Innovate 2 Innovation – An Assessment of California’s Innovation Ecosystem (Phase II) California’s Water Future

Abstract

This document is one of three reports produced in response to a request from a bi-partisan group of California Legislators, which asked CCST to assess the state’s innovation ‘ecosystem’ and offer a specific list of recommendations for legislators to enhance the state’s ability to foster and benefit from innovation.

To prepare its response to the Legislators’ request, CCST convened a series of roundtables with academic, industry and research leaders across the state in late 2010 to seek their input on the challenges faced by California and possible solutions that could be achieved by building from California’s S&T capacity. From these meetings, CCST identified two key strategies essential to achieve this task:

• Developing and leveraging public-private partnerships linking California’s assets in education, research, technology, finance, and philanthropy to create social and technical innovations that competitors with less complete infrastructure cannot match.
• Enlisting California’s international competitiveness by enlisting California’s S&T community in finding solutions to two of the State’s major challenges, education and water.

In this report, CCST has further identified where innovation in science and technology and targeted deployment can be used to address critical issues facing the state as it addresses the water needs of the future. By tapping into the unparalleled resources of our academic institutions, federal laboratories and industry base, we can create new partnerships, new business opportunities, and new research and technology development that will significantly strengthen the state’s water system and boost its competitiveness.