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News and Analysis of the Global Innovation Scene [Research Technology Management](Research Technology Management Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Big Effort to Share Big Data A new global initiative to promote wider sharing of research data promises to change the scientific publishing culture. The Research Data Alliance (RDA), which is developing an open Internet platform structured much like the World Wide Web, aims to enable greater collaboration among scientists of all disciplines and from all parts of the globe through the use and reuse of data. Its mission, say the founders, is to unlock the innovation potential of research data by encouraging and enabling scientists to publish the data underlying their research results. The move comes amid growing demands in the research community for tools that allow researchers not only to share their data, but also to manage and make use of the huge volumes of data being generated through literally billions of computers, sensors, and other connected devices-a development known as Big Data. The aim, said John Wood, the European Union cochairman of the RDA, speaking in a recent webinar, is to ensure that when scientists seek access to the data of their peers, "this data is available to them in a format they can use." RDA, which was supported in its earlier stages by Europe, the United States, and Australia, faces no shortage of challenges, experts agree. The technical challenges begin with the need for a common framework to assure interoperability. For instance, the various elements of this new scientists' web-the various codes, policies, standards, and practices-need to be harmonized to allow data sharing. And that infrastructure, says Francine Berman, who chairs the RDA in the United States, needs to span not only countries and continents, but also scientific disciplines and industrial sectors-"anywhere there is interest in data-driven innovation, which is practically everywhere." Then there are the various responses to the idea of sharing. Scientists, commercial research interests, and governments are at odds on the issue. A growing number of governments in industrialized nations are demanding open access to research outputs from publicly funded research and development projects. In 2012, for instance, the European Commission committed to the Open Data movement, arguing that information already paid for by taxpayers "should not be paid for again each time it is accessed or used" and should benefit European businesses and citizens "to the full." In February, the U.S. government announced a new open-access policy requiring publications from taxpayerfunded research to be made free to read after a year's delay. That policy expands the National Institutes of Health (NIH) approach, which, until now, has applied only to work in the biomedical sciences. The White House move came just a week after FASTR (Fair Access to Science and Technology Research), a bill that would speed release of publicly funded research to just six months and expand the reach of the policy, was introduced in the U.S Congress. Within the EU, the United Kingdom has led the way, declaring that all research funded through the nation's research councils must be made freely and openly available to anyone around the world; the policy went into effect on April 1, 2013. Neelie Kroes, vice president of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda, spoke about the era of open science at a recent forum. "Only when results and evidence are shared can the community examine and compare, discard, and learn," she said. "There can be no modern science without sharing. We are putting openness at the heart of EU research and innovation funding." Farnam Jahanian, director of the Computer and Information Science and Engineering directorate at the U.S. government's National Science Foundation (NSF), shares a similar view. "We need policies for data sharing and open access," he said in March at the RDA launch. "Data represents unprecedented opportunities to accelerate scientific discovery and innovation." In that context, Jahanian pointed to the Obama administration's announced $200 million funding of the Big Data Research and Development Initiative, which aims to advance the technologies needed for effective analysis and use of data and which will work with the RDA. If only it were that simple. The EUfunded project Support Infrastructure Models for Research Data Management (SIM4DM), which studied how to improve policies for managing research, has detected a general resistance among researchers to sharing their data, motivated by a concern that others may unfairly benefit from their work. Many researchers, according to the study, also perceive sharing as laborintensive due to the lack of clear citation mech anisms. Wood, who researched stainless steel early in his career, agrees. "I think the difficulty is really in the researcher's mind-'why should I share my results?'" he said. "But we are able to show quite clearly through other examples of sharing that if you make your data available, your citations go up. We believe the citations of data will be equally valid as citations of paper. But this is a cultural change, which won't happen overnight." The move toward open access of research