration and Congress
ITIF and Brookings collaborate to suggest 50 policy proposals that the Trump administration and Congress can undertake to bolster tech transfer, commercialization, and innovation.
Executive Summary
The investments government and businesses make in basic and applied research and development (R&D) plant the seeds for the technologies, products, firms, and industries of tomorrow. They contribute substantially to the fact that at least one-half of America’s economic growth can be attributed to scientific and technological innovation. But the increased complexity of technological innovation as well as the growing strength of America’s economic competitors mean that it’s no longer enough to simply fund scientific and engineering research and hope it gets translated into commercial results. The U.S. government needs to expand federal support for research and, just as important, it needs to improve the efficiency of the process by which federally funded knowledge creation leads to U.S. innovation and jobs.
This report provides 50 policy actions the Trump administration and Congress can take to bolster America’s technology transfer, commercialization, and innovation capacity, from the local to the national level. These recommendations include:
Strengthen Innovation Districts and Regional Technology Clusters
1. Prioritize innovation districts within federal R&D outlays.
2. Task federal laboratories with a local economic development mission.
3. Create off-campus “microlabs” to provide a front door to labs.
4. Support technology clusters by assessing and managing local-level federal R&D investments.
5. Assess federal real estate holdings and reallocate physical research assets to innovation districts.
6. Allow labs to repurpose a small portion of existing funds for timely local collaboration.
7. Standardize research partnership contracts within cities.
8. Create NIH regional pre-competitive consortia to address national health concerns.
9. Allow DOE labs to engage in non-federal funding partnerships that do not require DOE approval.
10. Dismantle funding silos to support regional collaboration.
11. Incentivize cross-purpose funding based on the economic strength of cities.
12. Expand the national Regional Innovation Program.
13. Support the Innovation Potential of Rural Areas.
14. Facilitate regional makerspaces.
15. Introduce an “Open Commercialization Infrastructure Act.”
Bolster Institutions Supporting Tech Transfer, Commercialization, and Innovation
16. Establish a core of 20 “manufacturing universities.”
17. Complete the buildout of Manufacturing USA to 45 Institutes of Manufacturing Innovation (IMIs).
18. Create a National Engineering and Innovation Foundation.
19. Create an Office of Innovation Review within the Office of Management and Budget.
20. Create a network of acquisition-oriented DoD labs based in regional technology clusters.
21. Establish manufacturing development facilities.
22. Establish a foundation for the national energy laboratories.
Expand Technology Transfer and Commercialization-Related Programs and Investments
23. Increase the importance of commercialization activities at federal labs/research institutes.
24. Allocate a share of federal funding to promote technology transfer and commercialization.
25. Develop a proof-of-concept, or “Phase Zero,” individual and institutional grant award program within major federal research agencies.
26. Fund pilot programs supporting experimental approaches to technology transfer and commercialization.
27. Support university-based technology accelerators/incubators to commercialize faculty and student research.
28. Allow a share of SBIR/STTR awards to be used for commercialization activities.
29. Increase the allocation of federal agencies’ SBIR project budgets to commercialization activities.
30. Modify the criteria and composition of SBIR review panels to make commercialization potential a more prominent factor in funding decisions.
31. Encourage engagement of intermediary organizations in supporting the development of startups.
32. Expand the NSF I-Corps program to additional federal agencies.
33. Authorize and extend the Lab-Corps program.
34. Provide federal matching funds for state and regional technology transfer and commercialization efforts.
35. Incentivize universities to focus more on commercialization activities.
36. Establish stronger university entrepreneurship metrics.
37. Expand the collaborative R&D tax credit to spur research collaboration between industry and universities and labs.
38. Increase funding for cooperative industry/university research programs at universities.
39. Establish an International Patent Consortium.
Promote High-Growth, Tech-Based Entrepreneurship
40. Encourage student entrepreneurship.
41. Help nascent high-growth startups secure needed capital.
42. Establish an entrepreneur-in-residence program with NIH.
43. Implement immigration policies that advantage high-skill talent.
44. Implement a research investor’s visa.
Stimulate Private-Sector Innovation
45. Implement innovation vouchers.
46. Incentivize “megafunds” around high-risk research and development.
47. Increase R&D tax credit generosity.
48. Ensure that small and medium-sized enterprises are familiar with available R&D tax credits.
49. Implement an innovation box to spur enterprises’ efforts to commercialize technologies.
50. Revise the tax code to support innovation by research-intensive, pre-revenue companies.
