Today, America finds itself at a unique and delicate historical juncture. We are in a world that is becoming dramatically more interconnected and competitive, and innovation itself - where it comes from and how it creates value - is changing.

With the United States facing new challenges to its global leadership in innovation, the Council on Competitiveness launched the National Innovation Initiative (NII) in October of 2003, bringing together over 500 leaders from industry, academia, government and the non-profit sector to meet these challenges. The NII set the goals to bring together America's top minds on innovation and create consensus and a structure for action; sharpen our understanding of changes in the innovation process and how they can be harnessed for economic growth; and advocate an agenda to make the United States the most fertile and attractive environment for innovation.

In 2004 more than 500 leaders from around the world attended the National Innovation Summit in Washington, D.C., where the Council on Competitiveness released the landmark report, Innovate America: Thriving in a World of Challenge and Change. The report lays out an action agenda for a wide range of stakeholders to improve U.S. innovation capacity. The ground-breaking agenda includes more than 60 detailed recommendations grouped under three major platforms for action: Talent, Investment and Infrastructure. In August 2007, President Bush signed the America COMPETES Act into law, which is called for in this report.

The report provides a comprehensive analysis of our changing innovation ecosystem and lays out an action agenda for a wide range of stakeholders to improve U.S. innovation capacity. The path-breaking and robust agenda laid out by Innovate America includes more than 60 detailed recommendations grouped under three major platforms for action: Talent, Investment and Infrastructure.

Click here to download an Executive Summary of the report.

For more information, please contact Chad Evans, Vice President, National Innovation, Council on Competitiveness.