Update: Mark Muro has more insight into the movement of clean tech R&D to China here.
Last week, an NYT story detailed the hastening movement of clean energy R&D facilities from the U.S. to China and the simultaneous migration of some of America's leading researchers and innovators in the same direction. This news highlighted the now, undeniable implications of a brain drain that was initiated by China's aggressive moves to invest in and dominate clean tech manufacturing.
"Now, Mr. [Mark] Pinto said, researchers from the United States and Europe have to be ready to move to China if they want to do cutting-edge work on solar manufacturing because the new Applied Materials complex here is the only research center that can fit an entire solar panel assembly line...
President Obama has often spoken about creating clean-energy jobs in the United States. But China has shown the political will to do so, said Mr. Pinto, 49, who is also Applied Materials' executive vice president for solar systems and flat-panel displays."
Today, a piece in the Epoch Times says there's an "R&D explosion" taking place in China, citing some of our coverage of this developing story:
"An R&D explosion is underway in China, with high-tech at its forefront," claims Bhavin Gandhi in the article "Outsourcing to Copycat Nation," on Scribd, an open platform Website.
Gandhi claims that technology companies, including IBM, Dell Inc., Intel Corp., and International Game Technology have recently opened their own R & D facilities in China.
Microsoft set up an R&D facility in Beijing in 1998 because of "the great pool of talent located in the area," said Harry Shum, managing director at Microsoft Research Asia, in a Workforce report.
In 1995, IBM set up an R & D facility in Beijing, close to Tsinghua University. Other companies that set up facilities include Alcatel-Lucent in 1995, Motorola Inc. in 2001, Pfizer Inc. in 2004, and Cisco Systems Inc. in 2005.
ValueNotes, an India-based business intelligence and research provider, states in a 2006 article on its Web site that "According to the Chinese government statistics, about 750 R&D centers (foreign-funded) exist in China, located primarily around Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen."
"During the last decade, there has been an over 75% growth in employment of research personnel in China to reach close to one million (compared to about 1.3 million researchers in the U.S.)," according to the article.
IBM is transferring more of its R & D facilities to China, with an initial investment of $40 million, due to the country's recent push into clean technology. Dow Chemical Company set up a clean tech R & D center in June 2009, and Applied Materials Inc. followed suit shortly after, according to a blog on Breakthrough Institute's Web site."
The United States is set to understand the Australian... Concentrated Solar Thermal innovator David Mills and Ausra relocated from Australia to Silicon Valley a few years ago. Similarly, solar cell entrepreneur Dr Zhengrong Shi, founder of Suntech Power, was educated at the University of New South Wales but China was the best place to do business.
Perhaps the US can reverse this trend with comprehensive policy. A SEMATECH-type initiative for clean technology might be a good model.
Posted by: Leigh Ewbank at March 25, 2010 6:03 PM