Research on the economics of progress suggests that successful technology policy should simultaneously take two complementary routes. First, by shaping the general environment of education, research, and knowledge transfer to be open, competitive, and financially well endowed, sound technology policy lays the foundation for the success of individuals and the ascent of new technologies. Using this approach, it is left to the market to determine which ideas are worthwhile to pursue and which are not. Second, by supporting selected technologies directly, technology policy can foster the development of enterprises and industry branches considered to be of major strategic importance for future economic prosperity. In North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), a particularly important application of this second policy is biotechnology, in particular, industrial and pharmaceutical biotechnology.
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