data is also being met with opposition from scientific publishers, who see a lucrative business model being severely challenged, and-perhaps more significantly-from companies that participate in collaborative R&D projects with a mixture of public and private funding. (The RDA is primarily focused on promoting and enabling open access to publicly funded research but welcomes corporate participation.) Digital-Europe, an industry body representing digital technology interests in Europe, warns that a requirement to make research data open may remove the commercial value for companies undertaking the research. Numerous projects under the EU's existing Framework Programme 7 or upcoming Horizon 2020 are not fully funded by Brussels; participating companies often invest a significant amount of money and intellectual property rights in collaborative research projects, especially in the area of information and communication technologies, the association notes. It is unclear how this conflict between the public's need for access to research funded by tax money and the commercial motivation for undertaking the research will be resolved. "I believe where public money is used for research, that data should be made available," said Stephen McGibbon, Chief Technology Officer for the EMEA region at Microsoft, speaking at the same webinar as Wood. "The norm in scientific publishing should be that the data used to arrive at conclusions should be made available to reproduce those conclusions." Wood believes companies will participate in the RDA when and where they see a benefit. "I remember companies sharing research information 30 years ago because it was in their mutual interest," he said. "So sharing happens when it's in everyone's interest-such as safety." But it's clearly not in every one's interest, he added, when it involves a competitive edge. That and plenty more will be on the agenda when the RDA holds its second plenary session at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington DC in mid-September. The first plenary, held in Gothenburg, Sweden, earlier this year, drew research experts from more than 30 countries. A third session is scheduled for mid-March 2014 in Dublin, Ireland. The push to share is in full swing, despite the hurdles along the way. John Blau, Contributing Editor Düsseldorf, Germany [email protected] The Kendall Square Phenomenon Perched at the Western edge of the MIT campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Kendall Square is a hive of technological activity. Start-ups in biotechnology, computer science, and social networking share space with research laboratories of established pharmaceutical and engineering firms, MIT spillover centers, and offices of overseas governments such as Britain and, recently, Canada. Now the Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC), the organization responsible for attracting start-up firms to the square and incubating them there, is expanding its operations, setting up extra centers as far afield as St. Louis and Baltimore by the end of the year. It is also in talks to establish an overseas outpost in England. For established high-technology firms, the Kendall Square phenomenon represents both threat and promise. On one hand, they face the threat of losing market share to nimble new competitors schooled in the entrepreneurial atmosphere of the square and equipped with a network of colleagues from that environment. On the other hand, they welcome the opportunities to enter new industrial sectors created by the start-ups, and the chance to recruit individuals familiar with the environment and the technologies it has stimulated. Major Technology Presence Corporate inhabitants of Kendall Square enjoy an intellectual ambience stimulated by nearby research universities. MIT is literally next door, and tenants can easily visit colleagues at Harvard University just up the road, Boston University and Boston College across the Charles River, and Tufts University in the nearby town of Medford. They can also recruit technicians and other scientific personnel from local institutions more focused on engineering and technology, such as Northeastern University and the Wentworth Institute of Technology, both in Boston. Largely as a result of that academic concentration, Kendall Square houses the headquarters or research units of several major technology companies, particularly in the biomedical sector. The list includes biotechnology firm Biogen Idec; biomedical giant Johnson & Johnson; and pharmaceutical companies Novartis, Pfizer, and SanofiAventis. IT firms Google and Microsofthave a presence there, as do such nonprofit centers as the Broad Institute, which focuses on biomedical and genomic studies; the Rowland Institute for Science, which carries out a variety of interdisciplinary research; and the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. The density of technology firms also persuaded the British government to locate the office of its Consulate General in the square rather than in Boston. The combination of universities and technology companies has made Kendall Square a magnet for technology start-ups. Nanobiosym, a company focused on the innovative integration of physics, biomedicine, and nanotechnology recently moved into the square from a Boston suburb; Founder and