I’m from the Government and I’m here to help

By Steve Poftak
June 20th, 2008

Innovation is crucial to our economy, but I’m not sure that government plays a catalytic role in making that happen.

Yet, three items have crossed my desk this week, the Life Sciences Bill, MassInsight’s report on the ‘ITCD’ industry, and Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program’s proposal for a National Innovation Foundation. Each, in its own way, calls for a new bureaucracy to shepherd innovation out of the academic and private sector.

Two responses:

1) I’d prefer to see a much more foundational approach — the public sector takes responsibility for minimizing regulatory barriers, enabling a skilled workforce, providing for public safety, developing adequate infrastructure, and getting out of the way.

2) And I’d like each proposal to think about our existing thicket of publicly-funded technology development/tech transfer/business innovation centers, figure out which ones work, and fund any new initiatives from the resultant savings.