Latin America’s innovation tasks for 2015

Here are a few little-noticed actions that experts agree Latin American countries should take in 2015 to improve their innovation, science, technology and education systems, which are rated very poorly in international rankings and are key to their economic future.

Granted, there are other bigger steps — such as encouraging entrepreneurship, cutting red tape, combating corruption and firing underperforming teachers — that the many countries in the region needs to take to prosper in the new global economy, in which mental work is much more lucrative than manual labor.

But there are some smaller, lesser-known specific measures that countries in the region could take to create world-class innovations. Among them:

First, offer big prizes to innovators who invent products with great commercial potential. The U.S. government has a website — challenge.gov — where 45 U.S. departments and agencies, including NASA, offer up to $5 million awards for those who can solve specific technological challenges. There are also private foundations that offer big awards for technological innovation, such as the Ansari X Prize.

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