CEO Anita Goel explains the location's appeal: "Everyone's within a mile of us here. You go into the restaurants and coffee shops, and you'll find people who'll discuss scientific issues with you." Start-ups brought into the square by the CIC echo those comments. "Our clients frequently tell us that shoulder-rubbing among the investors and other emerging companies located in the center makes CIC an enjoyable place to work," says CIC chief executive Tim Rowe. "While there is no expectation to do so, we find clients frequently choose to interact and leverage each other's expertise and networks to uncover new opportunities and build new relationships." Growing Innovative Companies CIC aims to encourage the growth of innovative companies. In addition to rental office space and computational and business services in its multistory building near the center of the square, the center also offers symposia, meetings, and other events, and it has a financial interest in early-stage venture capital funds located in the square. Since its founding in 1999, the organization has participated in the launching of more than 1,200 new companies that have together raised more than $1.7 billion in venture capital, much of it from the venture funds associated with CIC. Now, CIC is administering plans to expand locally and globally. Within the square, it is in the process of occupying a second building that will increase its space available to house start-ups from 155,000 square feet to more than 200,000 square feet. It is also participating in the launch of LabCentral, a smaller-scale incubator similar to CIC that will provide laboratory and office space for newly minted life science companies. More ambitiously, CIC is taking its philosophy of providing cheap, flexible space for start-ups beyond Cambridge. In May, the center announced that it will set up a St. Louis, Missouri, branch in part of a building owned by Wexford Science & Technology, a real estate investment firm that builds what it calls knowledge communities. "Our two companies have a similar mission: to provide environments where people like to work and innovation comes naturally," said Wexford's executive vice president, Dan Cramer. According to CIC, the branch will have the capacity to house up to 100 companies. CIC has also announced its intention to set up a new branch in Baltimore, Maryland, although that development is less advanced than the St. Louis center. Also in the talking stage are plans for an overseas branch in Britain. The Center is looking at two possible sites in East London: one in the vicinity of Stratford, site of several events in the 2012 Olympic Games, and the other at "Silicon Roundabout" in the Shoreditch district, a focal point for the British government's plans to create a technology cluster. Clients from Canada In addition to expanding overseas, CIC has started to bring in fresh clients from abroad. In spring 2013, the center hosted the Canadian Technology Accelerator. Originated in 2009 and run by Canada's Trade Commission, this program aims to expose Canadian startups to the type of incubation experience that's rare north of the border. It sends representatives of eight new firms at a time to American technology clusters, where they spend three months associating with fellow entrepreneurs, executives of high-technology companies, and venture capitalists-while learning the ins and outs of entrepreneurial growth and making personal and corporate connections that will benefit them as their companies grow. In its early years the program took place in Silicon Valley. This year, however, several of the start-ups chosen by the Trade Commission specialized in biomedicine. The Boston/Cambridge area's heavy focus on innovations in healthcare made CIC an obvious choice as their host. The future of CIC in particular and Kendall Square in general is not entirely rosy. As more large corporations have set up research centers and other offices near the location in recent years, rental prices for offices and laboratories have increased steadily. In response, some local technology startups that want to expand from their original quarters in the square have begun to move to cheaper sites over the river in Boston. Cambridge officials have reacted to those moves by passing legislation that requires commercial real estate developers to devote a proportion of the available space in new construction to low-cost office space for start-up firms. Meanwhile, residents of the square can look forward to a genuinely new experience. Early next year, Harvard professor David Edwards will open what he calls Lab Cambridge at Kendall Square. This will be a combination gallery, offices, and public space intended to bring together artists, scientists, students, and entrepreneurs. Peter Gwynne, Contributing Editor Boston, Massachusetts [email protected] Considering Exchange Rate Risk in Outsourcing In January, a senior programmer at an undisclosed company was discovered to have been outsourcing his work, contracting with a Chinese IT firm to write his software for him. The software engineer, dubbed "Bob" in news reports, was paying his Chinese counterparts a fraction of his salary to accomplish work that earned him consistently high evaluations. While "Bob" got fired, many IT and R&D managers are doing the same thing