ABSTRACT
Universities have been naively viewed as engines of innovation that pump out new ideas that can be easily translated into commercial innovations and regional growth. This has led to overly mechanistic national and regional policies that seek to commercialize those ideas and transfer them to the private sector. Although there is nothing wrong with these policies that encourage joint research, this view misses the larger economic picture: Universities are far more important as the nation’s primary source of knowledge creation and talent. Smart people are the most critical resource to any economy, and especially to the rapidly growing creative economy on which the U.S.’s future rests. Misdirected policies that restrict universities’ ability to generate knowledge and attract and produce top talent loom as large threats to the nation’s economy. Specific measures such as the landmark Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, which enabled universities to claim ownership of the intellectual property rights generated from federally funded research, have helped universities commercialize innovations but in doing so may have exacerbated the skewing of the university’s role.
