of the future. What is equally remarkable is that, while the challenge is similar, the mechanisms and instruments adopted to encourage this transition show very considerable variation, albeit with some common features. The basic goal of this conference was to bring practitioners and analysts together to discuss the common goals and the diverse measures taken to achieve them.

The challenges of the twenty-first century point to the need to reexamine the policies supporting and building interconnections within the U.S. innovation ecosystem. As described in the conference proceedings that are summarized in the next chapter, the many foreign programs presented at this conference provide graphic evidence of the scope and scale of national efforts to enhance their national prospects in the global economy. The strong cooperative element of the conference also merits emphasis. The conference deliberations underscored the opportunity and indeed the need to learn best practice from the many national experiments underway.