without the subterfuge. The obvious advantages of labor cost arbitrage, taking advantage of the fact that highly skilled professionals in China are paid on a different scale than their counterparts in the U.S. and Western Europe, can seem irresistible. But, with opportunities come risks, not all of which are immediately obvious. Analysts point out that, while companies rarely look into the currency trends of the countries they are planning to expand into, the effects of foreign exchange rates on the transaction can result in multimillion-dollar mistakes. Unexpected swings in currency valuation can increase a company ' s exposure to financial risk and dramatically cut savings. Yet currency exchange often comes way down on the list of considerations, if the offshoring company considers the issue at all. Volatile fluctuations in currency valuations-a country's currency price with respect to a foreign one-can cut into savings, or even raise costs to more than the expense of having the work done on site. Exchange rate trends must be considered as a major factor when weighing different offshore destination countries. In the real world, exchange rates are never purely monetary or financial affairs. They are affected by a complex set of factors, which may include the nation's domestic investment climate; its trade policies, inflation rates, and politics; and how policymakers read what competing economies are doing. For example, China has been under heavy pressure from the United States to lower the relative value of its currency, officially called the Renminbi (RMB) but commonly known as the Yuan. American and European negotiators have contended for some time that China was keeping currency severely undervalued to prop up its export-heavy manufacturing sector. The Chinese government's decision to reduce that gap somewhat by tying the value of the yuan to a "basket" of currencies, was as much political as it was economic. Yet, while Chinese officials have assuaged Western protests, allowing the balance to shifta little less to their favor, they also see loose monetary policies in Europe, the United States, and especially Japan as threatening. China fears that free-floating currencies could fuel a round of "competitive currency devaluation"-a currency war-because depreciation in America is, effectively, appreciation in China. Depreciating the value of American dollars or euros would increase the cost of Chinese goods and services. Chinese companies would face more competition for the goods they export and the services they supply to American firms. At the same time, a currency war could fuel inflation in China. As recently as March, China's official news agency, Xinhua, reported warnings from Zong Liang, deputy chief of the Strategic Planning Research Institute under the Bank of China, of a brewing currency war as the global economy struggles to recover. As evidence, Chinese economists point to the Japanese yen losing more than 15 percent of its value relative to the dollar since conservative LDP Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took office earlier this year. "The RMB would get stronger if the world ' s major developed economies continued to push ahead with a looser monetary policy," warned Justin Yifu Lin, a professor at Peking University and the former chief economist of the World Bank. Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming warned that any major depreciation in the world ' s major currencies-the Japanese yen, the U.S. dollar, and the euro-will mean trouble for China and other emerging economies. "For the global economy this year, I am worried about inflation, about competitive currency depreciation and about the negative spillover effects of excessive issuance of the main currencies," Chen Deming told the National People's Congress. This currency concern comes at a time when the RMB has been appreciating steadily against the dollar, moving from a high of more than 6.5 yuan to the dollar in May 2011 to less than 6.18 yuan per dollar on April 24, 2013. Just between last November and the end of April, the yuan rose in value against the Japanese yen by nearly 8 percent, from about 12.75 yen to the yuan to 16.1. If China's policy of allowing the RMB to increase in value were to be reversed, to boost slowing economic growth or because Chinese leaders perceive Western countries as engaging in unfair currency devaluation, the effect on outsourcing contracts could be substantial. Companies with contracts in dollars or euros would find themselves overpaying for goods and services while their local suppliers reaped the profit. In the past, the difference in wage levels dwarfed exchange-rate considerations in making offshore outsourcing decisions. Labor savings were large enough that any losses to changing currency valuation were insignificant. As a result, outsourcing consultant Sandeep Karoor says, clients fail to factor in the problems currency fluctuations could cause, short and long term. Today, China ' s currency policy is a vital piece when considering whether to enter the Chinese market or not. Companies must also consider whether and how they will repatriate profits to the United States, or if profits will be reinvested in China. Taxation, both in China and at home, can be a major consideration. Currency fluctuations can