NSF programs such as Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaison with Industry are designed specifically to provide cross-fertilization between academic researchers and industry engineers and scientists. The research investments that NSF makes do not end with the individual investigator who receives a NSF grant, the graduate student trained in the latest techniques, or the small business with an SBIR award. These investments are catalysts. They shape our economic future through new knowledge that pays for itself again and again and again. Other forms of government policies are also vital to U.S. technological leadership.
Governments can encourage collaboration and nurture the sharing of knowledge.
They can permit heretofore restricted activities and offer incentives to move in risk-taking directions. For example, in 1980, when the U.S. was at its highest distress over competition from Japan, the federal government initiated policy changes that over time have fostered our current innovative posture. One of the problems was that our national system of investment in science and technology was dedicated to strengthening our national security and winning the Cold War. Their concepts were simple but their impact considerable. Stevenson-Wydler made it government policy to move technologies out of the nation's over 700 national laboratories.