Thomas Friedman’s recent opinion piece in the New York Times focuses on the Obama Administration’s efforts to create eight innovation hubs across the U.S. in order to find solutions to the most pressing energy issues facing the country and the planet. Friedman described the plan as “the most exciting, moon-shot-quality, high-aspiration initiative proposed by President Obama that no one has heard of.”
So far, three of these hubs have been launched, but they have only been provided a limited amount of funding- $22 million for all three- for a period of one year. In his piece, Friedman relates a conversation he had with Kishore Mahbubani, dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, and Mr. Mahbubani’s disbelief that the U.S. couldn’t come up with the full $25 million needed for each of these centers.
The National University of Singapore is a member of the iBridge Network and Singapore is clearly a global leader in innovation that has been able to attract some of the best scientific minds in the world. They have the 43rd ranked GDP in the world, while the U.S. has the first. So, why can’t we find $25 million for each of these innovation hubs that could truly revolutionize the way we create and use energy while Singapore has no problem spending a billion on scientific research?
As we’ve recently pointed out, the Administration, specifically the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), has taken some major strides to bolster the country’s innovation economy. The administration is focusing on solutions that support moving innovations from the labs in which they are created into the commercial market where they can positively impact economic recovery and growth. What better way to do that than through these innovation hubs?
Congress is obviously facing major budget decisions and is also in the midst of a heated election year. But providing our country’s researchers with the opportunity to create game-changing solutions to energy problems must be a top priority. Fund the innovation hubs and the world could be thanking us for generations to come.

To clarify, the essay that Bob Litan and Lesa Mitchell co-authored in the Harvard Business Review does not question the validity or the positive effects of the Bayh–Dole Act, which gave universities the ownership of IP generated by federally funded research. Rather, the commercialization model proposed by the Kauffman Foundation specifically addresses the need for MORE CHANNELS to support the commercialization of university innovation. The idea consists of a very simple market-based principle: Faculty should have a choice relative to the commercialization pathway tied to innovations created in their lab.

They do not propose replacing the Bayh-Dole Act. Neither do they suggest the redesign of any royalty splits in faculty-university contracts, nor do they infer that commercialization is the only or main activity of faculty research. The proposal would simply build on the benefits of Bayh-Dole in a time of economic slowdown and unemployment.

To see all the articles please visit http://ibridgenetwork.org/info/news

It is said that 2010 is the year of the entrepreneur. That entrepreneurs will be the ones to save America from this economic crisis. Read this, in Entrepreneur Magazine. 

This in turn means, entrepreneurs need your innovations. They need to be able to have access to the innovations and the new ideas that are taking place in the universities. They need to have access to the best and the brightest, the experts in their field. Innovation will save America, read NY Times Post.

We need all the universities in the US to do their part and make sure all your research is made transparent and accessible!

Several huge corporations have agreed the way to save the planet is by working together. They have started building communities and sharing innovations. The beautiful part…they pledged to allow the use of these patents for free! Read more here.