Office of Science and Technology Policy Function in the United States

To Review

Introduction
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP)[1] has a broad mandate to: provide the President and the President’s senior staff with accurate, relevant, and timely advice on the scientific and technological aspects of all issues before them; ensure the policies and programs developed across the Executive Branch are informed by sound science; and ensure that Federal investments in science and technology (S&T) are making the greatest possible contribution to economic prosperity, public health, environmental quality, and national security.

Technology has become increasingly important to policy, to the delivery of government services, and to the Nation as a whole. President Obama fulfilled a campaign pledge to appoint within OSTP the first-ever U.S. Chief Technology Officer (CTO), with the rank of Assistant to the President. The mission of the Office of the U.S. CTO within OSTP is to advise the President and the President’s senior staff on how to harness the power of data, technology, and innovation on behalf of the American people—in so doing, the Office of the U.S. CTO continuously catalyzes and supports the Federal Government to better serve the American people.

In this memorandum, we: (1) highlight the profound impact President Obama’s leadership has had in “reaffirming and strengthening America’s role as the world’s engine of scientific discovery and technological innovation,”[2] as he set out to do at the start of his Administration; (2) offer an overview of frontiers that the American S&T enterprise will advance in the coming decades; and (3) call for actions needed in the years ahead to include all Americans in driving continued innovation and progress across those frontiers.

OSTP continues to be optimistic about America’s ongoing leadership in science and technology because of two exceptional characteristics of Americans. Americans continue to lead the world in our curiosity and desire to understand the world around us, which helps us innovate and improve the world around us. And, Americans are exceptionally diverse and can bring a wide range of experiences and backgrounds to solving the hardest problems. Our country’s diversity continues to be the greatest source of its strength.

President Obama has repeatedly shown his commitment to inclusion, noting that, “research has shown that diverse groups are more effective at problem solving than homogeneous groups. Policies that promote diversity and inclusion will enhance our ability to draw from the broadest possible pool of talent, solve our toughest challenges, maximize employee engagement and innovation, and lead by example by setting a high standard for providing access to opportunity to all segments of our society.”[3] Taking on the S&T frontiers that we describe in this memorandum requires including all Americans in leading innovation across industry, academia, and government.

Record of Progress on Science, Technology, and Innovation
On January 20, 2009, President Obama issued a simple and powerful pledge: to restore science to its rightful place. Coming into office, the President was committed to reinvigorating the American scientific enterprise through a strong commitment to basic and applied research, innovation, and education; to ensuring integrity in science policy; and most importantly, to making decisions on the basis of evidence, rather than ideology. In a speech at the National Academy of Sciences in April 2009, the President called for expanded investments in research and development (R&D) and a renewed focus on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education. He noted that science, technology, and innovation are essential to sustaining economic growth, enabling Americans to lead longer and healthier lives, limiting the harm from climate change, and providing U.S. armed forces and homeland defenders with the tools they need to succeed in every contingency.

In the nearly 8 years since, the full scope of the President’s science, technology, and innovation agenda has been sweeping, and is already setting the stage for new industries and continued innovation in the years ahead. For example, President Obama and his Administration:

Increased science, technology, and innovation talent in the Executive Branch by creating and empowering new technology leadership positions at the White House and in Federal agencies; reinvigorating the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST); and recruiting, retaining, and empowering people with information, digital, collaboration, communication, data, and related technical backgrounds to improve government services and inject modern technology expertise into public policymaking.

Strengthened scientific integrity by issuing and implementing a policy to ensure the public is able to “trust the science and scientific process informing public-policy decisions,” by recruiting and retaining the highest-caliber scientists, by ensuring policy decisions are based on sound science, and by putting in place strong whistleblower protections.

Enacted a historic increase in research and development—with $18.3 billion in R&D funding, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of February 2009 was part of the largest annual increase in R&D funding in America’s history—and maintained R&D funding as a priority despite tight fiscal constraints. 

