The Brookings Institution is out with a new policy brief today building on their prior calls for energy discovery innovation institutes (e-DIIs). These regionally-based, collaborative research centers are designed to "serve as the hubs of a distributed research network linking the nation's best scientists, engineers, and facilities." The newest report assesses the potential for e-DII's in the Great Lakes region.
According to the general report overview:
Through such a network, the nation could at once increase its current inadequate energy R&D effort and complement existing resources with a new research paradigm that would join the unique capabilities of America's research universities to those of corporate R&D and federal laboratories.
Brookings' vision for creating an energy innovation network is consonant with a similar concept put forward by the Breakthrough Institute and Third Way in "Jumpstarting a Clean Energy Revolution with a National Institutes of Energy" which called for a national commitment to energy innovation modeled on the National Institutes of Health.
All three think tanks support the creation of a structure for collaborative, public-private translational energy research that includes direct support for regional clean energy innovation clusters capable of accelerating the development and commercialization of affordable clean technologies.
See also: "To Make Clean Energy Cheaper, U.S. Needs Bold Research Push," Yale Environment 360, by Mark Muro, Teryn Norris and Jesse Jenkins (April 30, 2009).
