Must we chose between innovation and sustainability?

For all of you who are itching to get back into the classroom come September so you can get your hands on some good S&T debate, you might want to point your cursor over to the Harvard Business School Online. Specifically, there is an Open Thread posted by Umair Haque, Director of the Havas Media Lab.

His post poses to readers the idea that innovation and sustainability are at odds. His hypothesis is thus:
Innovation feeds society's need for consumption, and sustainability is supposed to break us of our consumption habits. The comments posed by readers are quite interesting and insightful.
One post, by a reader names Sean states,
"Innovation is a significant change to a process that adds new value.
Sustainability is the effort to minimize a process's external costs that would otherwise be imposed on society."

A similar but different question could be raised as well. As students and practitioners of policy, how can we make sure that innovation and sustainability are not at odds, but rather working together? Or, if you believe the two are nemeses of each other, what policies are appropriate to make sure they can at least coexist without minimizing the positive effects of both?

Please leave your comments below.
Read more!

A National Innovation Foundation?

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program are calling for a National Innovation Foundation. Want to find out more? Join Brookings, the Council on Competitiveness and the ITIF as they release a report calling for an NIF.

"On April 22, 2008, from 8:30 – 10:00 a.m. ITIF, MPP and the Council on Competitiveness will host a briefing. The event will preview two major new reports on federal economic policy: “Boosting Productivity, Innovation, and Growth Through a National Innovation Foundation,” by ITIF President Robert Atkinson and Howard Wial, a Brookings economist; and “Clusters for Competitiveness: A New Federal Role for Stimulating Regional Economies,” by venture capitalist Karen Mills; Liz Reynolds, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology doctoral student; and Andrew Reamer, a fellow at Brookings.

MPP Director Bruce Katz, along with Council president, Deborah Wince-Smith, will open the briefing with an overview of the innovation policy landscape. Atkinson, Wial, and Mills will follow by offering an overview of the two reports’ findings and policy recommendations. Following that Randall Kempner, vice president, regional innovation at the Council on Competitiveness, will moderate a discussion of the proposals with Ron Blackwell, chief economist, AFL-CIO; Emily DeRocco, president, National Center for the American Workforce, National Association of Manufacturers; Ernest Dianastasis, managing director, CAI, Inc.; and Ray Sheppach, executive director, National Governors Association. Time for questions and answers from attendees will round out the morning."

Please RSVP to Kathleen Kruczlnicki at 202.797.6319 or kkruczlnicki@brookings.edu.

What: Event to Release Report Calling for a National Innovation Foundation

When: Tuesday, April 22 – 8:30 – 10:00 am (buffet breakfast available at 8:00 a.m.)

Where: The National Press Club (529 14th Street, NW) in Washington, D.C. Read more!

Event: The 33rd Annual AAAS Forum on Science and Technology Policy

If ever attended the AAAS Annual Forum on S&T Policy, you know that the event is attended by the movers and shakers of S&T policy and debates often ensue regarding the future of funding and policy related to a wide range of S&T issues. If you've never been, check out the below topics and consider the conference this year. This year, S&T policy in the upcoming elections and for the next administration is a key topic to be discussed during the forum and was also the topic of SISTP's first journal club meeting.

The annual AAAS Forum on Science and Technology Policy is the conference for people interested in public policy issues facing the science, engineering, and higher education communities. Since 1976, it has been the place where insiders go to learn what is happening and what is likely to happen in the coming year on the federal budget and the growing number of policy issues that affect researchers and their institutions. Come to the Forum, learn about the future of S&T policy, and meet the people who will shape it. The next S&T Policy Forum will be 8-9 May 2008 at the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center in Washington, DC.

The program will include:

Keynote address by President's science advisor, Director, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

Overview of FY 2009 federal research and development (R&D) budget proposals.

Major sessions on:

- The budgetary and policy context for R&D in FY 2009, including congressional treatment of R&D budgets, and a discussion of what kind of world science and technology will face - and help create - in the 21st century
- New models for funding science
- Science & Technology, the 2008 election, and beyond
- Human enhancement: promise and/or threat?
- Advocacy in science: what is the proper role?
- Science and the new media

The William D. Carey Lecture, an invited address by a notable figure in S&T - Lewis Branscomb, Harvard University

Reception Thursday evening, and meal functions featuring distinguished speakers (luncheons Thursday (John Kao, author of Innovation Nation) and Friday; breakfast Friday (speakers to be announced))

For more information and to register, please go to:
(http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd/forum.htm)

Note: There is a cost to attend this event, there is a student discount, CISTP may be able to support student attendance. Read more!

Events: Innovation Nation: Collaboration and Competition in a Globalised World

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the British Embassy cordially invite you to a public lecture by:
Rt. Hon. John Denham, Secretary of State, Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills, United Kingdom

"Innovation Nation: Collaboration and Competition in a Globalised World"

Monday, April 21, 2008 4:30 PM, reception to follow
AAAS Auditorium
1200 New York Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20005
RSVP by noon on Wednesday, April 16, 2008 to Ms. Linda Stroud (international@aaas.org)

You can also sign up for the Washington Science Policy Alliance Seminars are other events here: http://www.aaas.org/spp/wspa Read more!