9807141 Yochelson Council on Competitiveness This award will provide partial support for the National Innovation Summit to be held at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, March 12-13, 1998, and a congressional outreach program with regional follow-up meetings. The summit will serve as a forum for focusing the findings and recommendations from over five hundred public and private sector leaders on the strengths and vulnerabilities of the U.S. innovation system. A particular highlight will be the first-ever benchmarking of the innovation process, and progress made by developing nations in transitioning from imitator to innovator. It is expected that some of the key issues that have been inadequately considered in previous policy debates on innovation will be addressed in this forum, including: (i) a clear understanding, in economic terms, why the capacity for innovation is critical to future U.S. competitiveness; and (ii) a realization that the national capacity for innovation must be nurtured using a total systems approach.
