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ACS Position Statement:

Innovation and entrepreneurship are the key components of American economic success, underpinning our ability to create the new products and jobs that keeps us competitive on the world stage.

Innovation and entrepreneurship thrive in an environment that supports advances in science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) and promotes interdisciplinary collaboration to advance new ideas into creative solutions for everyday challenges. As China and other emerging economies continue to increase their R&D focus and investments, swift and decisive action must be taken to ensure American leadership in STEM. The United States must increase investment in research and development (R&D) and accelerate the unique abilities of our diverse and inclusive workforce to stay competitive. This commitment must be sustained and fostered during every step of the R&D and commercialization lifecycle to be successful.

The foundation of the United States’s unmatched ability and capacity to create new products, processes, markets, and industries that change the world relies on:

• a culture that embraces high-risk, high-impact research and cultivates the development of novel applications from those research ideas
• a robust technology transfer and commercialization system that efficiently matures innovations into the marketplace
• a well-trained, motivated, and diverse workforce focused on impactful problem solving and with access to state-of-the-art research infrastructure
• a collaborative mindset that encourages cross-sector and international partnerships, provides early independence to investigators, and allows mobility among academia, government, and industry.

Investing in Innovation and Entrepreneurship

The American Chemical Öйú365betÖÐÎĹÙÍø asks policymakers to advance policies that allow our nation to remain a global leader in innovation and entrepreneurship through the following foundational strategies:

• Strengthening federal investments and ensuring these investments are predictable to sustain high priority areas over the long-term, which is necessary for true breakthrough research
• Supporting all phases of R&D from early to mid to late stage, ensuring a continuous, full pipeline of innovation and thus maximizing positive impact on the U.S. economy and national interests
• Training the best STEM workforce in the world and investing in world-leading R&D infrastructure to enable this workforce to excel
• Ensuring the government makes appropriate and transparent use of scientific information to inform policy decisions
• Maintaining a positive domestic business climate that allows U.S. research and development be commercialized in the U.S. by small, medium, and large businesses.

Creating and Sustaining an Environment for Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Barriers to innovation and entrepreneurship must be constantly identified and lowered for efficient commercialization of new technologies. For example:

• Enhancing collaboration across sectors to better connect market and/or national opportunities with research needs
• Ensuring the proposal process for government funding is streamlined
• Encouraging more seed money funding mechanisms to allow researchers to explore opportunities to license, partner, or create a start-up to commercialize their research
• Supporting emerging technologies through the critical scale up phase to facilitate smoother, faster transitions to commercialization
• Leveraging successful late-stage technology transfer practices, personnel exchanges, and entrepreneurship programs to create a workforce savvy in both technology and business
• Developing Best Practices for information and data sharing to accelerate R&D breakthroughs reaching the market, while also ensuring respect for data privacy and intellectual property
• Improving the U.S. and international systems for voluntary consensus standards, patent protection, and regulations

In the 21st century, innovation and entrepreneurship are grounded in advancements in science and technology. Successful translation of breakthroughs into the market directly improves the American quality of life as well as the economy and national interests. Millions of high-skilled, high-wage STEM jobs are the envy of the world.

Amplifying a Talented, Diverse, and Inclusive Workforce

People are the engine of innovation. A world-class pipeline of talent requires on-going and even increasing investment in training and developing the workforce by:

• Enhancing effective accessible STEM education programs at all levels (pre-K-12, undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate continuing education)
• Ensuring that these programs are well resourced and use the current Best Practices, tools, and techniques for teaching and learning
• Supporting cross-training in fields such as business, law, and the humanities to maximize the broad and deep positive impact on society of innovations in STEM
• Balancing research opportunities between established and emerging research areas to support existing industries while also preparing for future industries
• Maximizing the resiliency and flexibility of the workforce through access to training opportunities and professional mobility
• Attracting and retaining the best talent from within the United States and around the world

The American Chemical Öйú365betÖÐÎĹÙÍø (ACS) Board of Directors Committee on Public Affairs and Public Relations adopted this statement on behalf of the Öйú365betÖÐÎĹÙÍø. ACS is a non-profit scientific and educational organization, chartered by Congress, with more than 170,000 chemical scientists and engineers as members. The world’s largest scientific society, ACS advances the chemical enterprise, increases public awareness of chemistry, and brings its expertise to state and national matters.