Prioritized and encouraged broad participation in STEM education and the technology sector, with the Nation now on track to meet the President’s goal to train 100,000 additional excellent STEM teachers by 2021, with 100,000 engineers graduating yearly from American colleges and universities for the first time ever, with organizations around the country responding to the President’s call to provide all U.S. students with access to rigorous computer-science education, and with over 1,500 employers hiring from new short-course training programs such as coding boot camps.

Supported American manufacturing innovation through a national network of Manufacturing USA Institutes supported by over $600 million in Federal investment and matched by more than $1.3 billion in non-Federal investment, with more institutes on the way, and increased opportunities for Americans to make, design, create, and invent using new hardware and software tools and skills.

Expanded entrepreneurship across the Nation, with venture-capital firms committing to advance entrepreneurship opportunities for women and underrepresented minorities, with nearly 80 companies committing to take action to broaden participation and make the technology workforce at each of their companies representative of the American people as soon as possible, with investors pledging to create more inclusiveness in their funding practices, with nearly 200,000 datasets now available to the public on Data.gov, and with more than 4 million full-text scientific journal articles now free and accessible to researchers, entrepreneurs, and the public.

Launched major new science initiatives to advance health care through precision medicine, understanding the brain, accelerating progress in treating and preventing cancer, and combating antibiotic resistance.

Took unprecedented action to address climate change through the successful December 2015 Paris Agreement; a comprehensive Climate Action Plan to cut carbon pollution, enhance resilience, and lead internationally; and the development of tools, services, and partnerships to make science and information about on climate change actionable for decision-makers across the Nation.

Expanded broadband access, adding or improving more than 114,000 miles of broadband infrastructure and making high-speed connections available to more than 25,000 community institutions and fast 4G/LTE mobile broadband available to more than 98 percent of Americans.

Fostered a burgeoning private space sector and increased capabilities for our journey to Mars, with the extension of the lifetime of the International Space Station’s (ISS) until at least 2024 through the Administration’s leadership, with American companies and NASA collaborating to deliver cargo to ISS, and with those companies on track to start ferrying astronauts to ISS within the next 2 years.

20 Science and Technology Frontiers
In October 2016, at the White House Frontiers Conference, President Obama encouraged Americans to imagine our Nation and the world in 50 years and beyond, and to explore America’s potential to reach the frontiers that will make the world healthier, more prosperous, more equitable, and more secure.

In answer to the President’s challenge, below we highlight 20 S&T frontiers where future investment and cross-sector collaboration will drive American innovation in the decades ahead, including:

Personal frontiers in health care innovation and precision medicine;

Local frontiers in building smart, inclusive communities that serve all residents;

National frontiers in harnessing the potential of artificial intelligence, data science, machine learning, automation, robotics, and advanced computing to engage and benefit all Americans;

Global frontiers in accelerating the clean-energy revolution and developing advanced climate information, tools, services, and collaborations; and

Interplanetary frontiers in space exploration, including our journey to Mars.

PERSONAL FRONTIERS
Science, technology, and innovation supported and encouraged by the Federal Government have made major contributions to helping Americans live longer, healthier lives. We have vaccines to protect us from devastating diseases such as cervical cancer, flu, and meningitis. We have developed an artificial retina and have achieved promising initial results on brain control of robotic prosthetic arms. Just as the seeds for these breakthroughs were planted decades ago, President Obama’s visionary investments in biomedical research, medicine, health, and the life sciences have set the stage for the cures, treatments, and innovations of the future. Frontiers in biomedicine include:

Developing precision medicine. The next great revolution in medicine will emerge from an ability to use genomic, lifestyle, behavioral, environmental, imaging, and clinical data to understand health and disease, and to use those insights to develop tailored prevention approaches and medical treatments. To revolutionize how we improve health and treat disease, President Obama launched the Precision Medicine Initiative with these goals: (a) build a large research program that includes participants who volunteer their biomedical samples and health data, leveraging the diversity of the United States; (b) increase access to data so that researchers can better conduct science to enable groundbreaking new discoveries; (c) create a nimble framework for ensuring the accuracy of genomic-sequencing tests to support public safety; and (d) optimize the deployment of these technologies and research discoveries to medical practitioners.

