A spectrum of leaders representing American industry and higher education recently released an important plan of action suggesting ways to make the United States the world's most fertile and attractive environment for innovation.

The National Innovation Initiative's interim report, "Innovate America: Thriving in a World of Challenge and Change," sets out to show how the very nature of innovation itself is changing and, with it, America's basis for competitive success and prosperity in the 21st century.

Samuel J. Palmisano, chairman and CEO of IBM Corp., and G. Wayne Clough, president of the Georgia Institute of Technology, co-chair the initiative in partnership with 18 CEOs and university presidents. Additionally, hundreds of leaders and scholars from universities, corporations, professional societies, industrial associations and government agencies are engaged in the effort to affect change through this initiative.

The National Innovation Initiative is a 15-month effort of the Council on Competitiveness, a non-profit, non-partisan association of leaders from the business, university, and labor communities working together to set a national action agenda for American leadership in the global marketplace, technological innovation and education.

The initiative was announced in October 2003 at the council's annual meeting, and the final National Innovation Initiative report will be released Dec. 15, 2004, during a summit in Washington, D.C.