Science and innovation will continue to drive economic development in the next 20 years, but where the new jobs will spring up is not as clear.

The Internet is emphasizing how researchers work over where they work. To solve scientific puzzles increasingly requires more than one researcher, one lab, or one organization. And in the global recession government is trading places with industry in stepping up investment in research and development.

What does that mean for economic engines like Research Triangle Park? Established 50 years ago near three universities,  RTP attracted corporate research labs and startups first because of the available land and then because of the concentration of research and development going on in labs built on the land.

Anthony Townsend, a 35-year-old research director at the Institute for the Future, a think tank based in Palo Alto, Calif., offered some suggestions. Townsend is one of the key speakers at the International Association of Science Parks convention, which is expected to bring more than 750 participants from about 50 countries to the Raleigh Convention Center this week.

Townsend will base his suggestions on a 20-year forecast he has compiled for the Research Triangle Foundation, RTP's landlord and manager. He spoke with Science in the Triangle in advance of his presentation Tuesday. Here is an edited version:

Q: What scientific areas will be likely hot spots over the next 20 years?

A: Research and development in the 20th century was dominated by physics. Biology will be the central source of scientific and technological breakthroughs in the 21st century. That includes the design of micro-organisms genetically engineered to, for example, make fuel and personalized medicine, such as stem cell therapy that harnesses the body's own ability to heal.

Digital sensors that pick up vast amounts of data from every day life will require smart computing technologies to analyze the datasets for use in research from public health to civil engineering to marine biology.

Efforts to address ecological concerns will require technologies to track output of harmful carbon, manage the data and validate carbon offset claims. Ecological economics will be a huge area of R&D growth.

Q: How will scientists work to come up with breakthroughs?

A: To solve the complicated big scientific puzzles of the 21st century, research will be collaborative and interdisciplinary and will advance within networks aided by the Internet. If research parks want to remain economic stewarts, they must reinvent themselves and organize and coordinate resources on a regional basis.

RTP has already begun to do that by establishing a network with the other six research parks that dot North Carolina from Raleigh to Charlotte. And the Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences, a research institute in RTP, is establishing a partnership with China Medical Cities, an RTP-size medical park north of Shanghai.

Q: What's the biggest challenge for scientific innovation?

A: Technology transfer at universities is busted beyond repair.

Universities used to be open in sharing information and industry used to focus on patents and staking claims. Now it's the other way round. Universities' unwillingness to take risks in managing intellectual property is creating an innovation bottleneck. As the U.S. government is pumping more money into R&D, university scientists will crank out more results. But the research results will not lead to more innovative technologies that industry can pick up and bring to market.

To better measure research production, at Triangle universities for example, an inventory should be done to track who does what and who collaborates with whom. Much of the information could be sucked out of the Internet.

More than 50 years ago, such an inventory was done to attract corporate research labs to RTP. It's time for an update.