Ed Morrison · Putting the region’s challenges in proper perspective

August 9th, 2008

The University of Akron President Luis Proenza put the region’s challenge in its proper perspective yesterday.

The United States and the nation’s higher education institutions need to improve how they fund and conduct research in order to stay globally robust and competitive, the head of the University of Akron said.

The United States’ share of nearly $1 trillion in annual global research and development spending has been dropping while the share of the rest of the world is rising, Luis Proenza, university president, said in a talk Thursday morning in the student union theater.

University of Akron president promotes research: Proenza says U.S. must again emphasize technological innovations

Leaders in Florida sounded essentially the same themes of brainpower and innovation this week. Read more.

(Disclosure: I am working with The University of Akron and Purdue on regional innovation initiatives.)

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Category: Economic Development
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2 Responses to “Putting the region’s challenges in proper perspective”

  1. Chris Thompson Says:
    August 11th, 2008 at 1:40 pm

    Attracting research spending (and then commercializing that research) is a key element to building a globally competitive regional economy. Northeast Ohio has lagged the rest of the country in research spending. As I pointed out a few months ago, just being average could generate 11,000 new jobs. Hopefully, the state will continue to support research through the Third Frontier program. And strong leadership from Dr. Proenza and CWRU President Barbara Snyder can help bring more research dollars to the region.

    Some have raised the prospect of creating a pool of money that could be used to lure top researchers to the region. North Carolina has tried such a program. Would it work here?

  2. Ed Morrison Says:
    August 11th, 2008 at 3:51 pm

    Chris,

    Thanks for your note. Recruiting researchers in targeted areas makes a lot of sense as a strategy. Perhaps most successful program in this regard has been the Georgia Research Alliance.

    http://snurl.com/3epn7

    What’s missing in this region is a focus on what local resources could do to strengthen the research base.

    While we are quite successful in attracting Third Frontier dollars, Cuyahoga County is about ready to invest $400 million plus in a highly questionable convention Center project. This public money could have been invested much more wisely by strengthening research connections along the Euclid Avenue corridor.

    Cuyahoga County has the policy framework established to build that the open innovation networks from added public investment: the Cuyahoga innovation Zones.

    http://snurl.com/3epqv