If you need to take a guess, about how much US plans to spend to build eight innovation centers that will pioneer research in energy security, the answer will throw you off the chair. It is about $60mn. Surely this is not the country that invented the atomic bomb or sent a man to the moon. Breakthrough innovations need funding and an opportunity for scientists and engineers to collaborate. A half-hearted approach with an eye on the budget will not help the cutting edge research – that is expected from a country like US.