Boston slips in high-tech ranking

While Massachusetts maintains the top state ranking in science and technology prowess, Boston has slipped.

In the Milken Institute’s ranking of top high-tech center areas in North America, Seattle passed Boston and became America’s second-ranking high-tech metro area. The number one spot belongs to Silicon Valley, which “continues to lead all other metropolitan regions in North America in the breadth and scope of economic activity it creates through technological innovation,” according to the study.

According to Milken Institute, the Top Ten North America high-tech centers are:

2007 Ranking (2003 Ranking) Metro Area Total High Tech Score

1 (1) San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA 100.0

2 (3) Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, WA 46.4

3 (2) Cambridge-Newton-Framingham, MA 45.2

4 (5) Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV 41.8

5 (4) Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, CA 40.2

6 (6) Dallas-Plano-Irving, TX 21.8
7
(7) San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA 19.3

8 (11) Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, CA 17.7

9 (9) New York-White Plains-Wayne, NY-NJ 16.8

10 (8) San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City, CA 16.1

The report, called “North America’s High-Tech Economy: The Geography of Knowledge-Based Industries,” was presented earlier this week at the 2009 IEDC Technology-Led Economic Development Conference.

Metro areas were ranked by “their ability to grow and sustain thriving high-tech industries.” The study compares wages and employment in the metropolitan areas, and adds a location quotient, which measures the concentration of high-tech employment or wages in the area.

Boston area still is number one among 381 metro areas in scientific research and development services, one of twenty high-tech industry segments. So, it has the potential to be number one overall if it improves its capacity to turn innovative ideas into plans, plans into operating businesses, and businesses into rapidly growing ventures. Moving research to ventures remains its major challenge. That is why programs like the Venture Development Center are important.

Grand opening of the Venture Development Center

Yesterday, Harvard President Faust rode the Red Line to join 200 city, business and education leaders to cut a ribbon and mark the official opening of UMass Boston’s Venture Development Center.

“The state-of-the-art R&D facility and business incubator...signals the Dorchester extension of the innovation, research, and development that occurs along the Red Line,” Faust noted.

Also participating were Chancellor J. Keith Motley, University of Massachusetts, Boston, President Jack Wilson, University of Massachusetts, and Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino.

President Faust's remarks, "Innovation, collaboration and renewal – lessons along the Red Line" are posted on the Harvard University Office of the President's web site.

"The Red Line...is a highly useful reminder of...where we can go … if we commit to working together to get there," she said.

View the entire event on YouTube.

Universities among top bay state patent winners in 2008

Patent awards are not a perfect barometer for an organization’s ability to innovate, but it can be one important measure of its investment in itself and its intellectual property—and its future competitiveness.

According to figures Xconomy obtained from Wilmington, DE-based IFI Patent Intelligence, here’s the top 25 list for Massachusetts:

1. EMC (IT) — 192
2. MIT (academic research) — 138
3. Analog Devices (semiconductors) — 122
4. Raytheon (defense) — 122
5. Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories (electronics) — 86
6. Acushnet (sporting goods) — 78
7. Massachusetts General Hospital (medical research) — 53
8. Harvard University (academic research) — 51
9. Osram Sylvania (lighting manufacturing) — 46
10. Vertex Pharmaceuticals (biotechnology — 45
11. BBN Technologies (technology R&D) — 42
12. Millennium Pharmaceuticals (biotechnology) — 37
13. 3Com (network infrastructure) — 34
14. The MathWorks (software) — 32
15. Varian Semiconductor Equip. Associates (semiconductors) — 32
16. Teradyne (semiconductors/test equipment) — 27
17. Gillette (consumer products) — 26
18. The University of Massachusetts (academic research) — 26
19. Axcelis Technologies (semiconductors) — 24
20. PerkinElmer (healthcare/analytical sciences) — 24
21. M/A-Com (RF/microwave products) — 23
22. Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials (specialty materials) — 23
23. Children’s Hospital (medical research) — 23
24. Bose (audio equipment) — 22
25. Cabot (chemicals) — 21

Academic institutions contributed an impressive 21% of the patents.

What makes the bay area so cool?

The bay area, envied the world over for its industry of ideas, consistently grabs about 44% of the nation's venture capital investment. What is it about the bay area that makes it a hub for innovation?

Paul Graham ought to know. He is the founder of Y Combinator, a blend of boot camp, commune, and investor designed to help start-up companies get off the ground. Y Combinator used to alternate its activity between Boston and San Francisco every six months.

