Meeting Global Challenges: German-U.S. Innovation Policy: Summary of a Symposium

While nations have always competed for territory, mineral riches, water, and other physical assets, they compete most vigorously today for technology-based innovations and the value that flows from them. Much of this value is based on creating scientific knowledge and transforming it into new products and services for the market. This process of innovation is complex and interdisciplinary. Sometimes it draws on the genius of individuals, but even then it requires sustained collective effort, often underpinned by significant national investments. Capturing the value of these investments to spur domestic economic growth and employment is a challenge in a world where the outputs of innovation disseminate rapidly. Those equipped to understand, apply, and profit from new knowledge and technical advances are increasingly able to capture the long-term economic benefits of growth and employment.

In response to this new, more distributed innovation paradigm, the National Academies Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy (STEP) convened leading academics, business leaders, and senior policymakers from Germany and the United States to examine the strengths and challenges of their innovation systems. More specifically, they met to compare their respective approaches to innovation, to learn from their counterparts about best practices and shared challenges, and to identify cooperative opportunities. The symposium was held in Berlin and organized jointly by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) and the U.S. National Academies with support of the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) and the American Embassy in Berlin.

Both U.S. and German participants described common challenges on a wide variety of issues ranging from energy security and climate change to low-emissions transportation, early-stage financing, and workforce training. While recognizing their differences in approach to these challenges, participants on both sides drew out valuable lessons from each other's policies and practices. Participants were also aware of the need to adapt to a new global environment where many countries have focused new policy measures and new resources to support innovative firms and promising industries. Meeting Global Challenges: U.S.-German Innovation Policy reviews the participants meeting and sets goals and recommendations for future policy.

• Front Matter
• I: OVERVIEW
• Overview
• II: PROCEEDINGS
• DAY 1 & Welcome--Gert G. Wagner
• Opening Remarks for Germany--Georg Schutte
• Opening Remarks for the United States--The Honorable Philip Murphy
• Keynote Address--John Fernandez
• Panel I: Current Trends in Innovation Policy
• Keynote Address--Werner Hoyer
• Panel II: Competition and Cooperation in a Global Economy
• Panel III: Human Resources, Competition for Manpower, and the Internationalization of Labor
• Panel IV: Growing Universities for the 21st Century
• Roundtable: Competition and Cooperation: Systematic Challenges
• DAY 2 & Panel V: Helping Small Business: Current Trends and Programs
• Panel VI: Early-Stage Finance and Entrepreneurship
• Panel VII: Policies and Programs for CO2 Reduction
• Panel VIII: Building Electric Vehicle Industries
• Panel IX: Medical/Biomedical Innovation for the 21st Century
• Panel X: Policies and Programs to Build Solar Industries
• Roundtable: Energy Change: What Are the Consequences for the German and U.S. Innovation Systems?
• Closing Remarks
• III: APPENDIXES
• Appendix A: Agenda
• Appendix B: Bibliography