WASHINGTON - ITIF President and founder Dr. Robert D. Atkinson was named to the Department of Commerce’s National Innovation and Competitiveness Strategy Advisory Board today. The Board was created at the urging of ITIF as part of the reauthorization of the America COMPETES Act.
“The U.S is one of the few nations without a serious analytically-based national competitiveness strategy. Let’s hope that’s about to change,” said Atkinson. “There is nothing partisan about taking a critical look at ourselves and upping our game as a nation. I am eager to lend my passion and insights to this effort.”
The 2011 COMPETES Act reauthorization called for the Department of Commerce to complete a comprehensive study of the economic competitiveness and innovative capacity of the United States by January 4, 2012.
ITIF called for a study in its influential report, Eight Steps to Improving the America COMPETES Act and Sen. Mark Warner, D-VA., one of ITIF’s honorary co-chairs, led the effort to include the provision in the COMPETES Act.
The study will assess the current competitive and innovation performance of the U.S. against peer countries; analyze how the United States can best shape policies towards technology, tax, trade, and talent to foster U.S. competitiveness; perform a deep dive assessment of U.S. competitiveness at the major-industry level; and ascertain how we can best strengthen U.S. economic infrastructure and its industrial base.
Atkinson is one of the coun