affect the timing for issuing dividends, paying royalties for trademarks, and other common mechanisms of returning profits from offshore operations. Henrik Sæ tre, founder of mobile app developer HC3 Creative Ltd., says that while exchange rates and currency policies are important, they are not the only factors that need to be included in outsourcing calculations. Sæ tre, who holds a Masters degree in Chinese Economy from Fudan University in Shanghai, points out that much can also depend on where in China the company is planning to do business. Regulations and costs vary in different parts of the country, so the balance sheet can look very different, based on the preferred location. "Company structure is something else to be considered," Sæ tre adds, "and may have a huge impact on your bottom line, depending on the chosen setup." There are several strategies for mitigating currency risks. These may include having the service provider absorb the majority of exchange-rate risk, a practice usually referred to as "banding"; paying in dollars, varying the amount of the payment based on changes in currency valuation; paying in the local currency of the offshore provider; or negotiating a "look back" arrangement, in which exchange rates are examined over a set period, say the last six months, and the average exchange rate difference is applied to payments over the course of the contract. Of course, outsourcers can also engage in currencyhedging strategies in the same way that airlines buy jet fuel futures to smooth out price fluctuations. Or, offshore outsourcing customers might decide it is easier to pay for IT services in fixed U.S. dollars, even if that sometimes cuts into their savings. Manny Frishberg, Contributing Editor Federal Way, Washington [email protected] Innovation for the Developing World About a billion people live beyond the reach of modern technology, without reliable power or clean water. Most live in the 96 countries the United Nations classifies as the developing world. The world ' s top technology companies say they want to enter those markets, but they either can't or won't serve this vast, unmet need, primarily because people can ' t afford the services and companies can ' t afford to provide them. Chinese companies, however, selling cheap, poor quality, decades-old technology, do very well in the developing economies of the world. Speed to market, not technological supremacy, gives China the commercial advantage, analysts say. One area where this advantage is becoming increasingly prominent is power generation. Boston-based Lux Research, a global analysis firm focused on emerging technologies, recently published the results of a year-long study of the challenges of providing electricity to people in developing countries who live offthe grid, without access to reliable power, because major utility companies are unable or unwilling to extend their facilities to isolated outlying populations. For these markets, says Steven Minnihan, the author of the report, titled Lighting the Developing World: Business Model Innovation in the Face of Unique Risks in Rural Lighting and Electrification, "you need a system that ' s just good enough." Lighting the Developing World examines various business model innovations in Africa and India that address the problems of bringing electricity to remote, impoverished populations. Just as with large utilities, profit drives efforts at rural electrification, and small ventures have sprung up in recent years to provide novel products, financing, and logistical services, Minnihan reports. While multinationals in oil, gas, and diversified industrial enterprises have been doing business in the region for decades, these firms typically limit their engagement to the large utilities and industrial customers that generate highvolume contracts, the report says. Local entrepreneurs act as commercialization partners and sales channels to local populations, but this is a slow, costly door-to-door sales process. People don ' t have money in savings and tend to buy electric service on a pay-as-you-go basis, as with cellphone contracts. Corruption is rampant and geographical and logistical hurdles are numerous. The current winner in this field is China. The report notes that China, which has been engaged with and investing in Africa since the 1950s, is currently the largest investor in renewable microgeneration technology in Africa. This technology is cheap and low quality but readily available, reliable, and sufficient to meet the needs of those with few resources. For example, rooftop and village-level photovoltaic systems can power refrigerators, cellphones, and computers for which power was previously available for only a few hours at a time. Chinese firms have moved quickly to become the dominant suppliers of these highvolume, low-cost, low-quality energy solutions. These systems, especially those that include diesel back-up generators, come with higher long-term costs to consumers than grid service and shorter equipment life, but they meet immediate needs. If Western energy companies want to compete in the developing world, they need to get creative about what it means to innovate, analysts agree, and they need to start by understanding the market, or more to the point, markets. Rather than a single entity, the developing