They issued their annual rankings of 59 nations for potential economic growth and job creation in the next few years. Number one on its list, by a wide margin, is the United States. It is interesting to take note of the reasons for this. These outlays have provided seed money for basic science in many crucial areas, including information technology, biotechnology, and materials sciences. This pattern of close business-university linkages is quite distinct from the situation in much of Europe, where universities are purely state enterprises.
Faculty members have no rights to engage in commercial activities.
Third, the U.S. has a remarkably vigorous venture-capital system which can mobilize billions of dollars of financing for the development and commercialization of new products. Sachs and Warner also pointed out that in many other countries, monopolies exist that have both the power and the incentive to put up roadblocks to slow the introduction of new technologies. There is evidence, however, that many countries are starting to learn from the U.S. example, including Singapore, Ireland, and Finland. I think this is a trend that is only going to continue and the United States' lead in this area will begin to contract. Last year at your seminar, Paula Grunthaner talked about the strength of the AVS as a society that brings together the key sectors of the technological part of our society to help facilitate the transition of basic science into useful products.