Since 2011, MIT faculty from several disciplines have collaborated on a unique research project, Production in the Innovation Economy (PIE); the aim is to see how U.S. strengths in innovation can be turned into new production capabilities, to spur growth and new jobs.

MITnews spoke with Suzanne Berger, the Raphael Dorman-Helen Starbuck Professor of Political Science at MIT and a co-chair of the PIE Commission, about the effort.

MITnews: What are the main findings of the PIE project?

Suzanne Berger: The key question of the PIE research for the past two-and-a-half years was: What kinds of production do we need in this country in order to get innovation to the market? We know that in the United States and at places like MIT, there are great new ideas coming out, but what would it take to get these ideas about products and processes into the hands of customers? However great our ideas are, we’re not going to be contributing to growth and new jobs unless we can move these ideas to the market. And so what we tried to do in the PIE research was discover the role of manufacturing in our ability to get innovation out there into the world.

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