EDC’s Kaplan helps lead state’s innovation economy

A report from the Council on Competitiveness, a national organization focused on innovative economic development, says Rhode Island has difficulty competing in science and technology innovation. But the state has recently made a push for an innovation economy. PBN recently talked with one of the state’s innovation initiators, Saul Kaplan.

PBN: Is this report by the council an accurate depiction of Rhode Island?
KAPLAN: Governor Carcieri appointed the Science and Technology Advisory Council. The charge that the council was given was clear: ‘What do we need to do to increase our capacity for innovation; how do we make innovation more central to the way we strengthen our economy?’ The first step in this process is to understand where we are now, so when we recommend specific actions to take, we have a base line to measure our success against and correct the course along the way. We partnered with the Competitiveness Council, which was a big win for us. They were interested in what we are doing here and intrigued by this notion of Rhode Island as a test bed for innovation. They agreed to come in and help us with an assessment of our innovation capacity. The report is a result of that. Its focus is on several important areas – our ability to create a platform for basic research around the state, our ability to enable new company creation and stimulate entrepreneurship, our ability to create a culture of innovation. The report gave us specific details on both the good – the things that are strong in our innovation economy – and the things that we need to work on.

PBN: And how does the state plan on improving?
KAPLAN: We have a lot of strengths. We’re in the Northeast in the knowledge corridor between New York and Boston. We have several strong institutions – Brown University, the Rhode Island School of Design – and some pockets of real strength at the University of Rhode Island, including the graduate school of oceanography, the pharmacy school, the engineering school and the College of Environment and Life Sciences. These are positive signs … because of [a demonstrated] willingness to collaborate across [the state’s] 11 colleges and universities. The real strength of Rhode Island will be when we can connect the dots and create research alliances across the research-oriented universities. The first evidence of that [is] in efforts like EPSCoR [Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research], which is a collaborative effort to win a National Science Foundation grant. It would bring an additional $9 million into the basic life science research arena to finance collaborative research projects across our state’s universities. In the entrepreneurship space, how do we rally around entrepreneurs, how do we help them form a successful venture? We’re starting to connect those dots as well. … We’re starting to work on the climate for innovation. A lot of the work that we’ve done here at EDC [involves] our Innovation at Scale effort and the formation of the Business Innovation Factory, which is all about enabling collaborative innovation.

PBN: What role does the Business Innovation Factory play?
KAPLAN: Our Innovation at Scale strategy is all about how we turn the size of our state into a competitive advantage. How do we make Rhode Island a “proof of concept” state, the place where innovators can explore and test ways to deliver value in important areas like health care, public safety and security? If we can become known around the country as the unique test bed for these ideas, we can help not only institutions and companies here get stronger. … We also will attract new investments and companies from outside the state. We needed a way to get from the idea to the implementation, because I started to get a lot of companies and leaders saying, ‘That’s an interesting idea.’ … We created BIF, which is a nonprofit whose mission is innovation; BIF is the implementation arm for the strategy. The BIF has a lot of early success. The best example of that was our announcement [last month] that [the state and IBM] advanced into the pilot stage of Rhode Island Wireless Innovation Networks, our initiative to make Rhode Island the first state in the country to have border-to-border broadband wireless. It’s proof that Rhode Island can be the test bed – that we can bring together in-state companies as well as attract companies from out of state.

PBN: In 2003, the year you started at the EDC, the governor spoke about adding 20,000 jobs to the state, placing a focus on biotechnology. Where does that stand?
KAPLAN: Assuming the economy stays with us, we’re on track to achieve the 20,000 net new jobs that the governor laid out. But we need to go further than that. We need to go beyond just adding jobs to the goal of adding better jobs, higher-wage jobs. If we’re going to reposition our economy and become a prosperous place, we’re going to need to work on the right jobs. The right jobs are in the knowledge-based economy and innovation is key to achieving that.

PBN: When looking to attract companies to the state, what role do financial incentives play?
KAPLAN: I don’t think we lead with incentives. I think we lead with the environment for innovation. It’s an environment that enables companies to advance their research, put new products and services in the market, put new capabilities on the ground and implement new business plans. In the end, that’s how we are going to win. Incentives are tools that we use to help us in that effort. But if you’re basing your efforts solely on incentives, I think you have to engage in a healthy debate around the appropriate use of taxpayer money to [have] companies stay or to come. If you’re Rhode Island, the smallest state in the country, you’re always going to be behind in your ability to do that. We believe you have to change that game and compete about your strengths and what’s unique about Rhode Island.