Karl S. Pister Board Chair Charles F. Kennel Council Chair Miriam E. John Council Vice-chair

The economic crisis facing California is no longer an alarming surprise, but rather a discouraging reality. Despite two years of steep cuts, the state is facing yet another significant budget deficit - an estimated $19 billion as of press time - and there are no easy decisions left to make. Even if the state's overall economy turns around in the next few years, as many economists predict, the legacy of these years of fiscal shortfall will have a tangible, potentially irreversible impact for years to come.

CCST's research over the years has emphasized the criticality of a long-term view and sustained commitment to the effective management of the infrastructure - the people, institutions, public policy, and physical assets - that supports California's science and technology (S&T) enterprise. CCST has also been concerned for some time about the steady erosion of the science, technology and education infrastructure that has made this state great; that erosion has accelerated with the economic crisis. The state's economic recovery is unlikely to be sustained without a reversal of that trend. And the budget climate is such that even some of the state's visionary achievements in S&T policy - such as the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 - are being challenged on the grounds that complying with them would cost too much.

Clearly California is in need of innovative solutions to its persistent fiscal problems; it needs to reassess the very nature of innovation, which has been such a driving force for the state during the past several decades. If it does not, it will lose its place in the vanguard of science and technology. The rest of the nation, and indeed the world, are not standing still. California is facing competitive challenges of a comprehensiveness, scale, and financial potency never before encountered or contemplated.

It is for these reasons that CCST is undertaking a comprehensive assessment of California's current innovation ecosystem. Opportunities can far exceed the barriers to innovation leading to economic development, job creation and growth, and attraction and retention of S&T talent, but we must be able to identify them. They may well lie in new public/private partnerships, and/or nascent industries.

It is often said that necessity is the mother of invention. Necessity has become the dominant watchword in California's fiscal planning. We are energized by the possibilities of this new assessment, and look forward to engaging key stakeholders and decision makers in its eventual recommendations.

Karl S. Pister, Board Chair

Miriam E. John, Council Vice Chair