30 MAY

Networks won't have a Barr of Roseanne

Roseanne has been cancelled just three months into its revival run – and despite massive ratings – following a racist and conspiracy-laden tweetstorm from the show's star.

Roseanne Barr, known for her often outrageous statements and performances, acknowledged she went too far when she railed against former Obama-advisor Valerie Jarrett, saying she was "a product of the Muslim Brotherhood and Planet of the Apes". It was too much for America's ABC network, which pulled the plug. Australia's Network Ten has also axed the show. 

The program and its titular star have been the subject of fascination by media and American cultural commentators (as well as President Trump) following their ratings success and amidst allegations of a failure by Hollywood to properly represent "Trump's America" or red-state voters in popular entertainment.

Barr's now-deleted tweet came on the same day US Starbucks stores shut down for racial sensitivity training nationwide.

NEWS WRAP

Tariff return

• The US trade war with China appears far from over. Just over a week after Trade Secretary Steve Mnuchin announced that tariffs on Chinese goods were "on hold", the White House issued a statement declaring that tariffs on US$50 billion worth of Chinese imports will proceed. Chinese officials said they found the statement "surprising", "unsurprising" and ultimately "contrary to the consensus" reached in Washington last week. Director of the Centre's Trade and Investment Program, Stephen Kirchner, spoke to ABC's World Today about the latest developments. LISTEN HERE.
   

• The US-North Korea summit could be back on. Less than a week after the White House issued a statement cancelling the planned June 12 summit, it has confirmed that a pre-advance team will be sent to Pyongyang to "prepare should the summit take place". Senior Fellow Charles Edel told CNBC that fortunes favour the summit going ahead. "The logic of there being a meeting is compelling to both sides. So this is moving forward – even if it's not on June 12," Edel said. WATCH HERE.
   

• What can Western Sydney Airport learn from seven decades of US airport development? A new report by the Centre released sought to answer just that as investors sat down for an aerotropolis forum in Sydney on Monday. The Australian Financial Review took a look at some of the report's recommendations. READ MORE HERE.
   

• Australia's relationship with China has been in the spotlight as well, with reports that Canberra-Beijing relations are at a 30-year low. But it's a natural aspect of diplomacy, and Australia needs to stay the course, writes non-resident senior fellow John Lee. In a column for The Weekend Australian, Lee argues that too much is being made about slights to pride and China's growth and not enough about the ongoing complexities of the relationship and China's flaws. At the end of the day, Lee concludes, the US alliance only gives Australia weight because of a fair and lawful international order in the region, and it's worth enduring a frosty period with Beijing to preserve it. READ MORE HERE.
   

• Donald Trump's 'America first' diplomacy is accelerating a rift between the United States and Europe, says non-resident fellow Elsina Wainwright. Speaking on RN Saturday Extra's 'A Foreign Affair', Wainwright said Trump's instincts are coming to the fore and are in open conflict with European interests. This is particularly evident in the case of the Iran-nuclear deal withdrawal, the relocation of the US embassy in Israel and frequent criticisms of NATO contributors. LISTEN HERE.
   
• US officials say the government hasn't 'lost' 1,475 immigrant children, it just can't reach them. The Department of Health and Human Services was addressing information revealed at a Senate subcommittee meeting in April that it can't locate 20 per cent of the undocumented minors it has placed in the homes of sponsors. The issue has reached new prominence in light of new Homeland Security policies that will see more families separated at the border. Critics argue that the safety of the children can't be guaranteed if the government doesn't know where they are or who they are with. READ MORE HERE.

Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show.

Channing Dungey
ABC Entertainment president
30 May 2018

ANALYSIS

Driving returns on R&D to strengthen US technology leadership

Don Scott-Kemmis
Research Fellow, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program

The United States is turning the spotlight on the commercialisation outcomes from the more than US$150 billion invested each year in research in federal laboratories and federally-funded research and development (R&D) at universities.

A cross-agency initiative has been launched to review policies that govern the universities and particularly the labs of federal agencies such as the Department of Defence and Department of Health and Human Services. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) are jointly leading the initiative.

The Lab to Market/Return on Investment initiative is a response to challenges to US leadership in key technologies and industries. The last time that there was this level of concern about US innovation and the effectiveness of technology transfer was in the 1980s – when Japan was thought to be ‘in the passing lane’. The Made in China 2025 policy, announced in 2015, sets out a roadmap for Chinese firms developing leading positions in 10 priority knowledge-based industries. This has stimulated re-assessment of how well the United States is capturing the potential returns from R&D. An increasing awareness of how rapidly Chinese research and innovation capabilities are strengthening in leading edge areas, such as artificial intelligence, has added to US concerns.

At a symposium on April 19, launching the initiative, titled Unleashing American Innovation, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross observed that the commercialisation performance of US universities was much stronger than that of federal labs: for each US$100 million of R&D expenditure, US universities generate ten times as much income from licences and form six times as many start-ups as the federal labs. Wilbur Ross said: “to the directors of federal laboratories… I challenge you to make it clear to your legal, research, and administrative staff, that technology transfer must move as rapidly as industry does.”

The initiative aims to strengthen entrepreneurial skills in research organisations, develop more effective forms of collaboration, promote best practice technology transfer management, increase access for external innovators to federal R&D facilities and improve evaluation of impacts through better metrics and reviews. The review will include an assessment of the continuing efficacy of the technology transfer laws enacted in the 1980s — the Bayh-Dole Act and the Stevenson-Wydler Act.

A white paper will be published summarising the public comments and recommendations and an overall report will be released in September this year.

A review of technology transfer in 2018 begins from a different point to earlier reviews. The management of technology transfer has become increasingly professionalised and most large research organisations have dozens of experienced staff in this role. A great deal has been learnt and many programs support commercialisation and early stage start-up development. The level of venture capital available far exceeds that in the 1980s.

The scope of the review and of relevant policy is broader than in the past. Research organisations are now seen less as starting points of a pipeline leading to innovation, and more as key actors in complex ‘systems of innovation’, or innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystems. It has been recognised that seeking to maximise profit from R&D through commercial transfers becomes self-defeating for research organisations and cripples the growth of the knowledge ecosystem. It is now seen that the most important channels for knowledge transfer are through students, publications and informal interactions.

Speakers at the symposium recognised the systemic influence government policy has on the supply and the demand side of innovation ecosystems. Deborah Wince-Smith, president and CEO of the Council on Competitiveness, suggested that deeper policy changes will be necessary to respond to the challenges to US technological leadership. Policies that support application-driven basic research, with public-private partnerships taking on more risk over longer time horizons and sustaining engagement through to application – perhaps a bit more like the approach in China. This is a policy debate that is just beginning.

DIARY

The week ahead

• Wednesday, 30 May: President Trump scheduled to meet with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and participate in White House Sports and Fitness Day.
   

• Wednesday, 30 May: Pulitzer Prize Awards Ceremony in New York.
   

• Thursday, 31 May: President Trump scheduled to travel to Houston and Dallas for political fundraisers.
   

• 30 May-1 June: Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Senate Budget Estimates in Parliament House, Canberra.

EVENT

Walter V Robinson: Spotlight on the resurgence of American investigative reporting

VIDEO

Valerie Jarrett responds to Roseanne's tweet

THE WEEK IN TWEETS

#Memorial Day

Manage your email preferences  |  Forward this email to a friend

United States Studies Centre
Institute Building H03
University of Sydney NSW 2006

​www.ussc.edu.au  |  us-studies@sydney.edu.au