Helping NSF Strengthen US Innovation
July 27, 2022
As part of legislation to help the United States compete with China, the Senate has authorized $100 billion for the National Science Foundation. The bill also sets up a new NSF directorate focused on turning research into critical real-world applications. In Issues, Steven C. Currall and Venkatesh Narayanamurti propose a set of principles that NSF can use to build an “organizational architecture” for innovation. Key, they write, is fostering “breakthrough innovations” that lead to “novel and valuable products, processes, or services that have dramatic societal and economic impact by reshaping the competitive market in a single industry or by launching a new industry.”