Investing in Innovation: Creating a Research and Innovation Policy That Works

Abstract

The authors of this volume were invited by the Clinton administration to take a hard nonpartisan look at how successful the new policies have been and to propose ways to make their programs more effective and more likely to attract bipartisan support. Commissioned by the bipartisan Competitiveness Policy Council, the project issued its first recommendations, in April 1997. This report was called the "hottest technology policy property on Capitol Hill." Two printings of this report— over 600 copies— "sold out" within days.

This book, an expansion of that report, offers guidelines for stimulating technical innovation, shaping public/private partnerships, and establishing criteria for federal investments in research. The authors use these new policy principles to evaluate many federal research programs and to make recommendations for change. Draft versions of "Investing In Innovation" were widely circulated on Capitol Hill and in the White House during the summer and fall of 1997 and the response was overwhelming. This volume will set the terms of the debate over the national research and innovation policy for years to come.