Bridging the commercialization divide: the relationship between research and innovation

Over the last 20 years, the universal motto in academic communities has been that "innovation is the direct result of research," and its corollary "if we want more innovation, we need more fundamental research!"  However, the past decade provides questionable support for this maxim.  The natural explanation is that commercialization is difficult.  I will explore the alternative: we have misunderstood the relationship between research and innovation.  Comparing a pair of personal experiences making the leap from the lab to the startup, I will show how we often set this process up for failure and, as a result, how some "hot topic" research has led to "fake claims" while the emergence of major innovations has been missed.  Finally, I'll bring my own answer to the question: "if we need more innovation, what do we actually want?" And I hope it will ignite the dialogue that we should start now among researchers.