| Notes |
One factor involves critical institutions, which represent the space where research and talent combine, where the meeting between science and technology is best organized. Arguably, there are critical science and technology institutions that can introduce not simply inventions and applications, but significant elements of entire innovations systems. We will focus on aspects of the U.S. innovation system supported by the defense sector—particularly the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). An Eisenhower creation, DARPA was the primary inheritor of the WWII connected science model embodied in Los Alamos and MIT’s Rad Lab. DARPA came to play a larger role than other U.S. R&D mission agencies in both the Cold War’s defense technology and the private sector economy that interacted with it.6 DARPA will be used as a tool to explore the deep interaction between U.S. military leadership and technology leadership. As we attempt to understand where DARPA came from, we will also ask where it goes next, particularly in IT, as a way of focusing on the continuing strength of the defense innovation system.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2009. 21st Century Innovation Systems for Japan and the United States: Lessons from a Decade of Change: Report of a Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/12194. |