There is a growing agreement that universities are foundations for technological progress and innovation. California’s electronic and biotech industry benefits from the close location and the graduates of the UC system and Stanford. The Boston area has become a cluster of innovative companies relying on talent from Harvard, MIT, and others. Texas spawned many companies that took advantage of the universities there. As we build a bioeconomy that utilizes natural resources and modern technologies to address the challenges of climate change, food security, and pollution, we must recognize the importance of building a solid academic foundation linked with the private sector and government. This will be the source of ideas, entrepreneurship, and resources.
Innovations are new ways to do things. They may be technological, institutional (cooperatives, banks), or managerial (lean production, open-source software development). In California, we developed the educational industrial complex as a supply chain of innovation. Universities make discoveries, and universities, startups, and corporations develop and upgrade the technology until it is ready for commercialization. After commercialization, companies and their partners pursue relentless innovation to improve the innovations. You need a strong legal and financial foundation for an innovation system with a functioning symbiosis between universities and the private sector. The universities have offices of technology transfer that sell the rights of developing a technology to private companies because the cost of development is frequently higher in order of magnitude than the cost of research. University faculty and students familiar with the innovation is partnering with new startups. This is not a new phenomenon. Morse, the inventor of the telegraph, and Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, were professors and inventors. Recently, companies like Genentech, Chiron, and Qualcomm have been founded by faculty members of the UC system. Another approach to innovation is recombinant innovation, combining existing ideas to create new ones. Some of the greatest technological entrepreneurs of all time, like Edison, Ford, and Steve Jobs, championed recombinant innovation based on existing science. But even their companies relied on university graduates and research findings to develop their products. Berkeley pioneered university-industry research, where university departments got resources to expand their research capabilities and collaborate with company scientists while the university kept the intellectual property and directed the research agenda. The Rausser College of Natural Resources-Novartis is one example, and the Energy & Biosciences Institute (EBI) is another. These experiences led to a better understanding of managing public-private partnerships in research.
To further develop the bioeconomy, Berkeley and other universities need the human capital, resources, and linkages with industries that will result in innovations. As Berkeley is developing capabilities in the Blue Bioeconomy (utilizing seaweeds to produce products and sequester carbon), we need to expand the research efforts in the biology of macroalgae (identifying species, their properties, and how to grow them) in processing macroalgae and developing supply chains for its production and marketing. The Blue Bioeconomy is one area that Berkeley is likely to emphasize, but there are other areas: production of biofuels and chemicals from living organisms, biomanufacturing, and reusing waste materials. This entails having faculty who are field experts, graduate students interested in this area, and facilities to experiment, produce new knowledge, and introduce innovation. Partnerships with other universities in this area, partnerships with industry, and outreach to governments and regulators will be essential. Outside support will be necessary to develop bioeconomy research – we are excited about the new NSF-funded Blue Bioeconomy Center. We already have some faculty members associated with the Center, and we hope to hire new talent eventually: we are now looking to obtain resources for facilities and student support. We plan to establish a new graduate group so graduate students interested in the bioeconomy can obtain appropriate classes and team up with faculty members to start new research initiatives. I learned that obtaining the resources is the big challenge in starting a new research direction and building the partnership that will result in the critical mass that can make a difference. We are now in the beginning, and we look forward to help from any direction. But working with my colleagues in the EBI, Innovative Genomics Institute, RCNR, College of Engineering, College of Chemistry, and other units, I am sure we will build a major center of bioeconomy excellence in Berkeley.