Investing in neuroscience and neurotechnology. Advances in neuroscience and neurotechnology offer promise for developing a comprehensive understanding of the brain in action and uncovering the mysteries that hold the key to future scientific breakthroughs in areas such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, depression, and traumatic brain injury. Since April 2013, President Obama’s BRAIN Initiative®—Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies—has catalyzed more than $1.5 billion in public and private funds for novel neurotechnologies aimed at revolutionizing understanding of the human brain. BRAIN Initiative researchers and public-private collaborating organizations are pursuing an ambitious 10-year research agenda.

Combating antibiotic resistance. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that drug-resistant bacteria cause 2 million illnesses and about 23,000 deaths each year in the United States alone. The Obama Administration issued a national strategy and a national action plan—both responsive to the recommendations of a PCAST report—for domestic and international efforts to prevent, detect, and control illness and death related to infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria. OSTP and the Presidential Advisory Council on Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria have noted the opportunity for the next Administration to pilot innovative economic models to encourage investment in antibiotic-drug development, to strengthen antibiotic-resistance surveillance in agricultural settings, and to develop a “one health” approach to combating antibiotic-resistant bacteria, encompassing human, animal, and environmental components.

Advancing biotechnology and global health security. Advances in biotechnology have dramatically improved capabilities such as DNA sequencing, gene editing, gene synthesis, and high-throughput manipulation of biomolecules. These advances have reduced the cost and time required to develop biotechnology products and perform novel research. The Obama Administration released the National Bioeconomy Blueprint, led an effort to modernize the regulatory system for biotechnology products, and led biosafety and biosecurity improvements. The next Administration and the scientific community should consider continuing to track the ethical, legal, economic, security, safety, and social implications of biotechnology developments and participate in international discussions around appropriate oversight of biotechnology research and products. In addition, the United States has committed to assist at least 31 countries to achieve common, measurable targets of the Global Health Security Agenda for prevention, detection, and response to infectious disease outbreaks. Opportunities abound for the next Administration to advance S&T against infectious disease threats—especially for mosquito-vector control and through social and behavioral science and biotechnology—and to predict infectious-disease outbreaks through rapid data-sharing and “one health” approaches.

LOCAL FRONTIERS
Many complex social challenges—from developing transportation systems that fuel equitable growth, to improving community-police relationships, to connecting small towns, tribal communities, and rural areas—will require cities and communities of all sizes to be hubs for innovation. The rapid pace of social innovation and technological change, including the rise of data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence, the sharing economy, social networks, ubiquitous sensor networks, and autonomous vehicles holds significant promise for addressing important challenges communities face throughout the country. Local S&T frontiers include:

Building smart communities and the Internet of Things. “Smart Cities” are communities leveraging the “Internet of Things” (IoT) and information-technology tools, including data analytics and urban sensors, to improve the lives of all of their citizens. Federal research investments—with a continued focus needed on cybersecurity—and multisector technology partnerships can help local communities tackle key challenges such as reducing traffic congestion, fighting crime, fostering economic growth, managing the effects of a changing climate, and improving the delivery of city services. The White House Smart Cities Initiative has invested nearly $350 million from multiple Federal agencies in research and technology deployment in communities, with over 70 participating communities. The Opportunity Project has catalyzed the creation of over 40 new digital tools that use Federal and local data to increase access to opportunity in communities around the country by solving challenges such as helping families find affordable housing near jobs and transportation, matching unemployed Americans with jobs that meet their skills, and enabling local leaders to use data to better target investments.

Using innovation and data to improve policing and the criminal justice system. As part of President Obama’s commitment to ensuring that the power of data and technology are used to address the biggest challenges this country faces, the Police Data and Data Driven Justice Initiatives cultivate local advances in the use of data and technology in policing and the criminal-justice system. The Police Data Initiative supports local police department efforts in leveraging data to increase transparency and accountability and build trust with their communities. The Data-Driven Justice Initiative assists city, county, and State governments in using data-driven strategies to divert low-level offenders with mental illness out of the criminal justice system and to change approaches to pre-trial incarceration so that low-risk offenders no longer stay in jail simply because they cannot afford bond. These complementary initiatives each now support more than 100 jurisdictions—communities, counties, and states—and collectively reach over 95 million Americans.

