The recent launch by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) of the Washington Metropolitan Quantum Network Research Consortium (DC-QNet)  turned our attention back to the legislation, follow-on initiatives, and progress reports which are not only the origins of and mandate for DC-QNet but establish a working definition for the federal government of the “Industries of the Future” and a scientific and technological roadmap for U.S. strategic competitive advantage.

The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (or PCAST, which was reconstituted by executive order in October in 2019), the Subcommittee on the American Action Plan for Global Leadership in Industries of the Future, and the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) are responsible for the legislation, council meetings, and reports we analyze chronologically in this post.

PCAST Seeks Quick Ways to Drive ‘Industries of the Future’  – November 2019

Meeting for the first time on Nov. 18, [2019] the current iteration of PCAST will…make “actionable” recommendations to advance existing efforts in three “priority workstreams”:

• advancing “Industries of the Future,”
• bolstering the U.S. STEM workforce, and
• better engaging federal laboratories in the U.S. research enterprise.

Section 9412 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, titled “Industries of the Future Act of 2020” – January 2020

This legislation directs that the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) submit to Congress a report on Federal research and development investments, infrastructure, and workforce development investments that enable continued United States leadership in industries of the future (IoTF), including:

• A definition, for purposes of this section, of the term ‘‘industries of the future’’ that includes emerging technologies.
• An assessment of the current baseline of investments in civilian research and development investments of the Federal Government in the industries of the future.
• A plan to double such baseline investments in artificial intelligence and quantum information science by fiscal year 2022.
• A detailed plan to increase investments in industries of the future to $10B per year by fiscal year 2025.
• A plan to leverage these investments in industries of the future to elicit complementary investments by non-Federal entities, including providing incentives for significant complementary investments by such entities and facilitating public-private partnerships.
• Proposals for the Federal Government, including any necessary draft legislation, to implement such plans.

The initial report from the OSTP was released in June 2020:  Recommendations for Strengthening American Leadership in Industries of the Future.

What are the Industries of the Future (IoTF)?

Since late 2019, the required working definition for “Industries of the Future” had many formative iterations.  The most up-to-date version is found in the recent (April 2022) Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Report on the Industries of the Future Act – “For the purposes of this report, OSTP proposes the following working definition of Industries of the Future:

• Advanced industrial sectors that support innovative, inclusive, equitable, and sustainable growth; have profound connection with technology R&D and STEM workforce; require R&D investments to support growth that will lead to transformative impact; and will significantly benefit future economic prosperity and national security. This definition can be translated into specific industrial sectors, although the specific sectors will change over time and will also vary based on analysts’ judgments of whether specific sectors meet the stated criteria. Based on the definition, this report finds that all of the industrial sectors in the list above have characteristics of Industries of the Future,

There is no standard definition of “Industries of the Future” for the Federal government, nor for the broader innovation community. To the extent “Industries of the Future” is discussed as a concept, it has been defined most commonly as a list of emerging technologies rather than some a priori description of the character of the industries that these technologies enable. In reviewing recent examples of emerging technologies lists, and lists of Industries of the Future, the types of technologies/industries typically classified as “future industries” include (in alphabetical order):

• advanced computing
• advanced materials, manufacturing, and robotics
• advanced, next-generation communications technologies
• artificial intelligence
• battery technology
• biotechnology
• cybersecurity
• green products/clean technology
• plant genetics/agricultural technologies
• privacy-enhancing technologies
• quantum information science/quantum computing
• nanotechnology; and
• semiconductors/microelectronics technologies”

Industries of the Future Institutes:  A New Model for American Science and Technology Leadership  – January 2021

In this report by The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) “proposes a revolutionary new paradigm for multi-sector collaboration—Industries of the Future Institutes (IotFIs)—to address some of the greatest societal challenges of our time and to ensure American S&T leadership for decades to come. By driving research and development (R&D) at the intersection of two or more IotF areas, these Institutes not only will advance knowledge in the individual IotF topics, but they also will spur new research questions and domains of inquiry at their confluence.”

By engaging multiple disciplines and each sector of the U.S. R&D ecosystem—all within the same agile organizational framework—IotFIs will:

• span the spectrum from discovery research to the development of new products and services at scale.
• [through] flexible intellectual property terms will incentivize participation of all sectors, and
• reduce administrative and regulatory burdens
• optimize researcher time for creativity and productivity while maintaining appropriate safety, transparency, integrity, and accountability.
• serve as a proving ground for new, creative approaches to organizational structure and function; broadening participation; workforce development; science, technology, engineering, and math education; and methods for engaging all sectors of the American research ecosystem.

An IotFI can be formed around any major challenge and combination of IotF areas. IotFIs also may tackle critical and growing challenges regarding societal and ethical implications and responsible design and use of the technologies they study and create. Examples of pressing societal challenges upon which an IotFI could focus are shown in Table 1.

What Next?  Exponential Innovation & Disruption

Source: Lewis-Burke Associates

• Like subsectors of the Quantum Computing Marketplace, Commercial Space Internet Efforts, Kessel Run, The Software Factory System, and the DC-QNet, the IotF and IoTFIs are designed and strategically structured for exponential speed and scale:
  “…IotFIs…will fuel innovation at the intersection of at least two of the five IotF topical areas, fostering a vibrant and dynamic research culture of convergence. A key feature of the IotFIs will be the greatest possible flexibility in administrative structure, staffing, IP rights, funding, and administrative processes and requirements. In combination, these and other factors will maximize potential benefits gained from multi-sector collaboration among industry, academia, National Laboratories and other government entities, and non-profit organizations. Tight coupling of multiple sectors will enhance innovation across the spectrum of foundational to applied R&D by enabling rapid feedback and providing a clear pathway to translate discoveries to practice and transfer technology from the laboratory bench to large-scale domestic production. This flexibility is essential for achieving a high return on investment for all participants and the Nation.” (1)
• Lewis-Burke Associates highlighted an IotFI pilot program for an “Accelerated Discovery” workflow that is focused on the convergence of capabilities and technologies.
• The January 2021 report used the business strategy language of ‘value creation’ to position the “Value Proposition for Participating [IoTFI] Organizations”:
  “Participants from each sector of the American R&D enterprise will be included in every IotFI in order to collectively leverage their unique strengths and perspectives. These partners each stand to benefit from working together in an IotFI in ways that could otherwise be difficult or impossible to achieve.  The “Private Sector” section is instructional:
  “Private Companies will benefit from more flexible and agile access to partnerships with the other participating sectors. The IotFI partnership model will help de-risk participation in foundational research and provide a competitive edge in the marketplace through IP generation and access. In addition, IotFIs will provide resources for product discovery, validation, and commercialization, which can be an insurmountable hurdle due to high costs, particularly for small businesses and start-up companies.  Companies also will benefit from access to spillover technologies and IP from any Manhattan Project-style challenge effort that an IotFI could undertake—that is, where the IP is of great interest to industry and could be easily licensed.” (1)

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