Overview
The future of innovation will rely increasingly on integrated, multidisciplinary, and multidomain partnerships that span and connect research, development, and deployment of new technologies at scale. In this panel, leaders across academia, government, and business discuss how to build innovation ecosystems that support the technologies of today and the industries of the future.
Key Session Insights
America faces unprecedented challenges, and innovation is our greatest means to solving them. And as part of the discussion’s open, Susan Hubbard, the Deputy Laboratory Director for Science and Technology of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, reminded the Competitiveness Conversation attendees of America’s long history overcoming challenges by developing new technologies. While Oak Ridge was originally started to help us win World War II, she noted, the laboratory today is combatting existential problems. Hubbard said is now focused on the missions of today, including clean energy transition, national security, and the development of emerging technologies. Given the importance of innovation for overcoming our biggest challenges, a strategy for producing and scaling innovation is needed, Hubbard said.
“In a world of incredible challenges, everything is resource limited. But if we can figure out what to bet on, what our portfolio approach should be, I think we have a much better chance of achieving the critical mass—and of starting to grow that critical mass—needed for long-term, sustainable innovation.”
Susan Hubbard
Deputy Laboratory Director for Science and Technology, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
A common point brought up throughout the Tennessee Competitiveness Conversation, and resurfaced in this panel, is that radical collaboration is a key catalyst for innovation. To develop Tennessee further as an innovation hub, organizations need strategically to foster partnerships across sectors to bring together a diversity of expertise. Joe Hoagland, Vice President of Enterprise Relations and Innovation for the Tennessee Valley Authority, acknowledged during his panel set up and moderation that collaboration is not always easy. It can lead to “strange bedfellows,” he said. “We all have our own drivers, but if we can bring them together in common places, that is where we will see success.”
“Everybody keeps talking about radical collaboration. It seems to be the phrase. I think what we want to talk about now is: ‘how do we do radical collaboration?’”
Joe Hoagland
Vice President of Enterprise Relations and Innovation, Tennessee Valley Authority
Building on the theme of radical collaboration and linking to healthcare, Jason Maynard, Executive Vice President of Revenue Operations at Oracle—which announced in the days leading up to the Competitiveness Conversation that it is moving its global headquarters to Nashville to leverage a multitude of opportunities around the city’s emergent and thriving healthcare innovation ecosystem—emphasized how sharing patient information across the healthcare network also improves patient outcomes. "We have got to find a way to open up patient data because ultimately it is about ensuring that someone who comes into an emergency room—or even a regular doctor visit—receives the best possible treatment." That requires quick access to accurate patient data—a problem Oracle is on a mission to solve. To do so, the global firm is tapping Nashville’s innovation ecosystem and, in the truest form of radical collaboration, working with competitors, partners, suppliers, research universities, and other critical stakeholders.
“(To engage in and activate innovation) we are taking an approach to be open, to be interoperable, to make sure that all of our systems, and all of our applications work with everyone—including our biggest competitors.”
Jason Maynard
Executive Vice President of Revenue Operations, Oracle
And it was this theme of sharing—whether research and development findings, or other resources—between a wide range of stakeholders that panelists emphasized as totally necessary for Tennessee’s innovation economy to emerge and thrive. Oracle’s Maynard built on the idea: “If you want to change radically the delivery of healthcare to have better patient outcomes, you cannot do it on your own.”
Collaborations also enable researchers to uncover a wider number of challenges—and ensuing opportunities—to explore, as well as expand their view of possible solutions. The UT-Oak Ridge Innovation Institute (UT-ORII), for example, catalyzes collaboration and allows experts across organizations to take a longer view by working to identify areas of cross-disciplinary study and innovation that will be important for the state, and the nation, over the next decade.
However, not all ideas or partnerships lead to success. As Chief Executive Officer of Launch Tennessee Lindsey Cox explained, one of the biggest challenges in developing an innovative economy is managing the risk of failure. A key approach to mitigating this risk is to create an environment where innovation can thrive across industries. Given the unpredictability of innovation, the greatest advancements often emerge from developing cross-sectoral ecosystems that foster an inherent tolerance for the risks associated with innovation. For example, ORNL's Hubbard explained that many of the advancements at ORNL stemmed from its investment portfolio in emerging technologies. “We have an internal investment portfolio in our ecosystem from which we draw to advance and connect promising people and technologies. In doing so, we also begin to foresee and define new frontiers. In fact, some of our investment portfolio assets are what catalyzed several years ago our quantum efforts today. It is what started our computing efforts.”
Nonetheless, Tennessee’s success in attracting and growing businesses comes with a major challenge: finding the people with the technical skills to meet growing demand from industry. And that’s a topic Deb Crawford, the Vice Chancellor for Research, Innovation, and Economic Development at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, jumped on with thoughts and solutions. Crawford summarized the problem Tennessee is facing in this way: “One of the challenges we have in Tennessee is preparing the workforce for the innovation economy of the future. We have heard recently from the State that we need to produce an additional 10,000 engineers a year to meet the needs of industry across Tennessee.” To support the growth of technology and innovation hubs in Tennessee, policies and investment are needed to actively train and attract workers that can help support technology heavy industries, specifically by expanding STEM education at all levels of educational attainment across the state.
“Tennessee is not too big that you cannot find somebody who is connected to somebody else really quickly. And I think that is one of the wonderful things about the innovation culture here—people are willing to help. It is easy to partner.”
Deb Crawford
Vice Chancellor for Research, Innovation, & Economic Development, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
The panel shifted the discussion to focus on Tennessee’s start-up environment. As happens in most parts of the United States, startups that spin up activity in Tennessee often reach a point where they face a decision to stay or leave. Historically, many have left the state to land in regions with, for example, a greater concentration of STEM talent and opportunities to attract private capital. University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s Crawford stressed the importance going forward in actively supporting and maintaining Tennessee’s start-up community, calling for greater resources—and arguing that could trigger a new, more virtuous cycle of attracting additional startups and venture capital to the state. Lindsey Cox then shared how Launch Tennessee is actively working to do that: creating a supportive environment through a variety of investment opportunities, mentorships, collaborations, and other resources that help more Tennessee innovators become Tennessee entrepreneurs who stay—as well building a softer landing for start-ups looking for a place to establish their future.
“What are we going to bet on in Tennessee? On what are we going to apply a 30-year vision and declare this is where we are going to put our financial and brainpower assets to work? Tennessee is a very industry diverse state, so there is a lot of opportunity. I do not think we have to pick just one winner. We can lean in to innovation as a whole.”
Lindsey Cox
Chief Executive Officer, Launch Tennessee
The panel concluded with a discussion around how the resources needed to develop the region’s innovation capabilities are currently unequally distributed, with a concentration in urban areas. They recommended that private and public organizations work to promote access to training and infrastructure resources in rural communities, as this will ensure everyone can engage in, and benefit from, the growing innovation economy in Tennessee.
Fortunately, there is work underway across the state to extend research and innovation, and the many benefits brought by it, to more places in Tennessee. For example, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, through its agricultural extension program, reaches every region across Tennessee. As Deb Crawford noted, “We reach a lot of kids through agricultural extension and engage them in STEM programs that give them a sense of what careers in STEM might look like in the future.” Launch Tennessee has also taken big steps to expand entrepreneurship across the state. Cox shared how her organization has provided resources and best practices with innovators and entrepreneurs to spark business startups in 84 of 95 counties in Tennessee.