Harnessing the ingenuity of citizen solvers and citizen scientists. The Obama Administration has harnessed American ingenuity, driven local innovation, and engaged citizen solvers in communities across the Nation by increasing the use of open-innovation approaches including crowdsourcing, citizen science, and incentive prizes. Following guidance and legislation in 2010, over 700 incentive prize competitions have been featured on Challenge.gov from over 100 Federal agencies, with steady growth every year. Federal agencies and non-governmental organizations have used citizen science, crowdsourcing, and other innovative approaches to mobilize millions of people—including youth—to accomplish scientific work and improve their communities, from improving predictive models for coastal change and vulnerability to extreme storms, to tagging millions of archival records for the National Archives. Since 2014, OSTP has taken an active role in encouraging the increased use of these approaches to address scientific questions, issuing guidance to agency heads in 2015, and working with General Services Administration to launch CitizenScience.gov in early 2016. The next Administration should consider continuing to increase Federal Government efficiency and effectiveness through these open-innovation approaches.

Connecting Americans through broadband deployment and spectrum for wireless Internet access. Recognizing the importance of broadband connectivity for American innovation, collaboration, economic growth, and well-being, the Administration—through initiatives including ConnectED, ConnectHOME, ConnectAll, the Global Connect Initiative, and increased USDA funding of broadband access for tribal communities—has expanded affordable high-speed broadband access, improved adoption, increased speeds, lowered costs, and narrowed the digital divide in the United States. The Administration has advanced international connectivity to bridge the global digital divide and promoted U.S. Internet governance priorities. And, the Administration has taken steps to ensure that there is sufficient spectrum, governed by sound policies to support fast, affordable, and reliable wireless Internet access and other longstanding and emerging technologies, including being on track to meet the President’s goal of making available an additional 500MHz of spectrum for exclusive private and shared commercial use by 2020. Going forward, the next Administration should consider continued attention to these goals and to increasing the network-engineering expertise in the Federal Government to accelerate national and international deployment of Internet access and to maximize the benefits of our connected world.

NATIONAL FRONTIERS
Emerging technologies carry both potential and risk, present policy challenges, and have economic, safety, security, and regulatory implications for the Nation, including for increasing access to opportunity for all Americans. National technology frontiers include:

Understanding the potential of AI, machine learning, and big data. The Administration published a public report on AI, Preparing for the Future of Artificial Intelligence, accompanied by a National Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan. These documents detail how the Federal Government can take future steps to: use AI to advance social good and improve the operation of government; adapt regulations in a way that encourages innovation while protecting the public; ensure that applications of AI, including those that are not regulated, are fair, safe, and governable; develop the most skilled and diverse AI workforce, including addressing the current limited diversity in the technical-leadership ranks; and address the use of AI in weapons. This work built on earlier Obama Administration work on big data, including three Administration “Big Data” reports covering privacy, values, and fairness in algorithmic systems, ethics, and civil rights, and also PCAST and National Information Technology R&D Program (NITRD) reports on big data.

Developing robotics and intelligent systems. Robotics and intelligent systems are technologies that seek to advance physical computational agents that complement, augment, enhance, or emulate human physical capabilities or human intelligence, and have the capacity to improve lives and advance the Nation’s economy. OSTP has focused on: R&D investments, including through the National Robotics Initiative; capacity-building in the Federal Government; and providing technical input to the development of smart regulations governing the public and commercial use of such technologies. The Administration has also worked to improve regulatory frameworks for some applications, including the Federal Aviation Administration’s integration of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) into the National Airspace System and the Department of Transportation’s work on developing a Federal Automated Vehicles policy. Future work is needed to formulate a Federal strategy for UAS privacy authority and responsibilities.

