Revving Up The U.S. Technology Engine

Multiple technology revolutions — digital, AI, biotech, autonomous systems, quantum, precision agriculture — are advancing rapidly, transforming every sector of the economy and national security, and fueling the rise of new industries. Our global competitors are developing and scaling these technologies as fast as they can. More than anything else, winning the challenge to shape the future, growing our economy, and enhancing our global leadership all rest with our ability to innovate with speed and at scale.

The United States is investing record levels in R&D — $940 billion in 2023, driven largely by the private sector. Technology hubs are growing across the country, and we have enviable university and national laboratory research resources. But, going forward, speed – coupled with renewed investment in our nation’s basic research – is the only competitive, differentiating factor that will set the United States apart on the global stage. We must move faster to ensure every sector of the U.S. economy is operating with the most advanced products, services, and technical solutions, supported by a long-term commitment by the federal government to the basic research history shows consistently replenishes the innovation pipeline.

Recently, the Council’s National Commission on Innovation and Competitiveness Frontiers issued a Call to Action undergirded by seven strategic pillars. Pillar 5’s recommendations call for Accelerating Technology Development and Deployment at Speed and Scale. Five areas of action are high priorities:

First, accelerate the regulatory process. AI is beginning to shave years off new drug development, and we are building out the U.S. AI data center infrastructure. We are expanding U.S. manufacturing, tapping a wide range of energy resources, autonomous vehicles will be hitting the roads, and we must mine for minerals essential for high-tech products. These frontiers are often subject to aggressive regulatory review and permitting regimes that can snarl progress on the path to deployment at scale.

The United States should adopt warp speed models for regulation and permitting. Regulators should consider fast-tracking reviews for critical infrastructure projects, and assess potential regulatory impacts at the conclusion of key research and technology development projects. A corps of Tech Reg Sherpas could help small companies with innovative technologies navigate the regulatory system. Also, state regulators should develop a clear and navigable state regulatory environment, and provide technical assistance to small and medium sized businesses.

Second, the United States should leverage technology convergence as a source of innovation. For example, biotech is converging with energy, microelectronics, and new materials. Many challenges we face are multidisciplinary, from supporting an aging population to building resilient infrastructure. The opportunities for innovation at the intersection of disciplines and in technology convergence are almost unimaginable. Of particular promise, the convergence of AI with other fields holds enormous potential for opening a new age of discovery and innovation. Yet, our R&D enterprise has traditionally been a single discipline affair.

The United States should expand public-private partnerships, co-investment, and personnel exchanges in fields driven by rapid technology convergence. As many promising technologies—especially in sectors such as clean energy, healthcare, and advanced manufacturing—face lengthy testing and certification processes before they can go to market, a percentage of Federal research funds should be allocated for prototyping for testing and refinement. This would accelerate the regulatory approval process by providing companies with ready-to-go, pre-tested prototypes that are more likely to pass regulatory scrutiny.

Third, leverage the U.S. national laboratory system to speed U.S. innovation and support U.S. competitiveness. The Federal government supports a vast constellation of R&D laboratories with a wide range of science and technology capabilities. This includes the 17 National Laboratories of the U.S. Department of Energy, considered a distinctive U.S. competitive asset. While these national laboratories focus on their government missions, they also transfer technologies they develop to the private sector through patenting and licensing, and partner with companies in areas of mutual interest under cooperative R&D agreements. The roles of these National Laboratories should be expanded.

Congress should augment the Energy Department’s mission, appropriating resources to the national laboratories to support a national competitiveness and innovation agenda. The Department should establish an office and management structure accountable for the effective use of its national laboratories to support partnerships that advance U.S. competitiveness and innovation, and direct laboratory leaders to set aside a portion of laboratory funding to focus on national competitiveness challenges, and deepen their expertise in innovation and industrial adoption of key technologies. To encourage these partnerships, the Department should standardize and streamline contracting mechanisms required for national laboratory-private sector collaboration.

In addition, moving an emerging technology from the laboratory benchtop to the marketplace often requires additional R&D, prototyping, and preparing for full-scale production. National laboratories could help de-risk and validate new technologies with industry partners, advance their readiness for private sector application at a faster pace, accelerating their time-to-market.

Fourth, accelerate the fielding of critical technologies for U.S. national security. U.S. Game-changing technologies and the new military concepts they enable are transforming U.S. defense capabilities. The Department of Defense must reach into innovating commercial firms and start-ups to bring these advanced technologies to military systems. But the commercial sector is moving so fast, and the investments are so big, the defense industry cannot keep up. One of t

he obstacles to keeping pace is the defense acquisition system. For example, for major defense acquisition programs that delivered capabilities, the average time it took for deployment has increased from 8 years to 11 years. Congress should authorize pilot acquisition systems to rapidly acquire frontier technologies from the commercial sector—streamline DFARS, tolerate a modestly higher level of risk, give greater authority to defense system program managers, and give weight to the potential for game-changing capabilities against lowest cost and risk.

Fifth, maintain incentives for commercializing federally-supported research and inventions. To promote the use of inventions arising from federally-supported-R&D, Congress enacted the Patent and Trademark Act Amendments of 1980. Known as the Bayh-Dole Act, it allows federal contractors or grantees to retain patent rights to inventions they make with federal support, and then use the invention or license the patent(s) to industry partners. Bayh-Dole is considered among the most successful of American technology policies.

The Federal government retains the authority to grant compulsory licenses to third parties in certain circumstances, known as “march-in rights,” but no federal agency has ever exercised these rights. In 2023, the National Institute of Standards and Technology released draft guidance treating price as an appropriate consideration in “march-in” determinations. The threat of using “march-in” rights for price controls would severely undercut incentives for private sector investment in commercializing federal research and inventions. The Federal government should preserve the Bayh-Dole Act’s “march-in” rights but without using such rights to force industry price controls.

The United States faces formidable competitive challenges across the technology landscape, but the opportunities for innovation have never been richer. We must act to more fully leverage our advantages in research and technology, speed up innovation processes across the country, and deploy new technologies at scale faster than ever before.