. "Ensuring That the United States Is at the Forefront in Critical Fields of Science and Technology." Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2007.
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Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future
Federal actions that have been proposed include the following:
New Policies and Initiatives
Create interdisciplinary discovery-innovation institutes to bring together research, education, and practice around the solution of major societal problems.
Create a program of “Innovation Acceleration” grants to stimulate high-risk research through a set aside of 3% of agency R&D budgets.
Create a National Institute of Innovation to provide venture capital for innovative startups.
Expand industry-led roadmaps for R&D priorities.
Launch a large new initiative to develop the computational science base and the necessary broad infrastructure (such as networks) and domain-specific tools for research and education enabled by information technology across the various fields of science, engineering, and medicine.
Establish centers for production excellence and Innovation Extension Centers to improve the capabilities of small and medium-sized enterprises.
Modifications of Existing Policies and Programs
Make improvements to the Small Business Innovation Research program, including bridges between phase I and phase II funding, increased phase II funding relative to phase I funding, and regular assessments across agencies.
Restore ATP funding—including the ability to support new awards— to the average level of recent years.
Make improvements in ATP, including streamlining the application process and widening the window for funding, better integrating ATP with other programs, and focusing some funding in thematic areas.
Have such agencies as the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, and the Internal Revenue Service consider launching industry–university collaborative research centers to benefit the services industries.
Re-examine and amend the Bayh–Dole Act to encourage collaboration among university licensing offices, thereby promoting economic development.
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AS VENTURE CAPITALIST
The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs have sought to encourage the innovative activities of small businesses. SBIR was established in 1982 and sets
