What is the government's role in driving innovation?
Listening to Senators during the recent Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearings on the Energy Department loan guarantee program (specifically loans to the now-infamous Solyndra), you'd think the federal government has no role in American innovation. The lawmakers love it when they can show up at a ribbon cutting or jobs creation announcement at a successful company they supported, but are quick to criticize when the pendulum swings the other direction (especially for the other party).
Clearly, there is a role for government in innovation, or there would be no DARPA, no ARPA-E, no National Institutes of Health, no NASA, no Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants and no Congressional Committees on the topic, such as the Subcommittee on Competitiveness, Innovation and Export Promotion. Even the Department of Energy's mission statement pointedly refers to "ensuring America's security and prosperity... through transformative science and technology solutions."
To read the full, original article click on this link: Joan Michelson: Innovation Requires Risk, but... Government Risk?
