CREC Project News and Updates

Commentary by CREC CEO Ken Poole

Data is the bedrock of informed decision-making and innovation, and a report from the Council on Competitiveness underscores the urgency of investing in public data and building a regional data infrastructure. The Council on Competitiveness is a national group whose board is comprised of industry CEOs and university presidents, and their past work has been instrumental in key policy national policy initiatives.

Their most recent report, “Competing in the Next Economy Innovating in the Age of Disruption and Discontinuity,” is the Council’s quadrennial recommendation for action for the new Presidential Administration, reflecting the perspectives of business and academia.

The Council’s report highlights how innovation thrives when data flows freely to support collaboration. Regional innovation hubs that use shared data to attract investments and drive more all-encompassing growth. By leveraging local data insights, regions can draw funding to support growth initiatives. Shared data networks also ensure that underserved communities have access to information about opportunities in emerging industries.

The report also highlights a critical need to bolster public data collection agencies. By enhancing these institutions, we can ensure better policy decisions and increased transparency. Robust, accurate, and up-to-date data is essential for creating policies that work. Investing in data infrastructure enables governments to evaluate the impact of innovation investments and streamline pro-growth regulations. Public access to reliable data also fosters trust in government and empowers citizens to hold decision-makers accountable. But data systems must have the resources to deliver on the promise of reliable, accurate, and up-to-date data.

This is also the first time that investments in the public data system has ever been included as a key Council priority, and I am happy to see it. As someone who served on the Regional Innovation working group, participating in several working sessions with key subject matter experts from across the country, and as someone who has spent more than three decades advocating for public data and building a regional data infrastructure, I wholeheartedly concur with the need for more robust public data. Having access to accurate, timely data gives decisionmakers the information they need to make critical decisions which reverberate throughout the country. The only alternative to data is guesswork which is, at best, a risk to regional growth, as well as our national competitiveness.