Under Secretary Hormats at the Open Innovations Forum

November 2, 2012

On October 31, Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment Robert Hormats participated in a panel entitled “Does the World Need a Supranational Innovation System?” at the Open Innovations Forum in Moscow. In his remarks, Hormats noted that an international ecosystem for innovation already exists, and networks of innovators, scientists, and others already transcend national borders. He stressed that any effort to create a supranational institution for this purpose would be moving in exactly the wrong direction. Hormats noted that patents are increasingly filed by people in two or more countries and the same trend can be seen in scholarly research papers: 20 years ago only 7% of peer reviewed papers were written by authors from two or more countries, now the number is 25%. As an example, Hormats cited the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2012, which was awarded to French and American scientists.

In his remarks, he emphasized two important drivers of the trend toward collaboration across borders. The first is the free flow of information on the internet. Hormats noted the power of the internet to connect people and ideas. He warned that governments that interfere with the free flow of information on the internet would harm the creative process needed to foster domestic innovation. The second driver is the national policies of governments that support creativity and innovation. As an example, Hormats cited the U.S. government, which has created a supportive environment for innovation by funding basic scientific research, by having strong intellectual property laws that protect new ideas in the marketplace, by enacting bankruptcy laws that reward those who take risk and who try again after a failure, and by establishing rules of the game that are open, fair and transparent for everyone. The United States’ greatest strength is its openness – openness to people, to new ideas and to immigration.

Finally, Hormats emphasized the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship in driving economic growth in the future and designing solutions to modern social challenges. Enabling cross border innovation is not just good for the U.S. and Russia but for the world.