world represents many unique markets. "Developing nations, ranging from India to Indonesia to Ghana, have richly diverse political, cultural, climate, economic, and industrial factors. Each of these factors plays a significant role in a company ' s approach for bringing energy technologies to the market," the Lux report explains. Developed world governments and corporations are moving to address these challenges. During an eight-day visit to Africa in June, U.S. President Barack Obama unveiled an ambitious plan to spur the extension of electricity to rural populations, where more than 85 percent of the population has no access to electricity. The plan, called Power Africa, promises to raise $7 billion dollars over the next five years through investment and government partnerships with private sources of money; those funds will be used to develop the region ' s newly discovered sources of oil and natural gas as well as renewable sources such as geothermal, hydro, wind, and solar energy. In a structure very different from the typical development aid grant, the program invites other countries-including China-to participate in public-private investment ventures. Since each country and region will have its unique issues, development is likely to go forward piecemeal. The United States and other countries, as well as private corporations who choose to participate, stand to benefit financially-not to mention the benefits of penetrating the vast African market, John Campbell, a senior fellow for Africa policy studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, a Washington think tank here, told Inter Press Service. Many Western companies are exploring ways to extend grid service. GE last year signed an agreement with the government of Kenya to work toward a wide range of rail, energy, communications, and healthcare infrastructure development goals. However, companies hoping to extend electric service face many obstacles. The national utility company of Zambia, Zambian Electricity Supply Company (ZESCO), provides an example. ZESCO recovers only 39 percent of its costs through the sale of electricity, according to the Lux report-"In other words, ZESCO loses money with every kilowatt-hour that it sells to the residential market." Not surprisingly, growth of the ZESCO grid is stagnant. Nevertheless, 7 out of the 10 fastestgrowing economies in the world are African, according to a 2010 report by the consulting firm McKinsey & Company. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects that Africa is now growing faster than China. Energy is needed to feed that growth, and China is already well positioned in the region. Sino-Africa trade volume reached $198.5 billion in 2012 and is expected to hit $385 billion by 2015, according to Standard Chartered research. By contrast, U.S.-Africa trade volume was $108.9 billion in 2012 and is expected to fall further behind China's in years to come. By putting their energy into cheap, practical, and immediate solutions that are specifically targeted for localized markets in developing countries, Chinese companies have taken the lead in Africa's energy market. Often, they've done so by purchasing, reverse engineering, or pirating Western technology and adapting it for the developing world, frequently innovating from platforms considered outdated in the West. "Why would China want to buy old technology?" Asian expert and Gartner analyst Jamie Popkin asks. The answer: "Because it still works.... This innovation is done on a different timescale to develop technology for different markets," he said. Minnihan expects large conglomerates based in the developing world to step up efforts to extend service in response to growing competition. Today, Lighting the Developing World reports, the South African utility Eskom is currently carrying out the world ' s most successful rural electrification efforts in terms of extending service to outlying corners of the country. What role Western companies will play in these efforts remains to be seen. But, Minnihan warns, China ' s commercial dominance in these markets, using old, cheap technology, provides it with the opportunity to continue fueling its industrial expansion and global market penetration. In that sense, the markets of the developing world could serve as "training wheels" of a sort for future technology improvement. In the end, Chinese firms focusing on microgeneration may be creating a market for the large-scale, grid-based projects favored by Western firms. The Lux report found that people who are not accustomed to having access to cheap, reliable electricity don ' t tend to demand it, which makes it hard for utility companies to develop convincing cost/benefit analyses and makes both governments and private investors reluctant to invest in extending grids. Once they have a steady flow of electricity, though, even through cheaply made, short-term technology, people tend to want more-use creates demand. Dan Headrick, Contributing Editor Research Triangle Park, North Carolina [email protected] Leaders of industrial research membership organizations sign into existence the World Federation of Industrial Research Associations (WFIRA). Pictured are, from left, Sang-Kill Kim, Korean Industrial Technology Association; Seji Oshima, Japanese Research Industries and