Obama admin launches new innovation initiatives

US president Barack Obama has released Strategy for American Innovation, a follow-up to the government's 2009 Innovation Strategy containing several new provisions aimed at helping the nation "out-innovate, out-educate and out-build the rest of the world". The new initiatives are in the areas of high-speed wireless connectivity, patent reform to reduce wait times at the US Patent & Trademark Office, breakthrough education technologies for K-12 education, public-private partnerships to increase student participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), creation of three Energy Innovation Hubs to address challenges in critical areas and two $1-billion initiatives to accelerate early-stage seed investing in high-growth start-ups. Many of the initiatives are dependent upon successful passage of the FY2012 Budget. FMI: www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/nec/StrategyforAmericanInnovation....