Growing Innovation Clusters for American Prosperity Summary of a Symposium (2011) / Chapter Skim
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PANEL II: REGIONAL INNOVATION CLUSTERS: THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION'S INNOVATION INITIATIVE
PANEL II: REGIONAL INNOVATION CLUSTERS: THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION'S INNOVATION INITIATIVE
Pages 57-70
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From page 57... ...
In the FY 2010 budget, President Obama, he said, sought for the first time to provide explicit funding for the support of regional clusters and associated business incubators. He noted that it is a difficult time to develop new funding for regional competitiveness, with 47 of the 50 states facing budget shortfalls.
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From page 58... ...
Because the EDA is in the Department of Commerce, it is already well positioned to connect to programs of overlapping expertise, including the Technology Innovation Program, Manufacturing Extension Partnership, export assistance from the International Trade Administration, and infrastructure funding from National Telecommunications and Information Administration and NOAA. He suggested that the program should have three key features: competitive grants, a program of information exchange, and coordinated delivery of expert assistance.
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From page 59... ...
The onestop shop would not have all 250 federal programs related to regional economic development, but perhaps a selected few: e.g., existing Department of Commerce programs related to infrastructure, trade, and technology; programs of the Small Business Administration; the WIRED2 program of the Department of Labor; and other business 2 The Department of Labor's Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) , was initiated in 2005.
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From page 60... ...
Convenient location to existing regional offices SOURCE: Jonathan Sallet, Presentation at June 3, 2009, National Academies Symposium on "Growing Innovation Clusters for American Prosperity." He suggested a pilot program that begins in two kinds of areas: those with many resources, and those with few resources. "We already know that some forms of federal assistance bring gains where there are resources on the ground.
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From page 61... ...
"It's the federal government having a defined role that is complementary to regional efforts. The federal government can frame national challenges, facilitate information exchange and learning, and fund the cluster efforts in helpful but not exclusive fashion." New York State's NANO Initiative Pradeep Haldar Energy and Environmental Technology Applications Center (E2TAC)
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From page 62... ...
An undergraduate program is scheduled to begin in 2010. TABLE 2 Infrastructure: Shared-use, Co-location Model Key Features of the Albany NanoFabs 800,000 square feet in facilities, including 80,000 square feet of 300 mm wafer clean rooms Partners include SEMATECH, IBM, AMD, Micron, Infineon, Tokyo Electron, and ASML among others Over $4.5 billion in assets, in addition to the buildings themselves Over 2,200 employees within the complex SOURCE: Pradeep Haldar, Presentation at June 3, 2009, National Academies Symposium on "Growing Innovation Clusters for American Prosperity." Once the CNSE was established, IBM's consortium partners and other firms came to Albany as well, including Applied Materials, Micron, AMD, Infineon, and a NIST/Army partnership.
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From page 63... ...
The activities in this gap include business incubation, pilot prototyping, and test bed integration. "We do the entire gamut of what's of interest to these companies." Workforce development is a key component, including partnerships with community colleges, with K-12 schools, construction trades training, high school and
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From page 64... ...
SOURCE: Pradeep Haldar, Presentation at June 3, 2009, National Academies Symposium on "Growing Innovation Clusters for American Prosperity." He concluded by recalling that planners of the regional cluster wanted it to be a global force from the outset. "Our governor and industry leaders saw the vision of creating a real key gateway for industry clustering," he said.
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From page 65... ...
"I have never seen such enthusiasm," he said, "which began with transition people coming to see us at NIST, trying to find ways we can be engaged." Given that interest, he said, the challenge is to "find ways to remanufacture what we're doing at the federal level so it gets to the states and is useful." Saying that the states can be considered "laboratories of democracy," he offered a quote from former Justice Louis Brandeis: "There must be power in the states and the nation to remold, through experimentation, our economic practices and institutions to meet changing social and economic needs…It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments...." Looking for Ways to Support Clusters He said that the TIP would look for ways to support clusters and other state programs that share this spirit of adventure. TIP could do so, he said, by bringing federal R&D dollars and helping retain or develop high-tech industries.
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From page 66... ...
Among these national needs, he said, are building the smart grid electrical system, enhancing cyber security, and strengthening technologies, including those developed under ongoing ATP programs. TIP uses a filter of critical national needs to shape its competitions and collaborative programs.
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From page 67... ...
. Cost sharing is required on a 50-50 basis, with matching funds including yearly total project costs (direct plus indirect)
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From page 68... ...
More broadly, it is easy to forget that government policy and support played key roles in industries as diverse as radio, aircraft engines, radar, computers, semiconductors, nuclear power and, more recently, GPS and the Internet. Some distinguished economists, such as Vernon Ruttan have argued that most major industries, agricultural sectors, and other exporters owe at least some of their success to some form of public subsidy.5 A key point to keep in mind is that the rest of the world is not worried about whether they should support local "winners"; their only concern is how.
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From page 69... ...
"They do not look like anybody's depiction of industrial policy, but this will be a formulation that is important for us to use." Steve Crawford of the Brookings Institution followed up with a question about the Sallet report. He said that while economies and innovation are regional, it is difficult to match them with programs because of "dozens of competing townships, cities, and other entities." He suggested that EDA reorganize itself around the concept of regions, and help them coordinate infrastructure and workforce investments.
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