在日前一場慶祝以太網(wǎng)絡(luò)(Ethernet)技術(shù)四十周年的大會上，與會專家們指出，由于支持基礎(chǔ)研究的贊助有限以及大企業(yè)的研發(fā)實驗室逐漸沒落，科技產(chǎn)業(yè)的創(chuàng)新管道可能出現(xiàn)斷層。 他們感嘆曾經(jīng)發(fā)明晶體管的AT＆T貝爾實驗室(Bell Labs)淡出基礎(chǔ)研究舞臺，以及催生以太網(wǎng)絡(luò)的 Xerox PARC (帕羅奧多研究中心)持續(xù)衰退。而當(dāng)今許多大型的科技公司(如蘋果公司)也幾乎不再從事基礎(chǔ)研究了。

PARC前負(fù)責(zé)人Bill Spencer

早期參與以太網(wǎng)絡(luò)計劃的Mayfield Fund管理總監(jiān)Yogen Dalal表示：“當(dāng)我在Xerox時，人們不必?fù)?dān)心籌措幾百萬美元的VC資金，我們還能自由地支配運(yùn)用以實現(xiàn)研發(fā)突破。而今你仍必須有所突破，但誰來提供贊助資金呢？” PARC前負(fù)責(zé)人Bill Spencer說：“這件事最值得關(guān)注之處在于我們失去了最重要的大型產(chǎn)業(yè)研究──如果沒有貝爾實驗室不會有晶體管的發(fā)明。美國仍然有著全世界最好的大學(xué)教育體系，同時也是推動新新物商用化上市的最佳位置，但在二者中間卻出現(xiàn)了斷層?！?

PARC前負(fù)責(zé)人Bill Spencer

JLabs LLC公司首席執(zhí)行官Judy Estrin認(rèn)為，“當(dāng)今的實驗室并未發(fā)揮應(yīng)有的功能，他們多半只著重于應(yīng)用研究，而忽略了基礎(chǔ)研究。”她補(bǔ)充說，“他們進(jìn)行研發(fā)并試圖在PARC規(guī)模上建立可驗證概念，因而成立像Bridge或3Com等新創(chuàng)公司，就能夠為其爭取到創(chuàng)投資金。一些基礎(chǔ)研究于是落到了大學(xué)的研究計劃，或者是一些專注于短線利益的大型企業(yè)上?！? Estrin 認(rèn)為，Google與微軟(Microsogt)是目前能夠負(fù)擔(dān)得起一座研究機(jī)構(gòu)的公司，然而都缺乏貝爾實驗室和前IBM Research的廣闊視野，因而形成了當(dāng)今很大的差距。 Estrin指出，“蘋果雖取得了令人難以置信的創(chuàng)新以及偶爾進(jìn)行應(yīng)用研究，但我認(rèn)為他們并不會在基礎(chǔ)研究方面進(jìn)行投資，因為那并不是他們努力的領(lǐng)域?！盓strin強(qiáng)調(diào)，只有大企業(yè)的實驗室培訓(xùn)學(xué)者如何成為創(chuàng)新者。 “研究人員們都希望爭取費(fèi)，”她說，“如今的研究已經(jīng)和計算機(jī)產(chǎn)業(yè)剛開始時不一樣了，現(xiàn)在必須將計算機(jī)技術(shù)應(yīng)用于腦部疾病或健身管理，因此籌措資金也變得更復(fù)雜，因為出資者不再把錢投入業(yè)經(jīng)定義的產(chǎn)品上了?！? 微軟研究院首席研究員貝爾(Gordon Bell)表示，“我并不認(rèn)為當(dāng)今的一切有如此地不同，我看到還有很多不錯的想法，而且也有許多人取得比以前更的聯(lián)邦資金?！? 本文授權(quán)編譯自EE Times，版權(quán)所有，謝絕轉(zhuǎn)載 編譯：Susan Hong 參考英文原文：Research gap threatens innovation, experts warn，by Rick Merritt

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{pagination} Research gap threatens innovation, experts warn Rick Merritt MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – The innovation pipeline could run dry from a lack of federal funding in basic research and the decline of big corporate R&D labs, said a panel of experts at an event celebrating the 40th anniversary of Ethernet. They lamented the loss of AT&T Bell Labs that gave birth to the transistor and the decline of Xerox PARC, the birthplace of Ethernet. By contrast many of today’s largest tech companies, such as Apple—accused by Congress this week for failing to pay taxes on billions in revenue—conduct virtually no basic research, they said. “When I was at Xerox people were not preoccupied with raising millions in VC funds-- we had free reign to make breakthroughs come true,” said Yogen Dalal, a managing director at the Mayfield Fund who wrote a seminal paper on Ethernet in its early days. “You have to have breakthroughs, but today who will fund them,” he asked. “The thing that concerns me the most is we have lost the lead in big industrial research—we would never have had the transistor without Bell Labs,” said Bill Spencer, former head of PARC and Sematech. “The U.S. still has the best university system in world, and it’s still the best place to bring new things to market, but the middle missing,” he said. Bill Spencer led PARC in the early days of Ethernet. “We’re missing the role the labs played which was less basic research than a translation of applied research,” said Judy Estrin, a serial entrepreneur in communications and chief executive of JLabs LLC (Menlo Park, Calif.). “They took research and invention and tried it at scale—PARC created proofs of concepts so startups called Bridge or 3Com could make them work with a small amount of funding,” Estrin said. “We are missing this translational piece, so it’s falling on universities to handle it or large corporations that tend to focus only on the short term bottom line,” she added. Researchers "starving for money" Google and Microsoft “are the two companies that can afford to have a research arm” today, Estrin said. But both lack the broad sweep of Bell Labs and the former IBM Research “so there’s a big gap today,” she added. “Apple is unbelievably innovative and occasional does applied research, but I don’t think they ever believed in investing in basic research--that’s not judgmental, they just don’t play that role there,” Estrin said. The big corporate labs trained academics in how to be innovators, Estrin said. She also noted her experience as member of an advisory board for Bio-X, an interdisciplinary research program at Stanford. “Every one of those researchers is starving for money,” she said. “Research doesn’t fit into the clean boxes it did at the beginning of the computer industry because now its applying computer technology to brain diseases or managing wellness, so the funding has become more complex because the funders can no longer fund in [well-defined] boxes,” she said. Industry veteran Gordon Bell took issue with the panelists later in the day. “I don’t see things as all that different today,” said Bell, now a principal researcher at Microsoft Research. “I think there are a lot of great ideas out there, and more people than ever at the federal funding trough,” he said.