U.S.-Israel Science and Technology Foundation Presents U.S.-Israel Innovation Index at the U.S. Department of State

On February 29, 2012 the U.S.-Israel Science and Technology Foundation (USISTF) presented the U.S.-Israel Innovation Index (USI3) at the U.S. Department of State. The group included professionals representing the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Commerce and National Academies of Sciences professionals working on issues of science and technology cooperation, intellectual property protection, innovation policy studies and export promotion. This important meeting brought together policy makers and senior thought leaders to discuss the ways that the USI3 can be used as a model to measure, track, evaluate and benchmark innovation relationships between other countries.

This group of policy makers emphasized the usefulness of the USI3 for helping them to understand the outcomes of not only U.S. scientific relationships with other countries, but also in terms of the outcomes of various U.S. IP, investment and free trade agreements. The USI3’s distinction from other indexes is that it tracks and benchmarks relationships rather than benchmarking and scoring countries against one another. The USI3 utilizes qualitative and quantitative indicators that explore the human capital, government, private sector and R&D relationships of the United States.

When USISTF produced the USI3, our goal was not only to help industry and policy makers in the U.S. and Israel understand the strengths and opportunities in the U.S.-Israel innovation relationship, but also to create a model for evaluating global innovation relationships. The USISTF looks forward to expanding the number of countries included in the 2012 publication.