The National Science Board’s biennial Science & Engineering Indicators suggests that as early as the 2012 edition, the U.S. will no longer lead the world in total R&D expenditures – unless corrective action is taken (graph here). And Senator Jeff Bingaman, who chairs the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, recently told a Senate hearing that  “…our investments in new energy technologies, and the science underlying them, have been surprisingly deficient over the last 20 years….  our national R&D investments in medicine and biotechnology, as a percentage of sales, are about 40 times greater than our research and development investments in energy.”

These weaknesses in the R&D base are being compounded by ineffective commercialization pathways. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke recently announced the creation of the Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Policy, with a focus on accelerating commercialization, saying the process as it stands is “broken.”

All of this is critically important for our national innovation capacity, and thus our competitive position. But in citing Germany and China (not coincidentally the world’s two largest exporters) and their  R&D and manufacturing prowess, Obama overlooked what may be our strongest domestic competitive asset: creative innovation, beyond science, technology, engineering, and even product design (all areas in which China is on track to excel, as articulated by Martin Jacques in his masterful When China Rules the World).

Here, we find leadership in the European Union. EUROPA, the European Year of Creativity and Innovation 2009, aimed “…to raise awareness of the importance of creativity and innovation for personal, social and economic development; to disseminate good practices; to stimulate education and research, and to promote policy debate on related issues.” A stellar group called the European Ambassadors for Creativity and Innovation, representing the arts, sciences, social, and policy sectors, has issued a Manifesto stating in part: “The world is moving to a new rhythm. To be at the forefront of this new world, Europe needs to become more creative and innovative.” And the European Institute of Innovation &  Technology is envisioned as “…a key driver of sustainable European growth and competitiveness through the stimulation of world-leading innovations with a positive impact on economy and society.”

This is a classic whole-systems problem, on a truly global scale, and one that demands a comprehensive and holistic solution: R&D, education, commercialization, creativity, design, innovation. It’s a big strategy, but one that’s needed to win first place.

Bruce Nussbaum from Business Week completed a tour of Asia, impressed everywhere he visited with the attention being paid to design as a critical innovation element at all levels (including national policy), leading to what he called “Designomics” in his speech to the Design Korea 2009 International Conference: “The global economy is emerging from the Great Recession… with a very different shape, a very different trajectory and a very different set of growth engines.  Design, with a capital “D” is also emerging from the recent crisis, with a very different form and function. A design-based business model and a design-based economy provide the best new opportunities for creating value, growth, revenues, profits, jobs and wealth for the decades ahead.”

A new book entitled When China Rules the World: the End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order, by Martin Jacques, is profound, serious, and convincing (and, if that’s not scary enough, according to Nussbaum China gets innovation and design). Meanwhile, down under, Australia’s Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research (check that title again, it’s important) has published Powering Ideas: An Innovation Agenda for the 21st Century(pdf here): “Tough times demand creative solutions…. Innovation is not an abstraction. Nor is it an end in itself. It is how we make a better Australia, and contribute to making a better world — a prosperous, fair and decent world, in which everyone has the chance of a fulfilling life.” Well said, Minister Carr.

There are themes emerging from these voices, even if the melody is not yet clear. We at SFIP greet the challenges of a new year, a new decade, and a new era reaffirmed in our intention to support the development of a genuine, forward looking, national innovation strategy; and we greet the attendant opportunities with the initial efforts of the Santa Fe Innovation Park as a national innovation center, pioneering this strategy’s design and implementation.

Happy New Year.