international

In 2000, the United States was among the global leaders in educational attainment, boasting the third-highest percentage of its 25- to-64-year-old population with a postsecondary degree across the 38 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) nations. However, over the past two decades, the U.S. has gradually slipped in the rankings, falling to ninth place by 2022 even as the percentage of the population with a postsecondary degree increased from 36% to 50%. As international competitors like Japan, Canada, South Korea, and the United Kingdom continue to outpace the U.S.’ growth, the U.S. faces many challenges in maintaining its competitive edge in an increasingly educated world.

Manufacturing in the U.S. accounts for 90% of private-sector R&D, employs 80% of the nation’s engineers, and contributes trillions to the economy—according to Deloitte—with every dollar spent in manufacturing leading to an additional $1.81 added to the economy. However, despite its key importance, the U.S. lags behind much of the world in its proportion of manufacturing value added—the difference between the price of a product or service and any associated production costs—to the economy, seeing less value added each year as a percentage of GDP.

The United States has been the top destination for those looking to study abroad for decades. Before the onset of the pandemic, over a million students flocked from abroad to attend U.S.-based universities. Now, having dropped by 15% at the onset of the pandemic, international student enrollment is beginning to recover. Despite this recovery, the U.S. is losing market share to countries like Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom resulting in negative economic consequences.

An MOU between the Korean Institute for Advancement of Technology, the Korean Battery Industry Association, the Korean Electronics Technology Institute, and the NAATBatt Association, aims to bring Korean battery manufacturers to the U.S. NAATBatt, created in 2008 as an R&D consortium of companies to promote the manufacture of lithium-ion and other advanced batteries in the U.S., focuses on connecting foreign battery industry associations and supporting their members in establishing business relationships. 

A report from ITIF exploring the factors involved in ecosystem strength found that states in Germany generally perform better than states in the U.S., Italy, and Canada in terms of globalization, knowledge economy, and innovation capacity.

Three states — Indiana, California and Arkansas — have recently participated in international diplomacy, creating strategic connections and developing agreements to address climate change and trade barriers with the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Canada. These recent agreements may suggest a shift toward innovation-focused diplomacy at the state level with nations across the globe.

Last week, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s advisory panel called for an $88 billion university fund to establish the nation as a center of science and technology and distribute wealth to the wider public. The fund and other growth initiatives would likely become part of a larger “new capitalism” stimulus package worth several tens of trillions of yen that Kishida, who replaced Yoshihide Suga as prime minister of Japan on Oct. 4, is expected to unveil later this month.

The supremacy of the U.S. research enterprise has been eroding, particularly challenged by China and other Asian countries, and a new draft report from the Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (BESAC) at the Department of Energy (DOE) concludes that U.S. leadership in basic energy sciences will continue to diminish without intervention. Specifically, the report finds that to stay internationally competitive in basic energy sciences the U.S. must: increase total funding for R&D, spanning from basic and fundamental research to experimental development; focus multi-disciplinary research on several key areas of energy sciences; increase the nation’s ability to attract and retain the world’s top scientists and engineers; and, facilitate interactions among basic, applied, and industrial researchers to accelerate the translation of research into socially beneficial technologies.

The Department of Homeland Security has recently announced its withdrawal of the previously proposed removal of the International Entrepreneur Parole Program. The program allows for DHS to use its parole authority to grant foreign entrepreneurs a period of authorized stay within the United States with the aim that their start-up business can serve as a public benefit through job creation and economic development.

As the most ambitious innovation initiative that Europe has ever undertaken, the European Union (EU) recently launched the European Innovation Council (EIC) with a €10 billion (about $11.7 billion USD) fund that will provide both non-dilutive grants to and direct equity investments in innovative startups within the union. After a successful three-year pilot, the EIC is merging with the current Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, and has already launched its first official program with a call for proposals worth €1.5 billion (approximately $1.8 billion USD).