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Brookings: National Labs Need Flexibility to Plug into Regional Economies

September 11, 2014

Observing that legacy policies have hampered the contribution of the Department of Energy’s National Laboratories to the modern innovation economy, Brookings Institution authors Scott Andes, Mark Muro and Matthew Stepp outline a plan to engage DOE labs with regional technology clusters. The authors recommend tasking the labs with an explicit regional economic development mission, as well as opening regionally oriented microlabs that would provide a front door for smaller businesses to access lab resources. In addition, Brookings advises DOE to provide greater flexibility and funding for regional initiatives through the national labs. Download the report…

federal labs, dept of energy