The United States is in a battle for global leadership in the critical and emerging technologies (CETs) that will drive decades of national and economic security and prosperity. To ensure U.S. global dominance in the industries of the future, we need to act now to advance the president’s stated agenda to secure the U.S. position as the unrivaled world leader in CETs.
With the NIST mission rooted in the U.S. Constitution — “The Congress shall have Power ... To fix the Standard of Weights and Measures” — NIST has developed and maintained key standards to advance trust in measurement and technology in service to the nation since 1901. As the nation’s premier laboratory with the mission to promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness, NIST is poised to work with industry at every step to support U.S. manufacturing and technological capacity in CETs, including artificial intelligence (AI), quantum technology, biotechnology, semiconductors, and next-generation communications. Over the next four years, NIST is committed to advancing American innovation and industrial competitiveness through four interdependent strategic priorities:
In alignment with the president’s science and technology agenda, NIST will focus investment in four key areas, including AI, quantum technologies, biotechnology, and semiconductors. To achieve this strategic priority, NIST will unleash U.S. manufacturing productivity and accelerate the creation of new measurement technologies and services.
NIST will advance U.S. quantum sector leadership by partnering with stakeholders, entrepreneurs, and experts to accelerate quantum system manufacturing and development. NIST will accelerate:
NIST will catalyze American AI innovation by partnering with industry to accelerate development and adoption of AI systems and applications. NIST will accelerate:
NIST will unlock the potential of biotechnology and biomanufacturing to solve U.S. industry challenges in developing new therapeutics, making new products at scale, and creating a resilient supply chain. NIST will partner with U.S. industry to accelerate:
Semiconductors are essential building blocks of the technologies that will shape our future. To ensure U.S. leadership in semiconductors, NIST will partner with U.S. industry to accelerate:
NIST will continue to champion the United States’ industry-led, market-driven, and voluntary approach to international standards development, securing American companies as leaders in the global marketplace, stimulating American economic prosperity and global trade, and catalyzing U.S. leadership in the industries of the future. NIST will leverage its unique research and standards expertise to work with the private sector to advance American strength and agility in international standards development, especially within sectors of national importance. NIST will accelerate:
Gold standard science, national security, and economic security require that the best discoveries from scientific labs are adopted in commercial markets. To achieve global leadership in the technologies of the future, NIST will accelerate:
Accelerating U.S. leadership and competitiveness in CETs requires world-class laboratory and utility infrastructure to fulfill the demands of the most advanced measurements. Upon availability of funds, NIST will invest in modernizing its aging facilities to provide the high-performance physical, computing, and networking capabilities and the advanced research equipment critically needed to drive U.S. innovation and global competitiveness in the 21st century, as well as recruit and retain the very best scientific talent. To achieve the impact of CET acceleration efforts, NIST will: