Locke Focuses On Commercializing Research
The competiveness of American industry is at risk unless the nation improves at turning academic research into marketplace profits, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said in a speech Wednesday. High unemployment and rising competition from abroad mean that "the United States cannot afford to merely fund research and say a prayer that some entrepreneur will commercialize it down the road," he said in prepared remarks.
Technological innovations too often fail to turn into new jobs, said Locke, speaking at a National Academy of Sciences forum. "As a result, we are losing our lead in promising industries and jeopardizing the future of our economy," he said. Challenges to confronting the problem include connecting entrepreneurs with researchers and balancing the "competing demands of [pursuing] knowledge for its own sake and focusing on discoveries that have real potential to spawn new industries, new businesses and new jobs." Locke used the forum to ask academics for guidance on "how the Commerce Department and the Obama administration can help."
Another urgent problem is that insufficient resources are devoted to research and development "especially at the federal level," Locke said, noting that as a share of the gross domestic product, U.S. federal investment in the physical sciences and engineering research "has dropped by half since 1970." Still, he touted the administration's efforts to address the problem, pointing to the $100 billion in economic stimulus funds to support "groundbreaking innovations in diverse fields."
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