Filtering by
- All Subjects: Technology
- All Subjects: High technology
- Creators: Morrison Institute for Public Policy
- Creators: Rajko, Jessica
Innovation—introducing something new—in the 21st century mostly derives from technological advances. Innovation drives the modern economy, leading to gains in productivity and prosperity. In this edition of Indicator Insight, author Tom Rex discusses innovation in Arizona in terms of human capital, financial capital, and high-technology employment.
Author Tom Rex discusses how the long downward trend in high-technology industries in Arizona continued over the last decade.
Economic development leaders and public officials throughout the country are tending to the effects of a sour economy and huge state budget deficits when they would rather be creating quality jobs and new economy assets. According to the most prominent thinking on today’s knowledge economy, locally developed and exported technology will be the primary economic differentiator between future winners and losers. Thus, with long-term fiscal and economic health at stake, the 50-state race is on for advantages and leadership in science and technology. This report sheds light on these issues through an overview of Arizona’s standing in science and technology today, short case studies of four competitors in the west, as well as Arizona, and ideas for Arizona’s leaders to consider as they strive to give our state an edge.
Almost every state hopes to capitalize on the tremendous wealth and job creation that can be generated by high tech science research-and billions of public dollars are being spent. But everyone is just speculating about the lasting value of these investments. While traditional assessments of return on public investment in science and technology tend to track short-term impacts, such as salaries, patents, and licensing revenues, the main foundations for long-term development of a knowledge economy appear to rely on a number of less tangible accomplishments. For example: Connections - the networks that develop between researchers, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists; Attention - the publicity generated by the research and its networks that attract businesses and talent to locate in a region; and Talent - the highly skilled workers that such research attracts and trains.
These three indicators of economic success-henceforth called the CAT measures-have yet to be quantified and applied in a useful manner. That is the purpose of this study. It will be conducted in three parts, each with a culminating report. The first part will analyze the FY03 science and technology research activities and results for ASU's Proposition 301 initiatives. The second will develop a methodology for quantifying and utilizing the Institute's CAT measures. The third will field test the CAT methodology on a selected aspect of ASU's Proposition 301-funded research, and analyze results to provide Arizona decision-makers with recommendations to guide future policy.
This publication updates the January 2004 study, New Returns on Investment in the Knowledge Economy: Proposition 301 at Arizona State University, FY 2003. Both works were launched by the report, Seeds of Prosperity: Public Investment in Science and Technology Research (2003), by Morrison Institute for Public Policy. Morrison Institute will periodically publish new material to keep you informed of the status of Proposition 301 investments at Arizona State University.
Morrison Institute for Public Policy has analyzed returns from Arizona’s Proposition 301-supported public investments in science and technology research at Arizona State University since 2001. This publication updates a portion of the April 2003 study, "Seeds of Prosperity: Public Investment in Science and Technology Research."
Jessica Rajko is an interdisciplinary artist exploring the embodied, corporeal, and lived experience of data. As an assistant professor at Arizona State University, her work blends praxis and scholarship from dance, somatic practices, phenomenology, and human-computer interaction design. She is a founding co-Director of the ASU Human Security Collaboratory, a non-departmental collective of artists and scholars addressing complex problems affecting the security of individuals and communities, with a special emphasis on digital technologies and their uses. Considering issues such as digital civil rights and equity in tech, her research aspires to integrate intersectional feminist frameworks within all her practices. Jessica has presented and performed in various collaborative artworks nationally and internationally, including Toronto’s Scotiabank Nuit Blanche festival and New York City’s Gotham Festival at The Joyce Theatre. She was named one of Phoenix New Times’s “100 Creatives of 2016.” She is the co-founder and co-director of urbanSTEW (urbanSTEW.org), a non-profit arts collective that creates participatory, art/tech installations to engage local communities in multisensory, felt experiences. Jessica received her MFA in Dance and Interdisciplinary Digital Media at Arizona State University in 2009 (outstanding graduate of the year) and her BA in Dance and Psychology at Hope College in 2005.