In "How to Start a Start-Up," Graham says the bay area “has the right kind of vibe.” It attracts a special kind of talent, the younger scientists, programmers, and creatives who drive innovation.

The bay area has everything they want:

• Authentic personality. Young-feeling, but not new.

• Smart people, which means universities, still tethered to their professors.

• An environment that tolerates oddness in which they feel they can best be themselves.

• Neighborhoods which are cheap, fun, and near the subway.
  

Nerds don't like to work in dreary office buildings that are a wasteland when the sun goes down. They like to head out for dinner then take the subway back to the office or lab to get some real work done, instead of going home to watch television. That's why creating business parks in the suburbs is futile.

When start-ups grow into big companies, and move to the suburbs, they still keep an r&d center near the Red Line. Otherwise they'd loose the younger talent.

What is unique about the bay area is the support system in such areas as finance, law, accounting, headhunting, and marketing, tuned to help ventures form and grow.

Ventures operating outside the bay area certainly succeed. But who would be willing to claim that a venture elsewhere wouldn't benefit from moving to the bay area?

Graham's advice to start-ups? "Get a place on the Red Line."
________________________________________________________________
Red line life line
To younger talent, the Red Line is pure magic. Its convenient, and quirky. Listen to their banter on Yelp.

Molly says: “It's supremely easy to get to anywhere worth going...I can hear the trains from my apartment, but it's worth it just to know they're there.”

John says: “I would have a difficult time functioning without it, and for that I am grateful.”

Kelly: “I like it, it's homey. I look up from my reading or video game to watch the city arrive and recede as we cross over the river. It's calming.”

Victor says: “And hey, you can go under the bay. How cool is that? It's pretty damn cool.”

Sarah says: “The seats are SO much more comfortable on the BART than on the T. :)”

But Jeffrey says: “Reupholster the seats. They're gross.”

Helen says: “I LIKE the gross aspects of public transit.“
_______________________________________________________________

Graham has his favorites start-up places along the Red Line. He especially likes Berkeley, Davis, Inman, and Central.

In “Cities and Ambition” he says he always imagined that Berkeley would be the ideal place to be—that it would basically be Cambridge with good weather.

But when he finally tried living there a couple years ago, it turned out not to be. He says “it's not humming with ambition.” Its message is "live the good life."

“The people you find in Boston...are the kind of people who want to live where the smartest people are, even if that means living in an expensive, grubby place with bad weather."

There are plenty of smart people in the south. But he thinks the universities there are too spread apart, therefore diluted, while in the north, they are clustered, dozens withing a few miles of each other.

Lately, he thinks the north has the edge on ideas (in the whole world), the south the edge on ventures. Why? Investors tend to be more conservative in the north, more aggressive in the south. Facebook was started in the north. Boston investors had the first shot at them. But they said no, so Facebook moved to south and raised money there.

But for now, Graham says, "Boston just doesn't have the startup culture that the Valley does. It has more startup culture than anywhere else, but the gap between number 1 and number 2 is huge; nothing makes that clearer than alternating between them."

Since ideas are only one step upstream from economic power, says Graham, it's conceivable that the north will one day regain the edge.

Two sides of the river

On the north side of the river, people stay up all night working to invent things. On the south side of the river, people wake up in the morning thinking how to change things. They are just as smart and interesting, and really good at what they do. They too push boundaries, break down needless conventions, and defy expectations.

On the south side, they don’t run a model railroad club that meets on Saturday nights, or have a cappella group called the loga-rhythms. But they do have subversive knitters whose software people use all around the world to protest sweatshop labor.

On the north side of the river, people closely watch the fate of commercial ventures like A123Systems, which manufactures high-power lithium ion batteries. They excel at private entrepreneurship, but try really hard to be socially responsible. Their commencement speaker last year was Muhammad Yunus, a pioneer in the microlending movement.

On the south side of the river, people closely watch the fate of social ventures like the Entrepreneurs for Peace, a training program for Arab-Israeli ventures. They excel at creating value for society as a whole, but are trying hard at private entrepreneurship. Their commencement speaker, two years ago, was Barack Obama.

On the north side of the river, they are trying to de-nerdify their reputation. Going to great lengths to do so, such as producing calendars featuring scantily clad students in the arts to show how well-rounded they are. On the south side of the river, they are trying to attract nerds, the really hardcore math/science types. And going to great lengths to do so, such as building a venture center.