Investing in strategic computing. The National Strategic Computing Initiative (NSCI) was created in July 2015, at President Obama’s request, to ensure continued U.S. leadership in high-performance computing (HPC) and to maximize the benefits of HPC for the economy, scientific discovery, and national security. The initiative calls for the creation of a coordinated research, development, and deployment strategy that draws on the strengths of Federal departments and agencies to accelerate progress on a range of critical applications—from predicting severe weather, to modeling the safety of the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile, to developing new drugs that are tailored to the needs of individual patients. Federal agencies have identified five strategic objectives: (a) accelerate the successful deployment and application of capable exascale computing; (b) ensure that new technologies support advances in data analytics as well as simulation and modeling; (c) explore and accelerate new paths for future computing architectures beyond the limits of today’s silicon-based semiconductors; (d) promote a vibrant HPC ecosystem, including the workforce needed to design and use HPC; and (e) establish enduring cross-sector collaboration.

Supporting advanced manufacturing and a Nation of Makers. To spur innovation in manufacturing, the Administration has created a growing network of advanced-manufacturing R&D hubs, known as Manufacturing USA. In addition, the Administration has increased support for advanced-manufacturing R&D by 40 percent since FY 2011, and has encouraged multi-agency collaboration in areas such as continuous manufacturing of pharmaceuticals, engineering biology for biomanufacturing, and biomanufacturing for regenerative medicine. Delivering on this vision will require: (a) spurring innovation through next-generation technologies; (b) making the United States more cost-competitive for production; (c) strengthening skills, communities, and supply chains to attract investment; and (d) leveling the playing field for international trade, opening access to foreign markets, and promoting investment in the United States. In addition, people’s ability to design, create, and invent is being amplified by hardware and software tools such as computer-aided design software, laser cutters, accessible design tools, and 3D printers. The President’s Nation of Makers Initiative is engaging innovators, private-sector leaders, and educators to increase the number of Americans that have the opportunity to participate in making, with a particular emphasis on K-12 education, workforce development, and manufacturing entrepreneurship.

GLOBAL FRONTIERS
Under President Obama, the United States has led global progress in addressing the challenge of climate change—including through the historic Paris Climate Agreement—and has advanced climate science, technology, and innovation to inform decisions and enable breakthroughs. Global frontiers include:

Advancing climate science, information, tools, and services. Understanding and addressing the current and future impacts of global climate change requires sustained investments in climate science and services. It is essential that governments, businesses, researchers, and individual citizens have access to science-based information, tools, and services that can inform decision making. The Obama Administration launched the Climate Data Initiative, Climate Resilience Toolkit, and Partnership for Resilience and Preparedness to improve access to the Federal Government’s climate data and tools. Thanks to this effort, more than 600 datasets and 200 tools have been made available. The Administration also released the Third National Climate Assessment, the most comprehensive assessment of climate impacts to date, through a user-friendly online interface, and created a sustained assessment process. In addition, the U.S. Government joined with private-sector partners to launch the Resilience Dialogues and Climate Services for Resilient Development, to connect climate information to on-the-ground decision making. Enhanced observations—particularly in areas such as the polar regions and much of the world’s oceans that are inadequately monitored today—will be required to advance a more comprehensive understanding of global change.

Growing a clean-energy economy. The Obama Administration has made the largest investments in cleaner and more efficient energy systems in the Nation’s history, starting with over $90 billion in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009. As a result, the United States has seen dramatic increases in the proportions of energy and electricity coming from low- and no-carbon energy sources. Under President Obama’s leadership, the United States has steadily expanded the reach and magnitude of its bilateral and multilateral cooperation with other countries in clean and efficient energy. The “Mission Innovation” initiative, launched by President Obama and other world leaders at the December 2015 climate conference in Paris, brings together 22 countries and the European Union that have pledged to double their governments’ investments in clean-energy R&D over a period of 5 years. To complement this effort, the “Breakthrough Energy Coalition” of leading investors has pledged to support the commercialization of the discoveries that result from increased R&D funding. These initiatives will require continued attention and encouragement—including doubling U.S. clean energy R&D by 2021—from the U.S. Government.

