Full Title: Turning The Page: Reimagining the National Labs in the 21st Century Innovation Economy
Author(s): Matthew Stepp, Sean Pool, Nick Loris and Jack Spencer
Publisher(s): Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, The Center for American Progress, The Heritage Foundation
Publication Date: June 1, 2013
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
For the past 50 years, the DOE labs have served the public well and have been valuable drivers of the new technology and industries, But as the nature of technology and the needs of the nation have evolved, the lab management and stewardship model has failed to keep pace. This report proposes a series of pragmatic nonpartisan policy reforms needed t ensure the labs remain effective and continue to deliver national benefits to the taxpayers. The working group’s policy reforms described herein have three main goals:
- Increasing the effectiveness of each dollar spent on research to get the greatest benefit to taxpayers
- Ensuring that labs are well positioned to leverage private-sector investment in serving the national interest
- Making lab research more nimble, relevant, and accessible to public and private interests
Using these basic principles, the following report outlines proposed reforms to boost innovation, increase economic benefits, and rationalize the lab system.