Frankly, I don’t see the attempts to totally normalize either the north or south will get all that far. Nor should they. Well-rounded people don’t push the human race forward.

California v. Massachusetts

If you haven't noticed, California and Massachusetts are going head-to-head on biotech and clean energy leadership. Governors Schwarzenegger and Patrick both aim to attract the top scientists and companies to their state.

At the Biotechnology International Convention in San Diego, Schwarzenegger stated that, “California is the place to set-up shop.” He touted $73 billion in annual revenue for the California biomedical industry, which he added, “excludes the sales of Botox.”

As the competition heats up, I am keeping an eye on what is happening out west. It appears that they are pulling out all the stops.

The San Francisco Business Times reports that Segway users now will be able to bring the scooters on BART (as in MBTA) with some limited restrictions. The BART board approved a one-year pilot program covering guidelines for using Segways on BART. The newspaper estimates that only 15 to 20 Segway owners ride BART.

Supercharging life science

Beacon Hill, with strong backing from the life science industry, has approved a $1 billion, 10-year life science initiative, a cornerstone of Governor Patrick's economic strategy. He hopes the bill will lure biotechnology companies to the state, creating high-paying, quality jobs while holding onto scientists and researchers at state institutions.

The bill includes $250 million in tax credits for life sciences companies that agree to create jobs in the Commonwealth. Another $250 million is set aside for research grants to encourage those conducting the cutting edge research to stay in Massachusetts.

The remaining $500 million would be dedicated for major construction and improvement projects designed to benefit the industry. One of those is a $10 million Center for Personalized Cancer Therapy at UMass Boston in partnership with the Dana Farber Harvard Cancer Center. UMass Boston was quick to win one of the initial $750,000 grants from the new life sciences center board, responsible for allocating the new state funds, for start-up funds to recruit a nationally prominent scientist to lead the Center. Overall, UMass won over one-quarter of the $1 billion life science bill for various projects.

In another bond bill approved this year by Beacon Hill lawmakers is $2.2 billion, 10-year higher education bill to help pay for new building and renovation projects at the state's public universities and colleges. As part of the bond bill, UMass Boston will receive $125 million in new funding the bulk of which will fund a new integrated sciences building.

The state investments in science and technology come at a time when federal research investments are shrinking as a share of the U.S. economy, just as other nations are increasing their investments, according to the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Federal investment in research will fall in real terms for the fifth year in a row. Massachusetts’ young scientists are stuck behind their mentors in a federal funding queue that is stalling promising careers in academic research and development.

At a hearing in March of this year on a report called "A Broken Pipeline," Senator Edward Kennedy warned: "If we lose the talents of a generation of young researchers, we put in peril not only medical progress, but our leadership in life sciences too," he said. "A culture of innovation and discovery does not just happen. It must be nurtured or it will wither."

The new state investments come on the heals of an economic stimulus bill two years ago through which UMass Boston obtained $5 million for an 18,000 SF Venture Development Center, opening early next year. The Center for Personalized Cancer Therapy is expected to be a magnet for young scientists requiring small, reasonably priced office and lab space in the Venture Development Center for starting their own companies.

Massachusetts is “the gold standard” according to the Milken Institute’s 2008 State Technology and Science Index. The surge in authorized borrowing this year has signaled that Massachusetts will not be outdone when it comes to science and technology, and that UMass is a cornerstone of the state’s strategy.

Emerging as an economic engine

DId you know that UMass Boston is one of the region’s major employers, a stable economic engine in the community? It educates more Massachusetts residents than any other higher education institution in the region. Each year its graduates provide to the region’s leading industries a steady stream of highly talented, well-educated workers. With their fingers on the pulse of the region and its needs, UMass Boston's researchers create the new knowledge that helps drive the growth of the region’s quality of life and economy.

UMass Boston and the seven other research universities in the Boston area give Boston a special advantage: an enduring economic engine of future growth. Three of the Boston's universities are ranked as the most productive research universities in the entire nation: Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, among large universities, and UMass Boston among small.

Beyond the bottom line, UMass Boston strengthens the social fabric of the region by supporting neighborhoods and providing arts and cultural activities for thousands of people.

Stable foundation
While companies in the private sector come and go, UMass Boston remains a stable base in the community. UMass Boston employs just over 1,500 people (excluding students) — more than the number employed in Boston in engineering. It purchases goods and services from Boston area vendors. And the campus renovates its current facilities through the employment of local contractors and construction workers.

