Strategic Engagement in Global S&T Opportunities for Defense Research (2014) / Chapter Skim
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3 Other Approaches for Global S&T Engagement
3 Other Approaches for Global S&T Engagement
Pages 55-80
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From page 55... ...
ISBN 978-92-79-26411-5. Copyright European Union 2012, p.
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government recognize that international engagement in S&T will be key to the nation's ability to compete economically, defend national security interests, and tackle some of the most vexing global challenges for populations everywhere. Science diplomacy, specifically the organized efforts of the federal government to engage in scientific and technological collaboration with foreign counterparts, is a vital component of America's foreign policy agenda.
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requirements for information and access to foreign science and technology are varied, the forms of international scientific engagement have much in common across agencies. They include, for example, joint research programs, professional and academic fellowships and exchanges, data and information exchanges, shared access to observation and data collection platforms, programs for management and enforcement of shared resources, collaborative participation in the programs of wide-ranging global science-based organizations, access to large international research centers and facilities and infrastructure projects, and international funding opportunities.
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There is a wide array of potential international networks ripe for leveraging by U.S. government agencies seeking international engagement.
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section of NSF is responsible for international collaborative activities across NSF and co-funds awards and supplements in cooperation with NSF's disciplinary directorates. The mission of the ISE overseas offices is to promote international collaboration, serve as a liaison between NSF and its overseas counterparts, and report on developments in the international science and engineering community.
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The opportunities are admittedly fewer for DoD researchers to engage in joint research programs or even to share access to observation and data collection platforms. The costs and complexities of large-scale programs, especially those that require prohibitively high infrastructure investments, provide valuable opportunities for international collaborations; once approved, every effort should be made to facilitate collaborative research and not to encumber researchers with excessive and restrictive policies and procedures.
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. Often the best solutions to these problems are being developed overseas, thus providing universities increasing opportunities for constructive, global engagement in a range of precompetitive research areas.
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5 At the individual level, many researchers at U.S. universities have small, thematic researchoriented international engagements and collaborations.
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. 10 Bilateral S&T agreements, memoranda of understanding, and cooperation programs between institutions and/or governments are also used to facilitate international engagement by and among academic institutions.
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coordi nates international research on global- and regional-scale interactions between Earth's biological, chemical and physical processes and their interactions with human systems through a coordinated network of more than 50 national and scientific committees and international pro ject offices. Industry can also play a role in supporting international engagement and collaboration efforts for universities (between universities and between industries and universities)
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There are also opportunities for the DoD to adopt and leverage the international engagement activities and programs of academia. In addition to leveraging international networks that exist due to collaborative research, DoD could take advantage of open innovation approaches being developed by university researchers that seek to leverage the Internet, other open global data sources, and collective idea sharing.
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Developing such a relationship between academic researchers and defense researchers (and decision makers) will require the DoD to establish clear open-access, basic research boundaries and incentives for civilian researchers in the United States to engage with members of the defense research community.
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Even through the recent challenging economic times, global technology investment has remained strong with $1.6 trillion in technology invested in 2013.16 With this level of technology investment, surely other organizations are trying to solve similar problems. Progressive companies have dedicated teams working to understand who in the world is working on technologies of interest to their companies and then reaching out to them to strike a business arrangement to co-invest and share the results.
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Market access requirements vary across industries, but often technology investment can facilitate successful market entry and growth. For products manufactured locally, there is a need to invest in improved manufacturing processes and methods to increase productivity.
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Bilateral research – Searching the world for a collaboration partner that is willing to co-invest to solve a mutual problem can be a daunting task. Some companies are successful in identifying bi-lateral technology collaboration opportunities in their supply chain.
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70 Strategic Engagement in Global S&T R&D performed by universities and the higher TRL technologies required by industry to incorporate into their products.18, 19 The model comes in many forms but they all have some common characteristics regarding their technical and financial approach, participants, and intellectual property model. Participants – With the focus on bridging the gap between university R&D and industry needs, the typical R&D consortium participants are members of industry, a host university and regional or national gov ernment agencies.
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Unless international technology investments are integrated into an organization's broader technology strategy, they will remain marginalized and their ability to significantly impact the success of the organization will be limited. Avoiding viewing international technology engagement as a perk – In the past, when organizations could succeed with primarily an inward focus, individuals who engaged in global technology outreach were often cast in a negative light -- with the assumption being they were more interested in international travel than a broader mission of technology excellence.
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Global technology awareness is critical for decision makers -- whether in academia, industry or government -- to make strategic S&T investments and sound policies for international engagement, economic competitiveness, and national security.
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communicate top-down technology and policy priorities to inform international engagement strategies and (b) provide bottom-up insight on global S&T trends, field assessments of the state of the art in critical technology areas, as well as any cultural and geopolitical factors that could impact technological competitiveness (and for DoD, national security)
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Tools for communicating that international engagement is important across an organization include: national S&T strategies and plans that prioritize international engagement, education and immigration policies that encourage global talent migration, federal research funding support of international collaboration, and visibility of leading international researchers and technology and innovation experts as leaders at universities and industries. 20 For example, ITRI's collaboration with TNO (Nederlandse Organisatie voor Toegepast Natuurwetenschappelijk Onderzoek)
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strategies are important for building international S&T collaborations – While each of the Services' S&T field offices highlighted building international relationships as a primary objective, there did not appear to be a strategic approach for identifying the most opportune countries and institutions for collaboration. Numerous factors shape the type, and quality, of S&T relationships countries have with one another, for example, concerns related to national and regional security, economic competitiveness, and the desire to absorb foreign talent pools and leverage foreign S&T developments.
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ITRI emphasized the value of international conferences and trade shows as a mechanism for researchers to both gauge the current state of the art in their fields and to share technology awareness with colleagues. According to IBM Research–Tokyo, in addition to international conference attendance, actual overseas research experience can provide a broader international perspective.
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In addition, committee discussions with overseas organizations that also have international field offices (e.g., the U.K.'s Science and Innovation Network, Sweden's Agency for Policy Growth, as well as embassies that have civilian and defense science attachés) reveal overlapping missions and technology awareness objectives.
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Horizon scanning and foresight activities should be multifaceted and include international inputs – During its overseas visits, the committee learned about national technology scanning efforts in Japan (Center for R&D Strategy under Japan Science and Technology Agency) , Australia (the Australian Academy of Sciences has an memorandum of understanding with DSTO to provide some foresight services)
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While some presentations did share anecdotal success stories, there appears to be no ongoing assessment of the effectiveness (or efficiency) of ongoing international engagement activities.
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80 Strategic Engagement in Global S&T BOX 3-1 IBM Research–Tokyo Case Study: Factors for Successful Engagement A discussion with IBM Research–Tokyo on their criteria for opening a new international R&D center highlighted some key elements of success ful engagement. The proposed technology center has to be strategically relevant, the location must have a critical mass of talent, and there needs to be stable and long-term government support for the technology.
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