In response to President Obama’s “winning the future” message during his State of the Union address, the Austen BioInnovation Institute in Akron (ABIA) launched a national effort in Value-driven Engineering and U.S. Global Competitiveness with a Safe Haven Summit in Washington D.C., March 2011.
The event, held at the Willard InterContinental Hotel, featured a keynote address by Aneesh Chopra, U.S. Chief Technology Officer and Associate Director of Technology, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and engaged senior government officials with thought leaders from industry, academia, and the venture philanthropy and nonprofit sectors to explore the promise of Value-driven Engineering in the United States. The initiative was established to develop a roadmap that outlines the state of medical device development, rising competition from global sources, and recommendations for industry action and public policy steps to advance America’s capabilities and economy.
Leaders from industry, academia and the public and private sectors gathered in Washington, D.C., for the Safe Haven Summit, urging that:
- An industry-government coalition is created using the semiconductor industry’s SEMATECH effort as a model. Based in Austin, Texas, SEMATECH (SEmiconductor MAnufacturing TECHnology) was created in the late 1980s to strengthen the U.S. semiconductor industry by leveraging resources and sharing risks to solve common manufacturing problems
- The federal government create enabling legislation to reflect the national commitment to biomedical device research and development.
