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1
Overview
I
n October 2005, the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy
of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine released a policy report that
served as a call to action. Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing
and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future observed that “the
scientific and technological building blocks critical to [the United States’]
economic leadership are eroding at a time when many other nations are
gathering strength.” The report laid out 20 recommendations in four broad
areas—K-12 education, science and engineering research, higher educa-
tion, and economic and technology policy—and warned that a failure to
take action could have dire economic consequences. As the committee that
wrote the Gathering Storm report concluded, “we fear the abruptness with
which a lead in science and technology can be lost— and the difficulty of
recovering a lead once lost.”
Rising Above the Gathering Storm sparked intense discussions among
policy makers, industrial leaders, and the general public. (See Box 1-1, “The
Origins and Aftermath of Rising Above the Gathering Storm” at the end
of this chapter.) Five years after the release of the Gathering Storm report,
a second report, Rising Above the Gathering Storm, Revisited: Rapidly
Approaching Category 5, assessed changes in America’s competitive pos-
ture. That report concluded that “our nation’s outlook has not improved
but rather has worsened” since the Gathering Storm report was released.
The report noted examples of other nations that have upgraded their invest-
ments in education, technological infrastructure, and innovation systems to
a greater extent than has the United States. “In summary,” the follow-up
report concluded, “the outlook for America to compete for quality jobs has
still further deteriorated over the past 5 years.”
1
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2 RISING ABOVE THE GATHERING STORM
FOCUSING ATTENTION ON STATES AND REGIONS
The federal government is not the only source of policy actions that
can enhance U.S. competitiveness. States and regions within the United
States can also contribute to building their capacity for innovation.1 Ar-
eas of intensive innovative activity are scattered throughout the United
States—often near major research universities—and all states are interested
in strengthening these capabilities.
The ability of the states to drive innovation was the impetus behind a
major workshop held in Madison, Wisconsin, on September 20-22, 2011.
Entitled “Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Developing Regional Innova-
tion Environments,” the workshop brought together leaders in education,
government, economic development, and industrial innovation to discuss
state and regional initiatives to boost competitiveness through science,
technology, and innovation. The conference—which was sponsored by
the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, the Morgridge Institute for
Research, and the National Research Council—was organized around four
major themes:
• Revitalizing K-12 Science and Mathematics Education
• Strengthening Undergraduate Education in Science and Engineering
• Building Effective Partnerships Among Governments, Universities,
Companies, and Other Stakeholders
• Fostering Regional Technology Development and Entrepreneurship
The presentations given in each of these four areas are summarized in chap-
ters 2 through 5 of this report. Chapter 6 provides a list of observations
and recommendations made by individual participants in the conference’s
final open-ended discussion. The report has been prepared by the workshop
rapporteurs as a factual summary of what occurred at the workshop. The
planning committee’s role was limited to planning and convening the work-
shop. The views contained in the report are those of individual workshop
participants and do not necessarily represent the views of all workshop
participants, the planning committee, or the National Research Council.
AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH
The conference was held at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery,
which Judith Kimble, Henry Vilas Professor and Howard Hughes Medical
1
There is an extensive literature on state and regional innovation. One recent collection
of insights and perspectives is Charles W. Wessner, Rapporteur; National Research Council.
Growing Innovation Clusters for American Prosperity: Summary of a Symposium, Washing-
ton, DC: National Academies Press, 2011.
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3
OVERVIEW
Institute investigator at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, described
in her opening remarks as the “physical embodiment of the principles of
Rising Above the Gathering Storm.” (See Box 1-2.) The Wisconsin Insti-
tutes for Discovery is a public-private partnership consisting of the private
not-for-profit Morgridge Institute for Research and the public Wisconsin
Institute for Discovery. Located in a new state-of-the-art facility, it brings
together scientists from a broad spectrum of disciplines to conduct research,
translate discoveries into applications, enhance cross-disciplinary educa-
tion, and reach out to the public. As Tashia Morgridge, founding trustee
of the Morgridge Institute for Research, said in her opening remarks, the
institute has, “as the kids would say, buzz.” John Morgridge, chairman
emeritus of the Board at Cisco Systems, borrowed a term from his grand-
daughters to describe the institute: “awesome.”
Judith Kimble: “This isn’t about making one region strong at the expense
of another. We want to make every region in the country strong.”
