This month, the National Science Foundation’s new Regional Innovation Engines program issued its first development grants and the Economic Development Administration opened its first call for applications to its new Regional Technology and Innovation Hubs program.
The Biden administration has released two major science and technology policy documents this month: a National Defense Science and Technology Strategy and a National Standards Strategy for Critical and Emerging Technology.
Senate Democrats have announced a legislative push that resuscitates and expands on provisions omitted from last year’s CHIPS and Science Act that address the U.S.–China rivalry. They expect their effort will include proposals for targeted R&D funding and new controls aimed at preventing China from exploiting U.S. technological advances.
The House Science Committee opened the 118th Congress by examining how a national science and technology strategy could help address urgent challenges posed by competition with China and by climate change.
The CHIPS and Science Act prescribes the mission of the Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships that the National Science Foundation created early this year, establishing priority focus areas and authorizing new programs supporting technology commercialization, regional innovation, and workforce development.
The CHIPS and Science Act authorizes a suite of new regional technology development initiatives, reflecting substantial congressional interest in expanding the geographical distribution of innovative activity in the U.S. Enhancing regional innovation will also be central to implementing the legislation’s semiconductor provisions, according to the Department of Commerce.
With the CHIPS and Science Act set to channel billions of dollars into U.S. semiconductor R&D and manufacturing, chip companies and other stakeholders are weighing in on how to best structure the new programs.
Following a month of intense activity in Congress, lawmakers have passed bipartisan semiconductor funding and innovation policy measures that have been in the works since the Trump administration. Meanwhile, Democrats also revived the fortunes of a partisan spending bill that includes funding for climate change mitigation as well as a significant boost for some science budgets.