In 2007, UMass Boston spent $259 million on payroll, purchasing, and construction. The multiplier effect of UMass Boston’s spending within the region is $558 million in regional economic output – 8% of the $7 billion total of all eight research universities - and more than 4,159 full-time-equivalent jobs.

Talent generator
UMass Boston is developing Boston’s number one resource – talent. With just over 13,400 students, and over 80,000 alumni, more than 60 percent of its graduates choose to live and work in the state. As the pace of economic change increasingly demands that workers become lifelong learners, UMass Boston has emerged as a major provider of continuing education. UMass Boston generates talent in areas that have traditionally seen shortages in the region such as information technology, nursing, education, and business management.

UMass Boston is a gateway to the world. It serves the most diverse student population in New England with 36% of its students indicating that they are non-white and graduates regularly reporting that they speak over 90 different languages at home.

Research
UMass Boston offers doctoral programs in approximately 15 fields of study. It has a wide range of research partnerships that address the gaps in translating innovation between basic university research and the more applied needs of the economy. Student participation in research turns university graduates into the most efficient of all instruments for transferring new knowledge and new technologies from the region’s campuses to its employers. This participation also leads to new funding and partnership opportunities for our faculty and staff that in turn impact the regional economy.

Growing at a double-digit rate, in fiscal year 2007, research spending at UMass Boston reached nearly $35 million. Approximately $80 million was contributed to region’s economy as a result of the multiplier effect of research and development on underlying economic productivity.

Federal funding sources outside the Boston area account for 51% of all research spending at UMass Boston. 21% of extramural funding was awarded by state and local sources. As a result, UMass Boston generates a significant amount of revenue coming into the region.

New business development
Technologies first developed at a university have become an increasingly important source for the development of new products and new businesses. UMass Boston provides extensive support to faculty members, students and others that want to start new businesses based on innovations developed at the university. Through its Venture Development Center, opening in early 2009, reasonably priced lab and office space will help accommodate the growth of companies generated by (or attracted to) the university.

Formal programs aimed at educating student entrepreneurs have also been organized in an effort to enhance the student learning experience at UMass Boston. Budding entrepreneurs in the College of Management compete in the most prestigious regional case competition, the B-School Beanpot, held each spring at Boston University. This year, eighteen teams participated, with one of the two teams from UMass Boston placing fourth overall.

Community partner
UMass Boston is the only university in the region that is classified Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as both a Doctoral/Research and Community Engagement university. It is helping communities meet challenges resulting from the continued growth of a knowledge-based economy. In the area that most analysts believe is the best opportunity for the region’s urban core, life science research and development, UMass Boston is leading the way.

UMass Boston provides a pipeline of diverse talent for the life sciences industry that contributes to novel and innovative science and adds to the robustness of solutions. With Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, UMass Boston will launch a $10 million personalized cancer therapy center within the Venture Development Center’s state-of-the-art facility.

UMass Boston is also engaged in numerous efforts aimed at improving the quality of elementary and secondary education in communities throughout the Boston area. Its $12.5 million Boston Science Partnership award from the National Science Foundation supports science teachers in the public schools. And it provides important cultural resources for the Boston area, myriad concerts, exhibits and lectures open to the public.

Looking to the future

UMass Boston has an ambitious 25-year master plan that calls for rebuilding its infrastructure to serve the needs of the 21st century. Included is an integrated science building that provides space for scientists from the university and industry to develop new products and new businesses. Imagine Dorchester as a high tech hub, a continuous engine of knowledge, culture and economic growth for the future of the region.

The (little) engine that could

More than a few were surprised when in March 2003, UMass Boston appeared in the publication “Engines of Economic Growth: The Impact of Boston’s Eight Research Universities on the Metropolitan Boston Area.” But UMass Boston’s peers clearly knew what others might not – that UMass Boston was on the rise as a research institution, and plays an important role in the region.

Fittingly, last year, in the midst double-digit growth in its research, UMass Boston joined Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the top rankings of the most productive of the nation's research universities. UMass Boston was ranked fifth among small universities, according to a survey, based on the number of book and journal articles published by each institution's faculty, along with journal citations, awards, honors and grants.

