National Innovation Strategy

This is a great read on why the US is now behind 5 nations in overall innovation and competitiveness and continues to fall further behind, a national innovation strategy is needed to reverse this course... perhaps there are lessons to be learned here in Canada as well... see www.uic.edu/index.html/Chancellor/risingabove.pdf for the report Rising Above the Gathering Storm. "Each of the five nations ranked by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation as “out-competing” the U.S. has implemented a national competitiveness or innovation strategy: that is, a unified plan to marshal their governmental and private resources to support new technologies and ideas. Worldwide, at least 30 countries have established their own competitiveness plans. Yet the U.S.– alone among the world’s technological leaders–has failed to draw up a roadmap for innovation. Is it any wonder that, with no clear view of our destination, America has failed to make strides in the right direction?"... "Now is not the time to be slashing federal investment in research and development in science. Investments in our federal science agencies and our national innovation infrastructure are minimal down-payments on our country’s security, public health, and economic vitality that we cannot afford to postpone."... read more: http://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/201108/backpage.cfm

This is the latest Global Innovation Index 2011 rankings of the world’s most innovative countries, Canada ranks 8 behind Switzerland, Sweden, Singapore, Hong Kong (SAR), Finland, Denmark, and the US: http://www.globalinnovationindex.org/gii/main/analysis/rankings.cfm?vno=a&viewall=true