The new model innovation agencies: An overview

There have been four major innovation organization policy moments for the US federal government driven by the demands of politics and technology since World War II: first, the immediate post-war period where the Cold War helped drive a basic research model for new and expanded science agencies; second, the Sputnik aftermath with the formation of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and scaled up funding for science; third, the competitiveness era ‘valley of death’ programs of the 1980s, and finally, a recent energy technology shift driven by energy and climate demands. Some are advocating a fifth: advanced manufacturing. In that lengthy evolution, what lessons have we learned about the design of federal innovation organizations? What are the institutional elements in the ‘new generation’ innovation policy programs now developing or under consideration? The focus is on the evolving federal agency role: what innovation stages is it organized around within the innovation pipeline and how does it link to other innovation actors?.