Carnegie Mellon University
September 14, 2021

What a National Technology Strategy Is—and Why the United States Needs One

To compete in the 21st century, the US needs a nimble agency to catalyze technological innovation that delivers security, prosperity, jobs, and health for all citizens. In a new piece in Issues in Science and Technology, Engineering and Public Policy Professor Erica Fuchs maps out what is a National Technology Strategy, and why the U.S. needs one.

In the article, Fuchs states that the United States is no longer in a singular position of global scientific and technological leadership. All the while, we face equal or greater challenges than ever before on the home front, where economic inequality has increasedsocial mobility has declined, and political polarization is on the rise.

Unfortunately, at this moment of dual internal and external challenges, according to Fuchs, the United States’ intellectual and institutional foundations are insufficient to develop ways that can resolve them. Missing from these debates is the recognition that win-win technology choices do exist. That is, with the right incentives, it is possible to make strategic investments in technology that achieve multiple national objectives. 

Fuchs has previously argued that equitably building the infrastructure of the future—smart high-speed transit systems, dynamic electric grids with renewables, and broadband internet access—will more quickly increase jobs in underserved areas, improve social welfare for all citizens (including health, energy access, and communications), and boost the productivity and resilience of industry. In addition, if this infrastructure is domestically procured, it could rebuild US manufacturing.

According to Fuchs, in order to foster win-wins across national objectives, a US National Technology Strategy Agency is needed to seed initiatives that fill gaps in the existing innovation ecosystem and to catalyze other agencies to bring their expertise to cross-cutting efforts. This new agency will need to simultaneously build the interdisciplinary intellectual foundations, data, and analytic capabilities to make win-wins transparent and inform its investments.

To learn more about what a national technology strategy is, and why the United States needs one, read the full article.