Engines of Economic Growth, an unprecedented collaboration, was commissioned by Boston College, Boston University, Brandeis University, Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northeastern University, Tufts University and the University of Massachusetts Boston to help them better understand their role in the regional economy. At the time the Boston metropolitan area began to feel the effects of the national recession. The universities noted that they provide the region what no other region could match, and committed to playing an essential role in the region’s economic future and its quality of life.

As the region once again feels the effects of the national economic downturn, it is time to remember that these universities are today providing a foundation for renewed economic growth. As a matter of fact, in the area that most analysts believe is the best opportunity for the region’s urban core, life science research and development, the universities – including UMass Boston - are leading the way.

The research universities are already playing a central role in the region’s economy, contributing more than $7 billion to the regional economy, according to Engines of Economic Growth. They are among the region’s leading employers, and one of its most reliable sources of job growth. Each year they turn out graduates, providing to the region’s leading industries a steady stream of highly talented, well-educated workers. Their research programs are creating the new knowledge that will help ensure the Boston area’s continued leadership in emerging areas. They are a seedbed for creation and growth of the dynamic young companies that over the next decade will drive the growth of the region’s economy. The concentration of major research centers in the Boston area is a magnet for investment by major U.S. and foreign corporations in new research facilities.

But Boston and its research universities are facing growing competition. Places like Bangalore in India, Biopolis in Singapore, and Otaniemi in Finland have been following its recipe for success in organizing talent, innovation and capital.

This is why these universities joined their peers in industry and government to shape the state’s $1 billion life science initiative to secure a leadership role in the twenty-first century.

UMass Boston’s role in the expected regional economic impact may be small – it was 8% of the $7 billion in 2003 - but it’s nevertheless important. First, to address the need for small, reasonably priced lab and office space connected to a university, it is opening in early 2009, an 18,000 SF state-of-the-art Venture Development Center on its campus. Tight space and high rents are driving some biotech firms to the suburbs. Many of the younger penny-counting scientists who start firms already live in the city and want to remain a short subway ride from investors, partners, suppliers as well as the airport.

Second, UMass Boston itself will be a magnet as a result of its collaboration with the Dana Farber Cancer Center to launch a $10 million personalized cancer therapy center, part of the state's life science investment. This program, now in the planning stages, will categorize tumors and generate matching therapies. Entrepreneurial development teams can locate in the Venture Development Center until expansion space opens up in the new integrated science center soon to get underway as part of UMass Boston’s master plan.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, UMass Boston provides a pipeline of diverse talent for the life sciences industry, mirroring the market. Many in industry understand that diverse talent can make for novel and innovative science and add to the robustness of solutions. UMass Boston is the only public university in New England recognized by the National Institutes of Health as a minority-serving institution.

UMass Boston is playing an important role in bringing the innovation economy to a corner of the urban area that has yet to experience much of those benefits. As in The Little Engine that Could, a long train must be pulled over a high mountain. Various larger engines are asked to pull the train; for various reasons they refuse. The request is sent to a small engine, which agrees to try. The engine succeeds in pulling the train over the mountain while repeating its motto: "I-think-I-can".

UMass Boston is unsung hub of tech innovation

Without going too far out on the limb, it's probably safe to conclude that by now every industrial country and major business has announced its plan to pursue an innovation-based strategy.

Innovation, whether in science, technology, manufacturing, or in business practices, is expected to expand economic fortunes, and generate hefty returns in revenue, power, growth and the quality of life. Implementing an innovation strategy requires smart and opportunistic packaging of capital, leading-edge research, talent and infrastructure. Everyone seems to understand this, most especially those in high tech environments.

When University of Massachusetts president Jack Wilson says the road to innovation and sustained economic development for the commonwealth runs through UMass, he's not making an idle boast. Our five campuses -- Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, Lowell and Worcester -- are key contributors in the state's innovation strategy and economy. Whether it's developing new technologies, finding and solving day-to-day problems in the workplace, or producing the kind of talent that is capable of developing new ideas and turning those ideas into reality, the UMass system delivers.

