Organized Innovation

An innovation gap has emerged as American universities have focused on basic research and industry has concentrated on incremental product development. This gap has widened in recent decades, and the country has failed to close the gap in large part because of three myths-that innovation is about lone geniuses, the free market, and serendipity. It is time to embrace a new solution. In Organized Innovation: How Universities Can Join Forces with Business and Government to Renew America's Prosperity, Currall, Frauenheim, Perry, and Hunter provide a framework for optimizing the way America creates, develops, and commercializes technology breakthroughs. A blueprint for leaders in universities, business, and government, Organized Innovation addresses the innovation gap before us, builds upon the collaborative, brokered way that innovation happens best, and explains how these new discoveries can be most effectively put into practice today to the benefit of both our country and the world. The Organized Innovation framework is grounded in the authors' nearly decade-long study of lessons from a little-known but highly successful federal research program. Over the past quarter-century, the Engineering Research Center program has returned to the U.S. economy 10 times the funding invested in it. Detailed cases from the ERCs are used to bring to life the elements of the Organized Innovation framework. "The authors' model of 'Organized Innovation' is based on the remarkable success of the National Science Foundation's Engineering Research Centers. This book offers a recipe for reversing worrisome trends in America's leadership in science and technology and the competitiveness of its industries through enhanced partnerships among universities, industry, and federal agencies. At a time when federal budgets are severely constrained, it is all the more important to insure those resources are well spent." --Neal Lane, physicist, former U.S. Presidential Science Adviser, former National Science Foundation director, and the Malcolm Gillis University Professor, Rice University "Organized Innovation busts myths. Experts often speak of disruption and chaos as the fuel for innovation. Here, the authors reveal that meaningful innovation requires orchestrated serendipity -- and an environment that strategically breeds such serendipity. The authors have identified an innovation blueprint that can be of immense benefit to American industry, government, academia, and society as a whole." --C. L. Max Nikias, President and Malcolm R. Currie Chair in Technology and the Humanities, and former Founding Director of an NSF Engineering Research Center at the University of Southern California "This compelling book underscores the unique partnership in the United States between the government, universities, and the private sector and the specific actions each can take to drive technological breakthroughs and innovation." --William P. Sullivan, President and CEO, Agilent Technologies "Based on extensive case studies of the Engineering Research Centers of the National Science Foundation, the authors lay out a compelling blueprint for 'organized innovation, ' a systematic method for the successful commercialization of scientific discoveries. The book delineates the essential role of partnerships between the government, universities and the private sector iPreface: Restoring Our <"Vision>" ; The Problem ; Chapter 1: The Innovation Imperative ; Chapter 2: Unorganized Innovation ; Chapter 3: The Myths behind Unorganized Innovation ; The Solution ; Chapter 4: The Organized Innovation Framework ; Chapter 5: Channeled Curiosity ; Chapter 6: Boundary-Breaking Collaboration ; Chapter 7: Orchestrated Commercialization ; The Prescription ; Chapter 8: Organizing Our Innovation Ecosystem ; Chapter 9: Seeing Is Believing ; Appendix A: History and Impact of Engineering Research Centers Program ; Appendix B: Research Methodology ; Appendix C: Research Questions for Future Scholarly Examinations of Organized Innovation ; Bibliography