Lessons from the U.S. Innovation System

Fred Block

University of California, Davis

May 2011

R&D 100 Awards

"The Oscars of Invention"- The Chicago Tribune

For 45 years, the prestigious R&D 100 Awards have been helping companies provide the important initial push a new product needs to compete successfully in the marketplace. The winning of an R&D 100 Award provides a mark of excellence known to industry, government, and academia as proof that the product is one of the most innovative ideas of the year.

2008 Winners Include:

• Antibody Profiling Indentification-AbP IDIdaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, IDIdentity Sciences, Alpharetta, GA

• Rynaxypyr InsecticideDuPont Crop Protection, Newark, DE

• FormulatorFormulatrix, Inc., Waltham, MA

• Berkeley Lab PhyloChipLawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA

Figure 2: Solo Fortune 500 vs. Total Fortune 500

3840

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911

75 5

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1971 1975 1979 1982 1984 1988 1991 1995 1997 2002 2004 2006

Year

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ards

Solo Fortune 500

Total Fortune 500

Figure 4: Awards to Inter-Organizational Collaborations

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1971 1975 1979 1982 1984 1988 1991 1995 1997 2002 2004 2006

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Figure 3: Federal Labs vs. Spinoffs vs. Other Public

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1971 1975 1979 1982 1984 1988 1991 1995 1997 2002 2004 2006

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f Aw

ards

Federal Lab Solo

Federal Lab Collaborative

Supported Spinoff

Universities and Other Public

• SBIR: Set-aside program for small business concerns to engage in federal R&D --with potential for commercialization.

• STTR: Set-aside program to facilitate

cooperative R&D between small business concerns and U.S. research institutions -- with potential for commercialization.

Program DescriptionsProgram Descriptions

SBIR/STTR: 3-Phase Program

• PHASE I Feasibility study $100K and 6 months (SBIR)

or 12 months (STTR)

• PHASE II Full R/R&D 2-Year Award and $750K (SBIR)

or $500K (STTR)

• PHASE III Commercialization Stage Use of non-SBIR Funds

Industry/University Cooperative

Research Centers (I/UCRC)

National Science Foundation

NUMBER OF CENTERS

2 3 5 7 1017

31 37 36 41 45 4351 50 56 51 54 50 55 51 50 53

45 45 44 42 391

25 7

89 9

11 1111

1415 19

19 27 29 2935 41 42 46

1

1

2 44

4 5

6 66 7

7 910

14 1415 17 18

20 21 23

36

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PHASED OUT

GRADUATED

ACTIVE CENTERS

Firm Size by number of employees

Figure 1: Thousands of Full Time Equivalent Scientists and Engineers in R&D Performing Companies, by Firm Size, 1971-2004

Figure 4: Trends in SBIR Awards and Ph.D. Technologists Employed by Small-Firms

Figure 5: Number of Early Stage and Seed Funding Awards, SBIR and Venture Capital

Sources: VC investment data from PWC Moneytree; SBIR data from Wessner 2008

Figure 6: Percentage of Venture Capital Investments to Firms with Prior SBIR Award(s) – Life Sciences

Network FailuresOccur in decentralized production systems when:

1. Firms cannot find the partners they need.

2. The potential partners lack the needed competence.

3. The potential partners lack integrity and honesty.

Public programs can help participants with all of these issues.

Source: Josh Whitford and Andrew Schrank.

Relational Work

“the creative effort people make establishing, maintaining, negotiating, transforming, and terminating interpersonal relations. Relational work goes on continuously, shaping boundaries which differentiate relations that might become with deleterious consequences for one party, both parties, or third parties.”

Zelizer, forthcoming.

Relational Work in the Innovation System

• New Relational Packages

• For government officials.

• For university and federal lab technologists.

• For private sector scientists and engineers