Industrial Technology Association; Edward Bernstein, Industrial Research Institute; D. Michel Judkiewicz, European Industrial Research Management Association; and Leonie Walsh, Australasian Industrial Research Group. (Courtesy IRI) NewsBriefs MAY 20-World Metrology Day commemorates the signing in 1875 of the Metre Convention, which provides a coherent worldwide measurement system. World Metrology Day is organized and celebrated each year by the International Organization of Legal Metrology (OIML) and the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM). This year's theme, "measurements in daily life," focused on the ubiquity of measurement in daily activities, highlighting the role that metrology and the metrology community play in, as a press release from OIML and BIPM put it, "making sure it all works." The U.S. metrology agency is the National Institute of Standards and Technology. MAY 21-The World Federation of Industrial Research Associations (WFIRA) is signed into existence by leaders of six global industrial research membership organizations. The first of its kind, the alliance will bring together innovation thought leaders and practitioners across the globe to seek, share, learn, and create best practices for technological innovation and R&D management. Inaugural signatories are the Australasian Industrial Research Group (AIRG), the Associação National de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento das Empresas Inovadora (ANPEI), the European Industrial Research Management Association (EIRMA), the Industrial Research Institute (IRI), the Japanese Research Industries and Industrial Technology Association (JRIA), and the Korean Industrial Technology Association (KOITA). MAY 29-The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and Japan's National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) sign a memorandum of understanding to partner on research to enable next-generation networks. The partnership, which will focus on optical networking, mobile computing, and network design and modeling, will enable the two agencies to work together on joint funding opportunities and facilitate collaboration between U.S. and Japanese researchers. The agreement follows a March 2012 meeting of the U.S.-Japan Policy Cooperation Dialogue on the Internet Economy, at which researchers from both nations expressed the need for R&D support to develop a new network architecture to support future Internet developments. JUNE 10-The 37th annual edition of Schonfeld & Associates' R&D Ratios & Budgets is released. The study shows that R&D spending is likely to continue to grow in 2014, by 8.2 percent for U.S.-based firms and by 5.1 percent for those based elsewhere, on projected sales growth of 8.5 percent. Pharmaceutical firms will continue to lead the way, with drug companies increasing R&D budgets by nearly 4 percent; automotive companies will increase their R&D by over 7 percent. The full study includes historical reports of R&D spending for 2012 as well as estimated budgets for 2013 and projections for 2014. JUNE 15-Google launches balloon-based Internet service. Project Loon, as it is called, provides Internet service by bouncing signals from ground stations to free-floating polyethylene balloons high in the atmosphere-above where planes fly but below satellite paths. The pilot project involved a "few dozen" balloons launched over a remote area of New Zealand; about 50 homes briefly received service from the balloons, which will now be brought down. Eventually, Google hopes to launch hundreds or thousands of balloons to provide inexpensive service to areas now cut offby a lack of infrastructure. Because the balloons fly so high, researchers say, they could even provide service in such remote, difficult areas as the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The balloons could also be deployed fairly rapidly to restore connectivity in the wake of a disaster that debilitates the conventional fiber infrastructure. The signals are sent via unregulated spectrum, reducing the regulatory burden of the system. Project Loon originated in Google X, the same secret lab that originated Google's driverless cars and Web-surfing eyeglasses. JULY 1-The annual Global Innovation Index, released today by Cornell University, INSEAD, and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), puts the United States back among the world's five most innovative nations, moves the United Kingdom to third, and keeps Switzerland in the top spot. The 2013 index indicates that, although the economic crisis continues, R&D spending is robust, exceeding 2008 levels. It also highlights the emergence of a dynamic group of low-and middle-income countries, such as China, Costa Rica, India, and Senegal, that-though they haven't yet cracked the top of the rankings-are moving up rapidly. Local technology and innovation hubs seem to be powering these up-and-coming innovators. The 2013 Global Innovation Index looked at 84 indicators in 142 countries to gauge both innovation capability and measurable results. This year's study benefits from a panel of knowledge partners, including Booz & Company, the Confederation of Indian Industry, and Huawei, as well as an advisory panel of 14 international experts. MaryAnne M. Gobble, Editor (c) 2013 Industrial Research Institute, Inc |