Interagency S and T Leadership
Abstract
For the past 75 years the United States has been the preeminent provider of technical innovation and capabilities, but other nations, both individually and certainly collectively, are steadily chipping away at our lead. In 1945, the U.S. share of the worldwide Gross Domestic Product was approximately 50%; now, it is below 25%. More recently, the U.S. share of the worlds R and D investments shrank from 34% in 2009 to a forecasted 26.4% in 20162. These declines are not because of a measurable drop in U.S. innovation investments or yields (indeed, the percentage of U.S. investments in S and T compared to the GDP has noticeably risen over the past 50 years3), but rather from the rest of the world catching up. As the U.S. has less than 5% of the worlds population, we wont be able to overcome these trends through brute force (i.e., the U.S. will not be able to simply outspend the rest of the worlds population). Instead, we will have to become more strategic so that U.S. investments yield higher impacts. One of the steps in a defensible S and T process for a federal agency is understanding which of their prioritized needs are being addressed by external entities and can be leveraged, such as partnership opportunities for joint projects. In a best-case scenario, another agency is already funding the technological development that the agency needs and the PM can simply cherry-pick external work for their own needs. Unfortunately, that scenario doesnt happen very often! But there are often closely-aligned S and T activities that can be leveraged in some way, or opportunities to collaborate that will yield more advancement than is possible from separate projects. This paper examines the concept of interagency collaboration as a recommended approach for federal S and T program managers to take, as well as the leadership concepts required for success in such an environment.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 05, 2016
- Accession Number
- AD1107813
Entities
People
- Duane M. Blackburn
Organizations
- MITRE Corporation