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“There has been no issue in my term of service,” Kimball said, his voice rising, as he addressed the September 11 meeting of the John Adams Innovation Institute Governing Board, “where a single award will more define the future economic development of the state.”

On the agenda of the Governing Board meeting was an assessment of recent Economic Stimulus legislation, an examination of pending large-scale federal R&D competitions, and discussion of the magnitude of state investment and policy support needed to compete successfully. Presenters included: Jack Wilson, President, University of Massachusetts; William Guenther, President, Mass Insight; Douglas Banks, Editor, Mass High Tech News; and Michael Cronin, President and CEO, Cognition Corporation; and Ranch Kimball, the Commonwealth’s Secretary of Economic Development.

Kimball’s presentation, however, pulled all the issues into sharp focus. By 2025, Kimball predicted, Massachusetts will become the world leader in biofuels, a net exporter of energy, if the state is successful in winning the award.

To win the competitive federal award, Kimball continued, the key will not be in growing the source crop, but rather in the way it is processed into fuel. This is the Massachusetts advantage, Kimball said: the strength of its world leadership in applied innovation, research and the biological sciences—in particular, bioprocessing, the capability to produce fuels in large quantities using enzymes to transform the biological material.

When asked what would be required in terms of state investment support to compete, Kimball offered a figure of $25-30 million—in terms of magnitude, roughly the total amount of the Massachusetts Research Matching Fund since 2003. He noted the rapidly approaching December 5, 2006, deadline for preliminary applications.

In response, the Innovation Institute Governing Board agreed in a consensus action to create an advisory task force to develop a collaborative framework of public and private universities, industry, research centers and policymakers in order to compete successfully for the federal award. In addition, Mitch Adams, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, offered the support of the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust for this effort.

A Season of Opportunity

To open the Governing Board meeting, Pat Larkin, Innovation Institute Director, provided a brief look at the history and the future potential of Economic Stimulus legislation enacted in 2003 and 2006.

“The recent passage of Economic Stimulus II legislation is a noteworthy achievement in science and technology policy,” Larkin said. “It provides important new tools and strategies to enhance the competitiveness of Massachusetts in the global innovation economy.”

Larkin praised the work of the Governing Board in drafting a series of recommendations to Massachusetts policymakers in June 2005, regarding the Life Sciences mega-cluster. Many of the policy recommendations offered—a sales force to attract and retain companies, a streamlined permitting process, the development of shared-use facilities, investments in workforce development and science education, and investments in bio-manufacturing facilities—were realized in the economic stimulus package, Larkin pointed out.

“The success of the John Adams Innovation Institute model for state investment in academic research centers also led to the $10 million recapitalizing of the Massachusetts Research Center Fund,” Larkin said. “In a conversation with Representative Bosley, he said, ‘I told the Chairman that a fund with better than a 3-to-1 return on investment needs to keep current and be funded to its fullest extent.’”

“Yet, in the next few months, there are several major competitions for federal research funds offering enormous economic opportunity for the Commonwealth,” Larkin said. “In order to compete successfully, it will require state investment of a size that is larger by orders of magnitude. In addition to the DOE biofuels award, these include the National Science Foundation ORION awards to establish ocean observation research centers, and a DOE wind turbine blade-testing center. In addition, MIT has been invited to compete in a BP-sponsored research initiative in the development of bioenergy.”

UMass VP Tom Chmura, Director of the Innovation Institute Pat Larkin, Chair of the Innovation Institute Governing Board Don Dubendorf, MTC Executive Director Mitch Adams, and Harvard Professor Dr. Paul Martin listen intently to the dialogue.

High-Level Dialogue

Mass Insight President William Guenther began the discussion with compliments for the Legislature. “The conversation has shifted to the right topics,” he said. “Now, we need a commitment to think and act in a strategic, long-term fashion, and to encourage risk-taking and large-scale collaboration. The next generation of investments,” he continued, “will be built around $200 million R&D centers.”

Guenther urged that investments be made in strengthening the talent pipeline. “We need to encourage the best and the brightest to locate here in Massachusetts,” he said, “or lose out in the global competition for talent.”

Doug Banks, the Editor of the Mass High Tech News, offered a series of observations from the perspective of a journalist covering the innovation landscape.

• We need to recognize that education is an economic driver that needs to be fed, and our investments in higher education are an example of what is being done right.
• Universities are doing more to protect and profit from intellectual property.
• State colleges and community colleges need to play a more specialized role in preparing students to meet the state’s economic needs.
• Tech executives tell us that talented workers are leaving Massachusetts in greater numbers than they have in the past.
• We need to recognize that it’s dangerous to focus on specific industries; there is a blurring of traditional sectors and clusters, and focus on interdisciplinary, collaborative is needed as part of a long-term strategy.
• The Research Center Fund is one of the top return-on-investment opportunities for the state, and we need recognize its value and provide more funding and make its availability more flexible.

Ranch Kimball, the Commonwealth’s Secretary of Economic Development, in addition to detailing the gargantuan opportunity with the DOE biofuels competition, also spoke about the NSF ORION ocean observation competition.  Its potential, he said, with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution as a central part of a collaborative effort, will be to jump-start the marine science sector and reap billions of dollars in economic dividends for Massachusetts.

Michael Cronin, the President of Cognition Corporation, narrowed the focus of discussion to talk about some specifics of the Massachusetts bid for the biofuels center. “The proposal will be a richer proposal if we can work with engineers to determine what kinds of codes and standards will be necessary in the manufacturing and permitting process to reduce any barriers."

Jack Wilson, President of the University of Massachusetts, spoke about the inherent choices in making large-scale investments. “We can’t afford not to,” he said. “If you don’t make the investments, you won’t have any return on investments. Instead, other states will make the investments, and other states will reap the benefits.”

Further, Wilson said, “We need to develop a persistent and consistent strategy, we need to learn to work in new ways and to recognize that we are living in a global economy and see collaboration as an important tool for success.”

Wilson also emphasized the importance of collaboration among disciplines at the edge of sectors and research centers, citing the need for large-scale processing of data in the success of coastal observation and prediction efforts.

In the ensuing dialogue, Peggy Newell, the Vice Provost at Tufts University and a member of the Innovation Institute Governing Board, urged that the effort to win the federal biofuel competition will require more than simply supporting a proposal from a single university. “We need to pull together all the resources in the state in a collaborative effort, particularly the private and public universities.”

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Governing Board and MTC Board members and guests at the September 11 Innovation Institute meeting held in Boston

Cognition Corporation President and CEO Mike Cronin, MTC Board Chairman Karl Weiss, and Harvard Professor Dr. Paul Martin

UMass President Jack Wilson, Mass High Tech Editor Doug Banks, and MTC's Bob Kispert

Tufts Vice Provost Peggy Newell and Innovation Institute Chairman Don Dubendorf

UMass VP Tom Chmura, Innovation Institute Director Pat Larkin, and Advanced Technology Ventures General Partner Pieter Schiller

UMass President Jack Wilson and DBT Director Deb Shufrin