The impact of UMass Boston is particularly noteworthy, for example:

• A recently released Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index, produced by Academic Analytics, rates UMass Boston fifth in the nation among small research universities with respect to publications, grants and honors accorded to faculty members. This past fiscal year, the campus was awarded in excess of $41 million dollars in external grants and contracts and had more than 520 sponsored programs under way -- impressive numbers for Boston's public research university.
• With support from the National Institutes of Health, UMass Boston, in collaboration with biomedical research institutions in the Boston region (Children's Hospital Boston, Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center and Harvard School of Public Health) has worked on moving discoveries out of the lab and bringing them to the bedside.
• Through our National Science Foundation-supported Boston Science Partnership, UMass Boston is applying new understanding of the learning process to fundamentally change the way math and science are taught.
• In another NSF-funded opportunity, the college has developed BATEC, the Boston Area Advanced Technology Education Collaborative, which has brought together the region's secondary school teachers, community colleges, regional employers and our IT and computer science faculty in a collaborative project focused on the design and delivery of a new IT educational continuum.
• We played a leading role in the Boston Harbor cleanup through our capabilities in measuring environmental hazards, advancing remediation strategies and establishing marine monitoring systems.
• UMass Boston supplies a large share of the region's skilled work force in areas that have traditionally seen shortages such as IT, nursing, education and business management.

Next year, UMass Boston plans to open a Venture Development Center, a 15,000-square-foot state-of-the-art laboratory and office facility, designed to facilitate the transfer of promising technologies into new commercial enterprises. The VDC is no ordinary academic center, but a new front door to the university's expertise and facilities for innovative collaborations between our faculty and partners. By leveraging campus resources and expertise, the VDC would also provide an enormous learning advantage to our students who would be engaged in the center's work.

As both a research university and as a public university, UMass Boston is an extraordinary place, where innovation in teaching, research and service to the commonwealth happens each and every day. As UMass Boston chancellor Keith Motley has often said, research and development are the cornerstone of our urban mission and a means to grow our region's economic competitiveness and quality of life. We are delighted by Gov. Deval Patrick's call for renewed investments in our infrastructure, faculty and funding for basic research and student scholarships. It's an innovation strategy that's bound to pay continued dividends, as past returns have shown.

(Monday, January 7, 2008 Mass High Tech article by William Brah is executive director of the Venture Development Center and assistant vice provost for research at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and Philip L. Quaglieri is dean of the UMass Boston College of Management.)

Boston's fleeting edge in innovation

One country after another is racing to build the capacity for innovation which is increasingly viewed as a hallmark of national success. In March 2008 the UK released a white paper with a sweeping innovation agenda, joining China, Canada, Denmark, India, Israel, Korea, and many others which are putting put innovation squarely in the middle of their plans to drive economic and social development.

Why worry about all of the other countries whose government policies push innovation? After all, there is no place like Massachusetts, which provides a competitive advantage that is hard to duplicate. Just last week, Massachusetts ranked as the nation’s top state in technology and science, according to the Milken Institutes's 2008 State Technology and Science Index.

According to John Kao, we have plenty to worry about. In his book, Innovation Nation: How America Is Losing Its Innovation Edge, Why It Matters, and What We Can Do to Get It Back, all the key advantages we once enjoyed are nearly gone. Kao was the keynote at a recent forum organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

His strongest point is that the geography of innovation is changing. For much of the 20th century, the leading-edge was the U.S. and Europe. The rise of Asia is evening that out, redistributing the fruits of innovation: wealth and power.

— Talent is now everywhere. The return to greatness of Asia’s older universities and the building of new educational institutions mean that brainpower is more evenly distributed. In addition, a giant reverse diaspora is under way as tens of thousands of Chinese and Indian scientists and engineers, many of them tops in their fields, leave the U.S. to return to their homelands to teach and work.

— Capital is now everywhere. Venture capital pools are operating all over Asia and Europe, speeding the generation of new startups. European and American VC firms have offices in most major cities in Asia and Eastern Europe.

— Route 128 is now everywhere. The social and economic ecosystem that has been so productive is being reproduced all over the world. Bangalore in India, Biopolis in Singapore, and the Otaniemi tech cluster in Finland have found the magic once mainly centered in U.S. innovation hubs.

— Military spending is now everywhere. The high tech spin-off benefits that once accrued mostly to the U.S. are being spread around. A 2006 Defense Dept. survey of 42 leading-edge technologies for future weapons found that 20 came from outside the U.S.

This new global competition in research and innovation is felt most acutely in regions like Boston that compete on the smarts of its workers and the technology prowess of its firms. As explained by Jack Wilson, President of the University of Massachusetts:

"Massachusetts has employed a simple formula to create a vibrant economy: Rely on the innovations produced by outstanding higher education and healthcare institutions, corporations and individuals to build the enterprises that fuel our economic engine. While this recipe has worked well for a century, it may no longer be enough to secure our economic future. Increased competition is eroding historical advantages in higher education and research that have been at the heart of our success…."

