This collaborative study was conducted by the Council on Competitiveness and IDC on behalf of the National Science Foundation (NSF). The study explores the experiences of 40 users of NSF-funded University HPC Centers to determine how to improve these partnerships in the future.

PING, a manufacturer of high-end golf equipment, is in a fiercely competitive marketplace where the phrase “innovate or die” is a literal truth. In 2005, the company replaced the workstation that had been used to simulate the design of new clubs with a powerful supercomputer running advanced simulation software. The machine paid for itself in a year as the company significantly reduced its need for physical prototyping of newly designed clubs and ramped up its pace of innovation, allowing PING to maintain its leadership in the worldwide premium golf equipment industry.

High performance computing (HPC) is enabling researchers at Pioneer Hi-Bred, a DuPont business, to conduct leading-edge research into plant genetics to create improved varieties of seeds. Pioneer researchers use HPC to manage and analyze massive amounts of molecular, plant, environmental and farm management data, allowing them to make product development decisions much faster than by using traditional experiments and testing alone. HPC also gives Pioneer a window into the future, allowing them to make more informed decisions about their applied breeding programs and frontload experiments with predicted potential winners. For Pioneer, the result has been faster improvement in new seed products, staying ahead of the competition, a major jump in innovation and productivity, and the ability to help meet some of the world’s most pressing demands regarding the availability of food, feed, fuel and materials.

The Council on Competitiveness has called on the next president of the United States to put the full weight of his office behind the Council’s 100-Day Energy Action Plan, released in September.

The Council’s roadmap for a sustainable energy future represents more than a year of collaboration by more than 200 private sector leaders, including CEOs, university presidents, organized labor leaders, national laboratory directors and energy experts.

Energy and the environment have emerged as among the most potent forces reshaping the global economy in the 21st century. The impact of these forces is being felt in many ways and generating a range of responses from public and private sector actors. Provoke outlines a number of the ways in which energy in the 21st century is becoming an increasingly significant factor of competitiveness.

Rebound: Three Essentials to Get the Economy Back on Track, is the Council on Competitiveness’ stimulus action plan. It was crafted by leaders that only the Council brings to the table together—CEOs, labor leaders, and university presidents. Because of this, Rebound is getting strong traction on the policy side. The stimulus package released in January by the Democratic leadership in Congress reflects many recommendations put forth by the Council on Competitiveness.

Among these are: bonus depreciation, accelerated expensing for small businesses, $6.2 billion for low-income families to weatherize their homes and $300 million for rebates for energy star purchases. This is extremely encouraging.