Justification - ERC Innovations and Impacts: Achievements and Strategies for Success Report - National Science Foundation

Background: Rationale for the need for the ERC Innovations and Impacts: Achievements and Strategies for Success Report. This proposed work has two overlapping objectives: Update a 2010 report entitled “Innovations and Impacts: ERC-Generated Commercialized Products, Processes, and Startups.” That report focused on the economic and societal impacts of ERC-generated technologies and innovations until that time.

The objective of the present work is to capture the continuing impacts of the major innovations since that time, with a greater emphasis given to the societal impacts of ERC achievements. Provide the ERC Program with insights and guidance that can be applied to current and future ERCs regarding strategies for strengthening their innovation ecosystems, with a view to becoming regional economic engines.

A particular focus will be on how ERCs can best position themselves to align with initiatives of NSF’s new Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP)—a natural collaborative opportunity for ERCs—as this Directorate evolves and grows. Thus, the study and resulting report will be on the one hand historically focused and quantitative, and on the other hand forward-looking and qualitative.