Back to basics: Fixing America’s broken innovation ecosystem

It seemed a dire way to ring in the New Year when in early January, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke told the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology that the American economy isn’t innovating enough to create advanced new technologies.

“[T]oday, America has a broken innovation ecosystem that does not efficiently create the right incentives or allocate enough resources to generate new ideas, develop those ideas with focused research, and turn them into businesses that can create good jobs.” He added, “Our balance of trade in ‘advanced technology products’ turned negative in 2002 - and has shown little sign of abating.”

Locke said more resources need to be devoted to R&D, but even in cases where enough funding is being channelled into R&D, “We’re not doing a good enough job getting these ideas into the marketplace.”

A ten-point plan

A recent report from the Association of University Research Parks (AURP) offers a 10-point plan for the US government to stimulate job and business creation by streamlining policies for bringing new technologies to market.

“It’s not just about money - it’s also a mater of adjusting the policies and regulations that too often deter entrepreneurial researchers in our universities and federal labs from commercialising their work,” said Brian Darmody, AURP president and the report’s author.

He said that university research parks, labs, and incubators are the main centers of innovation in the US. “Much more of their work would be commercially viable if some of the roadblocks could be eliminated,” he said. “Other countries simplify commercialisation ... We need to provide incentives to keep this work in the United States.”  

The report, called “The Power of Innovation,” recommended, among other things, changes that make federal grant policies more flexible for technology commercialisation, connecting federal researchers with the private sector, as well as proof-of-concept funding as planned by the National Science Foundation in FY2011.

The report also supports pending federal legislation that would provide seed funding to create or expand research park infrastructure and calls for “cash for commercialisation.” The U.S. Senate (S. 583) and House of Representatives (H.R. 4413) are considering legislation that would provide planning grants and loan guarantees to build research parks and technology incubators aligned with the President’s regional cluster strategy.

American innovation

As they have in the past, US academic researchers and entrepreneurs aren’t sitting by waiting for the government to jump-start innovation. They already are coming up with new approaches to innovation. Perhaps not surprisingly, some are based on social networking.

Harvard University recently released its Profiles Research Networking Software as open source to stimulate Web-based collaboration among researchers outside of the university. The software is a Web-based way to get academic researchers to collaborate, form social networks, and mine expertise.

Harvard says the software uses algorithms that encompass all the professional connections individuals have accrued through their research communities. Social networks are formed automatically when individuals share research interests, co-authorship on a publication, appointments in the same department, or offices or labs in the same building. Individuals also can modify their profile. The software was developed and used at Harvard, but the university says it can be used elsewhere.

“The technology has a tremendous amount of potential to assist researchers at other institutions, hence our release of the software to the open source community,” said Griffin Weber, chief technology officer of Harvard Medical School, who helped develop the software. The software also is being used by the University of California. More projects are being planned at the University of Minnesota and elsewhere.

Training in translating technology

In a move to get students thinking earlier about commercialising discoveries, the University of California Davis Health System is using a two-year, $600,000 National Science Foundation grant to develop a clinic to train students to translate innovative technologies developed in the university labs into marketable products to advance health.

The training facility, called the Medical Technology Commercialization Clinic, involves multidisciplinary, collaborative partnering of science, educators, and business. It includes the UC Davis Center for Biophotonics Science and Technology and other departments at the university, Fisk University, T2 Venture Capital, Wavepoint Ventures, the Sacramento Area Regional Technology Alliance, and others.

“By harnessing expertise from within and beyond the health system [at the university], we are spurring innovation [and] encouraging economic development,” said Claire Pomeroy, dean of the UC Davis School of Medicine.

The clinic will use live and virtual forums so graduate and postdoc students in biomedical sciences, engineering, and business can get hands-on training. The aim is to help them translate research into new treatments and products. UC Davis says the clinic’s model overcomes current challenges to university tech transfer that have focused on discovering new knowledge or therapeutic applications rather than business strategies.

One project now in development based on the model is a new endoscope that combines microscopic imaging and ultraviolet auto fluorescence for non-invasive, real-time detection of cells that are progressing toward oesophageal cancer.

Gabriela Lee, manager of the new clinic, said, “The unique learning environment places students as members of a multidisciplinary team, where they can gain invaluable experience working alongside experienced entrepreneurs and under the mentorship of local venture capitalists and business executive.”