Carl Gulbrandsen, the managing director of the Wisconsin Alumni Re-
search Foundation, said that the great strength of the Wisconsin Institutes
for Discovery is the ability “to leverage the human capital and the infra-
structure of a great public research university, and . . . leverage the nimble-
ness and the flexibility of a private research institute.” The institution does
not have departments, just research themes. The building includes teach-
ing laboratories on each floor, research space, and space for community
involvement. “We wanted young people to get excited about science and
want to be scientists,” said Gulbrandsen. “We wanted people to have fun.”
Another great strength of the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, said
Kimble, is that it is engaged in a positive sum game. Research and education
undertaken at the institution make the region stronger while also benefit-
ing the broader society, as the results of research and people trained at the
institution move elsewhere. The same can be said of state and regional ap-
proaches to innovation in general. Kimble said, “This isn’t about making
one region strong at the expense of another. We want to make every region
in the country strong.”
C. D. Mote, Jr.: “The United States has taken actions, but they are too
little, they are without long-term commitment, they do not engage those
responsible, and they do not reflect an appreciation of the accelerating
advancement of other countries.”
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4 RISING ABOVE THE GATHERING STORM
BOX 1-1
The Origins and Aftermath of Rising Above the Gathering Storm
On May 11, 2005, Senator Lamar Alexander delivered a talk entitled “The
Next Big Surprise” at the annual meeting of the National Academy of Sciences
(NAS). He predicted that within one or two decades other countries would close
the economic gap between themselves and the United States. “We need to work
together to ensure that our current prosperity is passed on to the next genera-
tion,” he said.
This talk ignited a “congressional brushfire,” said C. D. Mote, Jr., Regents
Professor and former President of the University of Maryland, in his remarks at
the Madison workshop. On May 27, 2005, the NAS received a bipartisan letter
from the Senate requesting responses to specific questions on how to maintain
U.S. preeminence in science and technology in the 21st century. On June 30, the
NAS received a bipartisan letter containing similar questions from the House of
Representatives and requesting a response within 90 days.
Within a few weeks, the NAS, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute
of Medicine, through their Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy,
formed a 20-member committee that included Nobel laureates, the directors of
national laboratories, university presidents, corporate chief executives, and former
government officials. Chaired by Norman Augustine, former president and chief
executive officer of Lockheed Martin Corporation, the committee met in the sum-
mer of 2005 to decide on the top federal policy actions to ensure that the United
States would be able to compete, prosper, and be secure in the 21st century.
When the report was released in October of that year, it contained recom-
mendations in four broad areas. The report’s highest priority was K-12 science
and mathematics education, with a particular focus on the supply of high-quality
teachers. The report’s second broad recommendation was to support basic re-
search and transformational ideas in science and engineering. The report’s third
BOX 1-2
To Learn More
Additional information about the workshop is available at: http://sites.nation-
alacademies.org/PGA/COSEPUP/index.htm
Video of the workshop plenary sessions is available at: http://vimeo.com/
album/1748515
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5
OVERVIEW
major recommendation was to attract the best and the brightest into science
and technology from both the United States and other countries. And the fourth
general recommendation was to create incentives for innovation that would make
the United States the premier place in the world to innovate, invest, and create
high-paying jobs.
Actions corresponding with many of the report’s 20 detailed recommenda-
tions were authorized in the America COMPETES Act of 2007. Funds for some
provisions of America COMPETES were appropriated in the 2008 supplemental
budget. Funding for the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E),
which was recommended in the Gathering Storm report as a way of undertaking
high-risk and potentially high-payoff energy ventures, was appropriated in the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), passed in 2009. Some provi-
sions of America COMPETES have not been funded.
The America COMPETES Act was reauthorized in January 2011. But action
on many of the recommendations in the Gathering Storm report remains stalled
because of constrained resources and political differences in the federal govern-
ment. “The United States has taken actions,” said Mote in his workshop remarks,
“but they are too little, they are without long-term commitment, they do not engage
those responsible, and they do not reflect an appreciation of the accelerating ad-
vancement of other countries. It’s fair to conclude that a top priority commitment to
U.S. global competitiveness in science and technology is not U.S. policy.”
Mote noted that Rising Above the Gathering Storm focused on federal ac-
tions but that its recommendations extended well past the domain of the federal
government. States and localities play major roles in improving K-12 education,
accelerating regional economic development, fostering competitiveness within the
private sector, and many other issues. “That’s why this conference is so important,”
he said, “because regional and state actions have to be a part of [the solution] if
it’s going to work.”
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