At the February and May 2010 meetings, changes, threats and
opportunities in California's innovation capacity were discussed.
The February meeting initiated a dialog on the changing context
of innovation in S&T. Excellence in science and engineering is not
enough to be a world leader - we need to be more creative, and
look to radical innovations using social and cultural advantages
as seen with Google, YouTube, eBay, and Yahoo. We also need
new kinds of scientists and engineers with communications skills,
multicultural understanding and foreign languages.
From Closed to Open Innovation
Henry Chesbrough, Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley,
observed that the traditional closed innovation model, which has
provided great successes in the past for industries such as Edison,
GE, Rockefeller, and Standard Oil, has shifted due to five 'erosion
factors,' including increasingly mobile trained workers; more
capable universities; diminished U.S hegemony; the erosion of
oligopoly market positions; and an enormous increase in venture
capital. "The open innovation model involves a lot more external
technology insourcing and spinoffs," said Chesbrough. "Good ideas
are widely distributed today. Companies need to recognize that
not all of the smart people in the world work for them, and that
industrial R&D has become a distributed system."
Key S&T Areas with Most Change:
- Communications - spread of the Internet, ubiquitous
24/7 access, wireless devices
- Healthcare - opportunities resulting from human
genomic, growth of medical technologies, big pharma
challenges
- Education systems - support of higher education eroding,
contrasting trends of amazing technology being created
and failing K-12 system
- Federal laboratories - change in perspective of the
importance and new roles
What Has Changed in Healthcare
David W. Martin, Jr., M.D., Chairman and CEO of AvidBiotics
Corporation, noted that the volume and complexity of data
available has changed tremendously. "This offers the opportunity for deeper personalization in healthcare," he said, "along with more
interventional options. However, it also has led to accelerating
costs." It will take a generation to effectively retrain physicians to
use these data effectively, as well as other healthcare workers
and patients. "The rate of innovation in healthcare has been
outstanding," said Martin. "However, we must innovate the
processes of applied care in order to capture the output of all the innovation."
California's Research Universities
George Blumenthal, Chancellor, UC Santa Cruz, gave an overview
of the University of California's role in publicly funded research
from 1998 to 2007. "Since 1997, UC total R&D expenditures have
exceeded 9% of all expenditures at U.S institutions," Blumenthal
noted. "However, we need to adapt to changing financial models
as a way of preserving excellence while meeting the needs
of California." The state-funded operating budget for UC was
reduced by 20% in the 2009-10 fiscal year, and although the
next budget has promised to restore over $300 million, "we need
to face up to the issue of privatization if public funds are not
forthcoming," according to Blumenthal.
Sectors of Change
The May 2010 CCST meeting continued the innovation
ecosystem dialogue begun in February. The discussion focused
on four critical changing sectors in California: aerospace,
federal laboratories, virtual campus, and energy. In each sector,
infrastructure, human capital, and investment were addressed. The
prevailing crosscutting themes cited a critical need for attracting
and retaining talent; fostering a climate of new and innovative
ideas and research; and sustaining investment.
Major General Thomas Taverney (USAF, Ret.), Sr. Vice President/
Executive Staff Space Operations, SAIC, suggested to the Council
members the importance of looking at the past as we envision
the future. Citing three seminal game changers which served as
driving forces for the United States innovation economy:
- WWII transformed a nation with 15 million servicemen
and women into students entering institutions of higher
education through the GI Bill which enabled educational
access for ordinary people; this opportunity and influx
of a new generation of students not only created a new
education culture, but a new cadre of innovators and
entrepreneurs.
- The launch Sputnik served as a competition between
two super-powers; this translated into a wake up call for
US leaders to invest in science and technology and the
resultant discoveries and job creation.
- The Apollo program focused 400 thousand engineers on
great inspiration -- seeding engineering and innovation
including the creation of land grant universities with a
Return On Investment of $1 Trillion.
Each of these game changers shared three pivotal components
that fostered innovation intelligent people, financial commitment,
and inspiration for innovation. Nurturing this century's innovation
ecosystem must be seeded with these three components.
