The White House report from Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Director Michael Kratsios, Science: A New Golden Age, first announced in a July 22 Wall Street Journal article, iterates federal R&D policies and practices for FY 2028, outlines an almost industrial policy approach to federal investment, and provides a plan to move federal research programs toward a focus on individual scientists rather than university-based programs. It calls for more flexible, multidisciplinary, and multi-organizational, team-oriented research projects rather than centers housed within the nation’s research institutions. While there is much that might be of concern for many Digest readers, on a positive note for TBED policy is the call to “expand regional innovation hubs, manufacturing institutes, and defense industrial base centers to anchor regional innovation ecosystems” and elsewhere “support state-led experimentation, partner with jurisdictions that move the fastest, and let localities compete to support regional innovation. Ensure that innovation strategies that work spread across the nation, advancing science and technology in every county and state.” [Visitors to SSTI’s homepage will see our 31-year-old mission very much mirrors that last sentence!]
In the 123-page report, OSTP calls for broadening access to federal labs and research facilities, a longstanding goal of organizations like the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer and many of the individual labs themselves. National security and clearance/secrecy concerns, in addition to public safety, have presented obstacles to past efforts to increase access without compromising federal research goals, resulting in facilities and research parks being constructed just outside the gates to facilitate collaborative partnerships. The plan calls for streamlining technology transfer tools and “further leveraging Other Transaction Authority to enable private-sector engagement in co-designing research directions.”
Kratsios recognizes the value of NSF, NIH, and SBIR programs that direct funds to individual researchers/firms, programs such as the early-career NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program and the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award. Pre-competitive consortia, funding for grand challenges, and programs like NSF’s new X-Labs also are called out as useful tools for reorganizing federal R&D investment to be more intentional, more solution-focused, and more flexible in its design to ensure delivery of results. One new idea is to expand fellowships to support “embedding machinists and technologists alongside Ph.D. researchers” to add a more applied, commercialization orientation to the science.
The report also calls out the EDA Technology Hubs, the NSF Regional Engines, the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, the Manufacturing Institutes, and the Microelectronics Commons in the Department of War/Defense as important federal investments. It calls for more partnership with state and local governments to help build—and finance—more regional innovation initiatives and industry-responsive training collaboratives.
Along the workforce lines, OSTP calls for STEM education to include experiential, “hands-on” training in the private sector with elevated roles for mentorship and credentialing.
In the report Annex, readers will find the OSTP memo to federal agencies outlining federal R&D priorities for FY 2028 (a subject of a future Digest article) and desired research practices.
In summary and after a first skim, many elements of Science: A New Golden Age are likely to be welcomed by the TBED community, such as the aforementioned emphasis on regional innovation, as well as finding ways to expedite the selection and award process. Others may be considered in need of further detail or elaboration to be received well; and no doubt some might be found controversial. If nothing else, the new OSTP report will continue to expand the already deeply engaged conversation about the future role and shape of the nation’s world-envied research enterprise at a time when international innovation competitiveness is surging ahead of the U.S. on many key measures.