From April to July 2023, NSF gathered insights for the development of an investment roadmap for its Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP) in accordance with the "CHIPS and Science Act of 2022.” The act tasks the TIP directorate with developing a roadmap to guide investment decisions in use-inspired and translational research over a three-year time frame to advance U.S. competitiveness and develop the U.S. workforce in 10 key technology focus areas and five national, societal, and geostrategic challenges.
NSF sought feedback from individuals and organizations across all sectors — industry, academia, nonprofits, government, venture capital, civil society and others — on sequencing and focusing TIP investments to advance U.S. technological competitiveness and address national, societal, and geostrategic needs as well as workforce gaps through use-inspired and translational research, public and private partnerships, and crosscutting investments.
About the responses
NSF received more than 200 responses to this RFI.
Authors agreed to allow NSF to make their responses public.
NSF will use the information submitted in response to this RFI to help inform a strategic plan to drive future U.S. technology competitiveness, as well as national, societal, and geostrategic impacts.
The RFI asked the following questions:
Information Requested. Respondents may provide information for one or as many topics below as they choose. Through this RFI, NSF seeks information to inform development of a roadmap to guide TIP research and development and workforce investments over a three-year period.
- Prioritization. What evidence exists that should guide NSF in determining priorities across the technologies listed above in advancing or maintaining U.S. competitiveness? Within each technology area, are there critical use-inspired and translational research topics that should be prioritized for NSF investment in a 1- to 3-year time frame to advance U.S. competitiveness, and if so, why? Which research topics within each of the technology areas can be reasonably expected to be funded by others, making them less critical for TIP funding?
- Suitability. Which technologies, or topics within the technologies listed above, are well-suited for the type of use-inspired and translational research that TIP has the mandate to support? What kind of investment approaches or funding vehicles would have the greatest impact in maturing said technology?
- Workforce. Which of the technologies listed above will have the greatest workforce needs in the next 1 to 5 years, understanding that investments in workforce initiatives often have longer time horizons to produce results? To meet this growing demand, how could TIP programs be structured to best supply these workforce needs, including pathways to the state and local levels, considering education and training at every level?
- How could TIP collaborate with other government and private organizations to ensure workforce development activities address industry priorities across the key technology focus areas and societal, national, and geostrategic challenges while broadening the talent base through diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility?
- How could the directorate inform state, local, and tribal government of the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to build pathways to prepare future workers and reskill current workers for entry into the key technology focus areas?
- Addressing societal challenges. Considering the ways each of the key technology focus areas will impact each of the societal, national, and geostrategic challenges, which of the technology areas should receive investment priority and why? This includes investments in use-inspired and translational research, education, training, as well as general literacy on a given topic. On what specific challenge problems related to the societal, national, and geostrategic challenges could TIP focus that would, in turn, drive technological development in the key technology areas?
- Additions. Are there technology areas that should be prioritized for TIP investment in the near term that are not included in the above list, such as those included on the National Science and Technology Council's Critical and Emerging Technologies List, and if so, why?
- Crosscutting investments. What translational research investments can be made to drive innovation by addressing critical needs common to multiple technology focus areas? What are these shared needs, and among which technology areas?
- Other topics, in your view, that are relevant to developing a roadmap for TIP.
The table below lists the full set of respondents to the RFI. Their responses to the RFI questions can be explored here.
NSF removed names and/or responses from colleagues who did not give NSF permission to display their name and/or response. NSF also removed entries which contained no data and responses that were unrelated to the questions asked, including those containing objectionable content.