Jump-Starting Innovation
Two ideas (Harford, Flipping) to make innovation happen faster (maybe, on a national basis): 1. Reward innovation with big contests, 2. Research funders set aside a portion of their funds for high risk ventures.
Seemingly, these are contrarian ideas. Spend more money - more risky money - on unproven ideas. Good idea? The statistics say yes. The X Prize spurred private developments in space. Netflix paid $1 million to independent developers who came up with the perfect way to offer folks movies they'd be interested in.
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the NIH are more likely to fund crazy ideas (Harford, Positive).
Reference
Harford, Tim. Flipping the Switch: We're running out of bright ideas. Here's how to fire up the innovation machine. Wired. June 2011. 26-27.
Harford, Tim. Positive Black Swans. http://www.slate.com/id/2293699/pagenum/all/#p2
Harford, Tim. Why Success Always Starts With Failure. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2011