Building the Illinois Innovation Economy Summary of a Symposium (2013) / Chapter Skim
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Panel IV: Innovation in Illinois: A Regional Case Study
Panel IV: Innovation in Illinois: A Regional Case Study
Pages 105-119
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From page 105... ...
He said that regional innovation was "pretty much my favorite topic," and said that his introduction would be very brief in deference to the distinguished panelists to follow. He introduced Robert Easter, President Designate of the University of Illinois, Eric Isaacs of Argonne National Laboratory, David Miller of iBIO, and Dan Berglund of the State Science and Technology Institute.
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From page 106... ...
I believe we have much to bring to the conversation about innovation, and how innovation can lead the development of a state's economy." He said that the word innovation is an interesting one because it describes not only a discovery or intention, but a technology that been developed to the point where it has value to humanity. "I'm glad the word innovation is being used in proper context today, because I think it's what we have to do to translate discovery science into products that have value." He said that the past week had been a good one, because he had spent the first three days of it in Washington to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the passage of the Morrill Act, passed by Congress in 1862.
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From page 107... ...
We did this through a formula developed more than 100 years ago: providing a public education for Americans, gaining access to all the intellectual capacity that exists within our society, continually modernizing our infrastructure, and keeping our doors open to immigrants. He urged continued investment in research and maintenance of a regulatory environment that allows the private economy to grow dynamically and nimbly.
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From page 108... ...
"This makes use of our capacity not only in biological sciences, but also in engineering sciences and our capacity to use imaging technologies to measure changes in the brain." Finally, he said, a major initiative has begun with funding by the Department of Energy to explore carbon sequestration, performed jointly with ADM, adjacent to the ADM headquarters in Decatur. "Through these aggressive efforts to capture research grants," he said, "we've increased our research budget by nearly 50 percent in the past decade to nearly $1 billion.
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From page 109... ...
Scientists will need to help solve them in large groups, or they won't be solved." In the past, he said, we had many more corporate laboratories labs to help tackle such questions. A few effective corporate labs remain, such as those of Baxter, but the very large facilities of IBM, Xerox PARC, AT&T Bell Labs, and others were attuned to mission-driven science.
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From page 110... ...
It grew out of the success of Chicago Pile-1, the first artificial nuclear chain reaction, supervised by Enrico Fermi in an abandoned rackets court beneath Stagg Field at the University of Chicago. After the experiment, the facility had to be moved because Hyde Park "was not the place to do experiments in nuclear energy," he said.
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From page 111... ...
Now, of course, we pull a phone out of our pocket and it's got a charge-coupled device in it. So how do we make sure innovation in the lab is tightly coupled to the ideas and companies outside the lab." He showed a complex figure from the University of Chicago of a regional innovation ecosystem that emphasized the "idea side" or "push side" rather than the industry side.
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From page 112... ...
He said the goal and mission of iBIO is help Chicago, Illinois, and the surrounding Midwest region become "one of the top biotech centers on the planet." In many ways, he added, "we already are." But because biotechnology itself is still early in its development, much of what iBIO does "is still groundfloor stuff." iBIO functions at several levels. The "parent" organization, iBIO itself, promotes sound public policy at the local, state, and federal levels and on "improving our region's ability to create, attract, and retain businesses." PROPEL® and EDUCATE™ -- Centers within the iBIO Institute -- "orchestrate industry involvement to help solve America's math and science education crisis." To gain some perspective on how an industry develops, he said, he had looked up another transformative technology -- electricity -- to discover what had been accomplished when electricity was at a similar stage of development as biotechnology is today.
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From page 113... ...
That legislation also makes the FDA's procedures more speedy and transparent, and gives the agency better access to outside expertise. He concluded by visiting a program of Chicago Innovation Mentors that keeps helps mentees attract helpers by making the volunteer community aware of commercializable research.
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From page 114... ...
Particularly noticeable is the region-to-region variation and the dependence on established companies, rather than emerging companies, for its economic vitality… Illinois is very much in the middle of the pack with regard to innovation assets… Illinois universities are in the top 10 states in all major fields with regard to research and development expenditures, with particular strength in math and computer science… This has not translated into entrepreneurial activity that is driving a revitalized economy." 46 He said that studies by the Brookings Institution, Ernst & Young, the Milken Institute, and PriceWaterhouseCoopers had arrived at the same conclusions.
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From page 115... ...
iBIO launched the PROPEL program in 2007 with funding over the years from iBIO, grants from leading companies, Searle Funds at the Chicago Community Trust, Illinois DCEO, and the City of Chicago. PROPEL offers coaching, professional services, networking, CEO roundtables, business plan competition, and PROPEL Connections, a semi-annual publication of PROPEL company snapshots for the life sciences investment community.
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From page 116... ...
One was that Illinois ranked fifth in the nation in population, "so that any time you see a ranking in some other category lower than five, it should be a red flag." He noted that there were "lots of numbers lower than five." One basic measure used for the general health of a state's economy, he said, is per capita personal income. From 2006 to 2011, Illinois dropped from 11th nationally to 14th in that measure -- "a fairly significant drop." The good news, he said, is that the state is still above the national average, which is about $41,000; the figure for Illinois is $44,000.
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From page 117... ...
A common approach in response to this problem is to provide proposal development assistance and federal R&D support, encouraging the pursuit of federal R&D. Another approach is to focus on successful Phase II conversion or Phase III commercialization -- "really working with those SBIR companies that have received Phase II awards and should now be ready for commercialization." He said that that kind of intensive assistance in commercializing is likely to be beneficial for Illinois.
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From page 118... ...
I don't know exactly what that is, but I think the state needs to figure it out, because it is probably affecting the other measures that are even more important for the health of the economy. So much of the Great Lakes region is focused on big, existing companies, rather than helping to build the ecosystem for entrepreneurial startups." Mr.
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From page 119... ...
Miller agreed that current national policy gives little importance to building innovation ecosystems. He said that numerous practices interfere with serious investment in innovation, including expenditures on foreign wars, programs of "nation building," the use of securities whose actual value is almost impossible to understand, programs of health care reform that do not include lifestyle and dietary reforms.
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