International Friction and Cooperation in High-Technology Development and Trade Papers and Proceedings (1997) / Chapter Skim
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Research, Economic Growth, and Competitiveness
Research, Economic Growth, and Competitiveness
Pages 153-167
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From page 153... ...
OZZIE SILVERMAN: The title of this session is an amalgam of ideas that are central to the policy agenda of every country a grouping now commonly addressed under the broad rubric of innovation policy. It is a particularly active area of government policy interest and one with the potential to give rise to serious friction among national economic systems.
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From page 154... ...
Of course, that brings with it a cascading effect when one country takes action to mobilize national resources, other countries follow. For example, when Japan launched the fifth-generation project, the United States came out with the Strategic Computing Initiative, and Britain launched the Alvey Program.
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From page 155... ...
Government investment has been made over the decades to enable technological breakthroughs, such as time sharing, networks that have given us the Internet today, and the National Information Infrastructure for tomorrow. Government investment in decade-long investments is crucial.
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From page 156... ...
The third approach is to leverage commercial assets, where there is commercial advantage to be had and where it can be leveraged in a way that we are assured we will be able to use it for defense systems. We are talking with our long-time international partners to look creatively for opportunities in which we can collectively afford to pursue something that the United States cannot afford to do alone.
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From page 157... ...
It is scary to hear people talk about dramatic reductions in the R&D budget, because you cannot achieve breakthroughs without decades of stable investments. We are aggressively looking to cooperate, but it is with an eye to the United States getting the advantage.
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From page 158... ...
Despite this, the House Budget Resolution appears to reduce civilian federal R&D spending by more than 11 percent by the year 2002; assuming a modest inflation rate, this would represent a real dollar cut in seven years of one-third against the base. As great a concern is where these cuts are targeted.
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From page 159... ...
This technology came out of the laser program at Livermore, but with refinements it can be applied to finding construction studs in houses or to providing collision warning systems in cars. Furthermore, it is clear that the private sector often cannot fund all the longterm applied R&D needed to bring a breakthrough to the market.
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From page 160... ...
It was, and is, though, a cardinal principle of this administration that strengthening these linkages was crucial to generating more economic value in the United States from research. And a companion view of this administration is to see the innovation process as more complex and interactive requiring nurturing of all of its parts a policy that honors and seeks to expand on the government' s traditional investment role in basic research, but does not attempt to draw bright line distinctions in the continuum between fundamental and applied research.
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From page 161... ...
Our High Energy and Nuclear Physics Research Program, totaling nearly $1 billion in FY 1995, would fare relatively well because it would be cut by only 9 percent by FY 1998. But the resolution would totally prohibit the restoration of funding called for in the Drell report, reflecting the community's expert judgment of what is required to maintain world leadership in this field.
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From page 162... ...
We also asked Bob Galvin, former chairman of Motorola, to head a task force to examine the missions of our national laboratories. We asked Dan Yergin, the energy industry expert and author of The Prize, to head a task force that will help evaluate and set priorities for our applied energy R&D programs.
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From page 163... ...
It is difficult to define precise rules concerning these activities. The best we can do is to use our judgment about what makes sense for the American taxpayer and for our specific missions while acting within a framework of congressionally directed preferences, and, in some cases, restrictions.
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From page 164... ...
The fusion program involves a major international collaboration in the ITER that, incidentally, is expected to cost $10 billion to construct and $10 billion to operate over its expected operating period. The reason that we examined the PCAST was to determine if we could develop a highlevel presidential commitment to that program, which is necessary for sustainable financial support, as well as to engage Congress in something more than an annual appropriations act.
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From page 165... ...
If I might use an analogy to the electric utility industry, it has not worked out very well when you have, in essence, one competitor maintaining ownership of an essential means of competition, even under rules that were designed to provide fair and full access to those facilities. Foreign Contributions to the U.S.
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From page 166... ...
The bigger portion is in the operating divisions, not in central R&D. The biggest spender in R&D in the United States is Siemens Public Network Switching, headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida.
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From page 167... ...
Siemens Corporate Research is handled like a department, but from a legal point of view, it is a company. It has worldwide responsibility for certain Siemens core technologies.
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