Innovation is a new way of doing things. It can be mechanical, e.g., a car, biological, a new seed variety, or managerial (flexible work time). Innovations are the key ingredient of technological change and once its foundation is made, it may be implemented by changing production or management practices. Some innovations are leading to new companies, including Apple Computers, Federal Express, and Coca-Cola. Most innovations change the way different stages in production or service work.
The generation of an implementable innovation requires a sequence of activities, which we will refer to as the supply chain of innovation. They include: Discovery, the process that comes with a new idea; Development, where the basic idea is refined and sometimes implemented at a small scale; and Upscaling, where the idea is developed so it can be implemented in real life. The discovery may be done by scientists in a lab, by practitioner, or by businessmen or policymakers. Most of the innovation, historically, were the result of discovery by practitioners. There are several types of supply chains of innovations. The first is the “Educational Industrial Process.” This is the case where researchers at a university or lab make a scientific discovery and then it may be developed in a startup and commercialized in a company. Penicillin is an example of the educational industrial process at work. Alexander Fleming discovered that a Penicillin mold can kill bacteria and thus has the potential as a medicine to address bacterial infection, but development required methods for cultivating the mold and extracting penicillin from it, and it was done by other scientists including Nobel laureates, Howard Florey and Ernst Chain. The US military developed systems for mass production of penicillin before widespread commercialization.
A second process is Recombinant Innovation. In this case, an entrepreneur comes with an idea for a product and using existing knowledge, builds a team to develop and upscale it. Some of the most important commercial innovations, like Ford’s Model T, and Edison’s light bulb were recombinant innovations. The same with Apple’s iPhone and Mac. Sometimes a recombinant innovation may develop in research institutions, but many times developed in commercial settings.
A third process of innovation is Relentless Innovation, continuous improvements by the manufacturer. Automobiles, Cell phones, and other products are improved over time, and new models tend to be upgraded versions of earlier ones. The new and improved version may be the result of learning-by-doing to improve the production process, input from consumers that may improve features of the product. Companies that don’t’ have the capacity to improve their products don’t last as cell phone companies have demonstrated. The last process of innovation that are initiated by government. Government may realize a need and may identify a product, process, or policy they’d like to implement. One example in the US is the development of the railroad or the highway that was based on implementing existing technology on a national scale, and not only includes the physical design but the process and systems that built that technology.
One of the main purposes of the University is to develop ideas, as well as introduce new innovations. Frequently, the researchers that have the innovations obtain a patent on it and then rights to the patent are given to a company that pays the University and the researchers royalties through the Office of Technology Transfer. The reason that the right to patents are privatized is that developing a new innovation may be more costly than discovery, and if the firms that make the discovery and upscaling doesn’t keep a monopoly on the product, then it may not make sense to invest in it. University of California has produced several breakthrough innovations that led to products and companies. For example, Herbert Boyer (UCSF) and Stanley Cohen’s (Stanford) invented the “biotechnology tool” now commonly known as recombinant DNA cloning or gene splicing. Under this technology, a gene from a piece of foreign DNA is inserted into a bacterial plasmid. This technology allowed to produce Human insulin and Human Growth Hormone and developed by companies like Genentech, which was co-founded by Herbert Boyer. A major innovation from Berkeley is gene-editing that was co-innovated by Jennifer Doudna and is now applied in multiple applications.
Berkeley has 150 years of innovations and many basic technologies originated from innovations by scientists that were transferred to government agencies and mostly private companies, where faculty members and alumni played a major role at some of these companies (Steve Wozniak, the inventor of Apple I and II, and co-founder of Apple). The EBI has been able to generate multiple innovations including multiple enzymes for conversion of sugar to biofuel and confer resistance to damaging chemicals, as well as the algorithms that accelerate synthetic biology processes. Private sector companies have obtained the right to develop EBI technologies and EBI encourages entrepreneurship by its members and partners. In less than a year since the launch of the IBMC, the EBI has already filed three discovery-stage patents on macroalgae with strong potential for commercialization. We hope that the new venture of the EBI in macroalgae will result in new technologies that will significantly impact our climate.
In less than a year since launching the IBMC, the EBI has filed three discovery-stage patents related to macroalgae, each with strong commercialization potential. We hope this new venture of the EBI is instrumental in driving the development of impactful, innovative technologies that contribute significantly to solving global climate challenges.
This is from our website – highlighting biotechnology and fermentation
First iPhone as an example of Recombinant Innovation
Example of innovation by South Korea to cultivate seaweed, where the floating net is flipped with the tidal changes to preserve the quality of the seaweed.