Libro Blanco Vol I en Ingles

TOWARDS A NATIONAL INNOVATION STRATEGY FOR COMPETITIVENESSVOLUME 1Greater flexibility in the formation of human capital is required, including intermediate levels, which Chile does not have today.In addition to this, there is the need to ensure quality and trust in that quality. It is necessary to identify the human capitalcharacteristics required and homogenize the measurement criteria, thus contributing to making the acquired competencies demonstrableand reducing the asymmetries of information, for example, between the education centres and the students, and between firms and theirworkers. This also allows the formation of human capital to be adapted and harmonised with the current and future needs of the country,particularly fostering the competencies that will be determinant for the development of certain strategic sectors.Lastly, investment in highly specialised human capital produces high returns for the country. Private investment in the formation ofpostgraduates students faces failures of appropriability and asymmetries of information characteristic of the generation of knowledge, andtherefore occurs in below-optimal levelsWith respect to science, its development needs to be fostered as the basis of innovation and growth, emphasising research that ismore applied to technological development or targeted at providing answers to production problems, particularly those linked to thesectors in which we are or should be competitive today, and those in which there is a good relationship between their potential and theeffort required to develop them.Given its strategic relevance and the fact that the difficulty of fully appropriating knowledge inhibits private funding for thisactivity, the public system has to develop it.A greater level of scientific activity increases the capacity to appropriate knowledge produced by others. For this, the generation ofcritical masses of researchers is crucial since it increases their productivity and strengthens network synergies. This concentration ofresearchers would increase the efficiency of public spending and reduce the transaction costs with the business world, as with othernational and international groups that could benefit mutually from a higher degree of interaction.However, human capital and scientific activity are not innovation as long as they do not link to company activity, or do not end inproduct, process, marketing and organizational innovation that allows them to compete successfully in markets.Companies are the motor of innovation and as such need to put innovation at the core of their business, overcoming fear and thecosts of acquiring and adopting innovation.This implies that science should provide support in the generation and adoption of innovation. Companies can, in turn, help identifybusiness opportunities in scientific activity.It also implies overcoming the impossibility of appropriating this investment in innovation and not taking the comfortable position ofwaiting for others to implement it and then copy it.93