Inventing for Impact
Why a Diverse Invention Ecosystem Is Crucial for Solving the World’s Biggest Problems
By Carol Dahl, Executive Director, The Lemelson Foundation
Today is Edison’s birthday, which President Reagan designated “National Inventors’ Day.” Indeed, inventors have been recognized as essential to our country’s success since the days of our Founders, when George Washington urged the first Congress to set up the patent system.
In 2020, this day warrants particular attention, because we’ve never needed our inventors more. They solve the challenges we read about in the news every day: the need for resilient economies, quality jobs, and solutions to the big problems that face our communities, nations, and the global population.
Inventors are needed to create the future we all want.
Having worked with inventors for over three decades, I’ve seen firsthand that the passion and genius of inventors can solve problems that once seemed insurmountable. Currently, I lead The Lemelson Foundation, the only foundation whose mission for the past 25 years has been to improve lives through invention. Before that, I oversaw innovation programs at the Human Genome Project, National Cancer Institute, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. I’ve witnessed the creation of innovations that made it possible to sequence the human genome, turn cancer from a death sentence to a manageable disease, and bring life-saving solutions to low-income communities around the world.
Whether it’s climate change, access to clean water, health concerns, or energy efficiency, these are all issues that require what we call Impact Inventing — big-picture problem solving with a focus on social and environmental impact. Impact Inventors tackle important societal challenges and address pressing community needs while minimizing the environmental footprint both during the invention process as well as of the final products that will reach the market.
…intellectual property-intensive industries are responsible for nearly 40% of US GDP and approximately 45 million jobs. Yet there are significant disparities in gender, socioeconomic class, and race when it comes to who becomes an inventor.
Invention and innovation have been the bedrock of strong national economies, including the US economy, and there is a lot more potential just waiting to be tapped. According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, intellectual property-intensive industries are responsible for nearly 40% of US GDP and approximately 45 million jobs. Yet there are significant disparities in gender, socioeconomic class, and race when it comes to who becomes an inventor.
Raj Chetty from Harvard University and his team of economists leading Opportunity Insights found that U.S. children with parents in the top 1% of the income distribution are 10 times more likely to become inventors than children living in low-income households, white children are 3 times more likely to become inventors than black children, and only 18% of inventors are female. Though the number of women inventors is increasing, Chetty reports that at the current rate, it will take 118 years for women to reach equality with men. Similarly, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) reported that only about 17% of inventors world-wide are women, a number that varies widely country to country.
Why does this matter? Because Chetty and team found that if more women, minorities, and children from low-income families were to innovate at the same rate as rich white males, the rate of innovation in the US would quadruple. Imagine if we could quadruple innovation globally! We are leaving extraordinary value on the table by not giving everyone the chance to solve the problems of today and tomorrow.
So how do we increase the number and diversity of Impact Inventors and inventions that will help advance social and economic well-being? We must start building strong invention ecosystems by focusing on the following three priorities:
(1) All students, regardless of background, should have the chance to experience being an inventor throughout their primary and secondary educational journey. With our partners such as The Henry Ford, GMin, Oregon MESA and Lemelson-MIT, which are delivering Invention Education programs to primary and secondary school students in a range of places, from the US to Kenya, we’ve learned that students who experience invention frequently, starting at an early age, develop self-confidence, collaboration skills, and the ability to identify a problem and solve it.
Many experts and organizations such as the Council on Competitiveness cite these capabilities as those most sought after among today’s employers and necessary to thrive in an ever-changing career landscape. Whether or not kids choose to pursue invention as their career, these skills set them up to succeed in the innovation economy of the future.
(2) Impact Inventors need support to turn ideas into new products and build environmentally responsible, invention-based businesses. All institutions of higher education, from community colleges to private universities, should provide equal access to quality invention and entrepreneurship education so emerging inventors have the space and training they need to create new prototypes and the business models to take them to market.
Support should also be available for startup companies after launch to increase their chances of growing to become scalable businesses. Invention-based enterprises, particularly those that create physical products, have unique needs throughout their life-cycle. For example, all businesses need a place to exist, but invention-based businesses need more than a desk and a wireless connection — they require access to physical space with engineering equipment or lab space. It’s also important that they receive the right types of mentoring and capital along the journey from idea to product to scaling up. Evidence shows not all entrepreneurs have equal access to these resources. Only 2% of venture capital in the US flows to women-led firms, and just 1% to firms led by African-Americans. The 2016 Report of the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment provides strong evidence that women are lagging behind men in terms of the number of female business owners, the size of women-owned businesses, and their access to economic resources.
(3) The organizations and leaders who foster economic and social well-being need to understand that invention is essential to revitalizing economies. They should create policies and support systems that help invention flourish.
The outcomes that result from these three priorities form a virtuous cycle: inventors who create products that solve our greatest challenges will also create jobs and enable commerce that drives the economy. Employees of those companies are often the source of inspiration and mentorship for the next generation of inventors and provide capital for new start-ups. This is the cycle that powers the most vibrant global economies.
Jerome and Dolly Lemelson understood the importance of invention and cultivating an invention ecosystem that would foster greater inclusivity, both culturally and geographically, such that more people in communities in need of revitalization can benefit. This year The Lemelson Foundation celebrates its 25th year of giving, and Jerry and Dolly’s vision is as important today as it’s ever been — to cultivate future generations of new and diverse inventors who have lasting and transformative impact in the world.
In the Invention Notebook, we will invite voices from across industries and disciplines to share their perspectives on how to make this happen both in the U.S. and globally, as well as to showcase the inventors and inventions helping to create the future we all want.
We hope you will join us on this journey as we explore innovative approaches to education and entrepreneurship and stories of human impact, all fueled by invention.
