The real lessons of Japanese research consortia

US consortia were right to look to Japan back in the mid-1980s for a model, but details on how Japanese achieved success were scarce and the Americans did not look closely enough. The Japanese have developed an effective way to use competitive forces to promote innovation in a consortium. The US must put industry in the lead in order to develop programs that reflect broad strategic priorities. And industry associations must play a more active role in diffusing the innovations developed by the consortia.