Doing More Innovation in Massachusetts (Mass High Tech)

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

How I See It
By Jim Rooney, Vice President, Mass. High Technology Council

In his State of the Union address, President Obama exhorted us to be challenged, not discouraged, by global competition. He declared the first step in winning the future is to encourage American innovation, and he cited our leadership in education, research, patents and entrepreneurship. It was as if he were speaking directly to the people of Massachusetts, given our historic dominance in those areas.

But like the rest of America, in order to sustain our advantage we need to do what the president calls “big things” in at least four areas:

Education and Talent Development. The president called his Race to the Top challenge the most meaningful reform in a decade. Thanks to leadership at the state and local levels, the commonwealth won that contest and expanded charter and turnaround schools in underperforming districts. But we must ensure these schools aren’t merely created but that they also succeed. Business leaders versed in the art of the turnaround can advise schools in concert with district leadership.

State leaders should also answer the president’s call to promote science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) by supporting the Massachusetts Mathematics and Science Initiative, part of a national effort endorsed by the president. In two years MMSI has increased enrollment in advanced placement courses in 46 districts from about 4,000 to nearly 9,000.

Technology Transfer and Incubation. Greater Boston boasts the most Ph.D.’s and patents per capita in the world. But we can no longer presume increased federal R&D funding will automatically flow to our region. Competitor clusters have sprouted across the U.S., many in regions with newly gained congressional clout. Moreover, technology and globalism now enable or incent our own institutions to establish remote or satellite campuses. We need to support our colleges as engines of economic development, and facilitate the commercialization of academic research.

Clean Energy and Sustainability. Among a sea of innovative technology clusters, Massachusetts boasts a vibrant clean energy sector that stands to benefit from the president’s call for more investments in clean energy consortia and the Advanced Research Projects Agency — Energy (ARPA-E). But more notable is the president’s call to fund new research by ending oil subsidies that create an uneven playing field. Last summer, the Massachusetts High Technology Council joined with the New England Clean Energy Council to call for an end to subsidies for oil, gas and coal companies. These subsidies run counter to the free market and unfairly retard the growth of the clean energy industry.

Tax and Cost Competitiveness. Notwithstanding the president’s support for clean energy, he disclaimed that government cannot predict with certainty what the next big innovative technology will be or where new jobs will come from. State government’s economic development priority should be to ensure competitive, stable and predictable tax and cost competitiveness across sectors rather than picking winners and losers.

While Massachusetts will never be a low-cost state, we can no longer afford to be an outlier on costs like unemployment insurance, paid by employers. The 49 other states provide UI for 26 weeks and rely on extended federal coverage during high unemployment, while Massachusetts provides UI for 30 weeks. At the local level, runaway municipal health costs are crowding out spending for education and safety.

Defense Technology. Massachusetts boasts preeminent innovation assets in the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Systems Center and Hanscom AFB and needs to continue to strengthen business partnerships with those bases. MHTC is working with the New England congressional delegation in preparation for the next round of base closings and is launching an Innovation Access Network to better connect the needs of large technology companies such as defense primes with smaller innovative firms.

With a sound strategy, Massachusetts can do more big things than any other state in the union. 

Jim Rooney served as director of public affairs at the Boston Foundation before joining the MHTC last year.