Sputnik Moments

In his State of the Union Address earlier this week, US President Barack Obama recalled America’s shock and surprise when Russia launched the first space satellite, Sputnik, in October 1957.

This fired the starting gun on the space race, at a time when Obama noted, “We had no idea how we would beat them to the moon. The science wasn’t even there yet.”

Now, it’s another “Sputnik moment”, as the US faces up to the size of its deficit and turns to science to drive innovation and revive economic growth. According to Obama, the US needs to, “Reach a level of R&D not seen since the space race.”

But there’s a huge difference. In 1957 there was one aim – be first to the moon. All the reforms and investments in education and R&D were driven and directed by that objective.

Today, it’s impossible to know where to focus. In just the past three days in Europe, there are reports calling for investment in R&D to ensure the productivity and sustainability of food production and solve world hunger ⁽¹⁾, a call for a new generation of services and devices to improve the quality of life and reduce the costs of caring for the elderly and the chronically sick ⁽²⁾, and demands to deliver on predictions by an expert group that alternative fuels can replace fossil fuels in Europe by 2050 ⁽³⁾.

These are three, big, momentous and diffuse projects. And there are dozens of others that are all equally pressing and difficult.

The question is, where to start? In the original “Sputnik moment” in 1957, the mission was – if not simple – well-defined. Dealing with the three problems above will not only require new scientific breakthroughs but also international cooperation, collaboration and consensus.

But there’s another big difference between the original “Sputnik moment” and its invocation now. Then the space race was a surrogate for the nuclear arms race and the cold war push to become the dominant superpower.

Today, we are all in it together – problems of food production, the run down of fossil fuel supplies and the unsustainable costs of our healthcare systems concern everyone, everywhere.

So there’s heartening reading in the Global Innovation Survey, commissioned by GE and published this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos. This found that the vast majority of respondents (1,000 senior executives in 12 countries who are involved in innovation) believe the greatest innovations of the 21st century will be those that help address human needs, rather than those that create the most profits.

Furthermore, more than 90 per cent think that innovation is the route to economic growth. This faith in innovation is global. In our collective “Sputnik moments” let’s hope they are right.

⁽¹⁾ The Future of Food and Farming; the UK Government Office of Science available at: http://www.bis.gov.uk/foresight/our-work/projects/current-projects/global-food-and-farming-futures/reports-and-publications

⁽²⁾ Report of the European expert group on future transport fuels: http://ec.europa.eu/transport/urban/vehicles/road/clean_transport_systems_en.htm

⁽³⁾ Speech by Neelie Kroes Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda eHealth: an answer to EU healthcare and demographic challenges ETNO Innovation Day 2011 Brussels, 25 January 2011; http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/11/43&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en