Kao argues that the U.S. still has the capability not only to regain our competitive edge, but to take a bold step out ahead of the global community and secure a leadership role in the twenty-first century. The centerpiece of his idea is to spend $20 billion to create 20 innovation hubs around the country. The model would be San Diego, which transformed itself from a Navy town into a life-sciences and biotech center in 15 years.

Kao is far from alone in calling for a national innovation strategy. In May the National Academy of Sciences issued a collection of studies, “Innovation in Global Industries,” an analysis of innovation in several important industries. In April the Brookings Institution produced a report, “Boosting Productivity, Innovation and Growth Through an Innovation Foundation.”

“His theme resonates with what we are seeing in much of the rest of the scientific community,” Alan I. Leshner, chief executive of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, said in an interview in the New York Times. “There is a lot of competition around the world as more and more countries realize that investing in science fuels innovation over the long term and leads to economic growth.”

What role can UMass Boston play in innovation?

According to a report by the Battelle Memorial Institute for UMass Boston, Research Reenvisioned for the 20th Century:

"In the future, UMass Boston’s research capacities will be critical as the region needs to address the new global competition in research and innovation. UMass Boston, in fulfilling its urban mission, needs to respond to new challenges facing the Boston region. None may be as significant and far-reaching to the region’s economic vitality as the rise of global competition in research and innovation. For the first time, states and regions in the U.S. are facing competition from developing nations not only in lower cost production, but also in research activities and the high skilled talent and innovation it drives.

The continued development of UMass Boston’s research base can be an important element in how the region responds to this growing competitive challenge in research and innovation. As the only public university in the Boston region, UMass Boston can grow its research base in a manner that directly embraces its “urban mission” by focusing on “use-inspired basic research” for addressing the gaps in translating innovation between basic university research and the more applied and development-focused research of industry. In this way, UMass Boston can advance research efforts defined in concert with industry and community stakeholders, while seeking to be collaborators with existing private research universities in the Boston area filling in critical interdisciplinary research."

A definition of innovation that fits

Innovation is a buzzword in business. It shows up in the pages of scholarly journals, popular magazines, and international reports; and in advertisements and marketing slogans. But the "innovate or die" message is beginning to spread beyond business. A new breed of social entrepreneur embrace and encourage innovation as a strategy for building a better world.

A noteworthy example is the Boston Foundation's fourth biennial report of the Boston Indicators Project covering the years 2004-2006. It includes a section called The Hub of Innovation. It lists breakthrough products, programs, and practices in ten different sectors: Civic Vitality, Cultural Life and the Arts, the Economy, Education, the Environment, Health, Housing, Public Safety, Technology, and Transportation.

This definition of innovation deliberately integrates diverse perspectives. It draws ideas from the worlds of business, community development, environmental action, education, and social entrepreneurship. It assumes that innovation needs to be seen as a core component of a region's growth strategy.

True innovation can be identified by both the process and the results, so we define it this way: Innovation means the process of thinking and acting creatively to solve an identified problem with the outcome being a new process or product that acts as a catalyst for new cycles of development. Thus, innovation inspires more action—not simply more ideas, but more innovative approaches to putting ideas to use. Innovation thus increases potential and opportunity, and sparks new cycles of thinking—revolutionizing how we learn, how we live, and how we work.

Creative economy innovation leads the way

The John Adams Innovation Institute tracks Massachusetts “innovation economy” against other leading technology states. The recently published 2007 Index of the Massachusetts Innovation Economy shows Massachusetts remains one of the global hotbeds of innovative activity, attracting research investments from industry and government.

The occupational category of innovation worker that is outpacing all others? Arts & Media, with an average five year growth rate of 5.2%. Next is Life, Physical and Social Sciences at 2.7%. This signifies the importance of the creative economy, public relations and online and offline content industries to the innovation economy.

Our stereotype of creative activity is the starving artist, painting in the basement; or the depressed poet, writing somewhere out in the woods. But the forms of creativity that make a big economic impact are complex, organized, and collaborative. Creative works such as textbooks, software programs, education modules, course ware, web tools, databases, videos, and a host of other non-traditional forms of intellectual property too often go unnoticed and untapped in tech transfer offices that are chasing the next high-tech “big winner.”