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Economic development planning shouldn’t be this hard. Our planning system in the United States is highly disjointed, both from the bottom up and from the top down, and this negatively impacts our ability to build functioning, aligned, and specialized innovation ecosystems. Today, there is no single document or directive that outlines America’s economic priorities from an R&D, commercial, or economic development perspective. In addition, the organizations that carry out our economic development planning rarely include deep analysis of innovation ecosystems and opportunities for cluster development in their plans.
The elements of a coherent innovation plan have started to appear in policy publications: for example, the 2022 National Security Strategy document outlines the need for a “modern industrial and innovation strategy,” and the biotechnology executive order, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the National Network for Critical Technology Assessment all send strong signals that a short list of industries, industrial capabilities, and strategic supply chains are critical to our country’s continued prosperity. However, while these signals might be strong, they are not yet clear and not yet strategically framed. The Office of Science and Technology Policy, in consultation with other federal agencies and non-governmental organizations, will bring together a national competitiveness plan from these disparate efforts in the coming months. Today, proponents of innovation would do well to think about the next step of this challenge: once a national competitiveness plan exists, how will it be implemented and who will lead the charge?
Across the country, a network of regional development organizations (RDOs) regularly create and maintain economic development plans (called comprehensive economic development strategies, or CEDS) on a regional basis. At the same time, the federal government’s emphasis on building innovation ecosystems and developing regional innovation clusters has unleashed billions of dollars in funding for cluster-aligned projects. One might assume that these efforts are highly aligned and that CEDS created and maintained by RDOs provide the analysis and foundation for cluster development efforts. In reality, cluster development efforts rarely begin with a CEDS for a few key reasons: (1) CEDS are not aligned with a clear national competitiveness strategy; (2) the RDOs that create CEDS often have limited capacity to assess innovation ecosystems and even more limited resources with which to improve their capacity or conduct their analysis; and (3) existing CEDS are often hard to find (even for community members in the RDO’s district).
Creating a better planning system will require clear, top-down guidance about competitiveness priorities, which is on its way. It will also require more sophisticated, focused, and better supported local economic planning. The U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) manages existing processes that allow for certification of RDOs and the regular production of CEDS. Additional guidelines and incentives should be structured into these programs in order to build our national capacity for strategic planning around shared competitiveness priorities and to ensure that regional planning processes incorporate a cohesive national framework. This will allow local cluster development efforts to best capitalize upon their respective comparative advantages, setting up communities for success as they develop plans to build stronger local economies, create better jobs, and promote sustainable growth.
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