Addressing climate change and national security. The Obama Administration—through the February 2015 U.S. National Security Strategy and a September 2016 report from the National Intelligence Council—has recognized that global climate change is posing growing challenges to U.S. national security. Sea-level rise threatens operations and infrastructure at important naval bases, including this country’s largest (in Norfolk, VA); extreme heat impairs the efficiency of troops and certain military equipment; military forces may be increasingly diverted to humanitarian missions following climate-related extreme events; chronic stresses from climate-change-accentuated phenomena such as droughts and crop failures can lead to civil unrest; and, eventually, flows of refugees from regions rendered less hospitable or even uninhabitable by climate change may produce political instability in areas critical to U.S. interests. President Obama directed Federal agencies in a September 2016 Presidential Memorandum to ensure that climate change is fully considered in national security doctrine, policies, and plans.

Increasing ocean resilience. The health and productivity of the world’s oceans are imperiled by a number of threats, including climate-change related warming and acidification, overfishing and destructive fishing practices, dead zones, and marine debris and pollution. The Obama Administration has pioneered ocean stewardship through the development of the first ever U.S. National Ocean Policy, as well as through the creation and expansion of Marine Protected Areas and National Monuments, which provide refuges of reduced stress for species. This science-based management and smart conservation will help to enhance ocean resilience to climate change.

INTERPLANETARY FRONTIERS
At the beginning of his Administration, President Obama set out a new vision for space exploration. In 2010, the Administration restructured the U.S. civil space program to look forward to bold new goals; to collaborate with, rather than compete with, American entrepreneurs; and to broaden participation and take advantage of new technologies being created at NASA and in America’s laboratories. These policies have fostered a burgeoning commercial-space sector that is creating new jobs and attracting venture capital. Looking ahead, frontiers in space exploration and space science include:

Supporting our Journey to Mars and a robust U.S. commercial-space market. In April 2010, President Obama challenged the country to send American astronauts on a Journey to Mars in the 2030s. Continued development of advanced space technologies—including better life-support systems and efficient solar-powered electric propulsion systems—will be crucial to achieving President Obama’s vision for space exploration. NASA already has started collaborating with industry to build the space modules or “habitats” in which U.S. astronauts will live and travel to Mars and other deep-space destinations. And in the coming years, the work NASA will do—in collaboration with private and international partners—to develop these deep-space habitats will help reduce the barriers to private companies that envision building their own space stations in Earth orbit or beyond. NASA will soon provide companies the opportunity to add their own modules and other capabilities to the International Space Station. As NASA shifts the focus of its human exploration program to deep space, America’s businesses will take a larger role in supporting space activities in Earth orbit.

Driving advancements in space science. OSTP works with NASA, the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Department of Energy (DOE) to ensure that Federally funded space-science activities comprise a robust portfolio of space-based missions, ground-based facilities, and research funding for astronomy, planetary science, and heliophysics. The Kepler Space Observatory, which was launched in March 2009, has discovered more than 2,330 extrasolar planets and more than 2,400 additional planet candidates to-date. Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory, has been exploring Gale Crater on Mars since it landed in 2011, discovering evidence of an ancient streambed, organic carbon in powdered rock samples, and methane in the Martian atmosphere. Construction of the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA)—funded by the United States through NSF with other international partners—was completed in 2011 with full science observations beginning in 2013. In July 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft flew by Pluto obtaining the first up-close images of the dwarf planet, and a year later, Juno arrived at Jupiter to begin collecting scientific data to understand the planet’s structure and formation. Looking ahead, progress on the James Webb Space Telescope—designed to be the premier space-based observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide—is on track and on budget to meet a 2018 launch date. NSF and DOE, in collaboration with other partners, are supporting the development of the ground-based Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, which expects to see first light in 2019.

Enhancing prediction of and preparedness for space hazards. OSTP and Federal agencies are identifying actions to extend and enhance prediction and preparedness for potentially hazardous near-Earth objects (NEOs) and define an approach for establishing reference NEO Earth-impact missions that can help the United States and its international partners detect, track, and respond to the threat of collision by a NEO. OSTP also worked with NASA to develop NASA’s Asteroid Grand Challenge, an effort focused on finding all asteroid threats to human populations and knowing what to do about them. NASA’s Asteroid Redirect Mission will, among other benefits, be used to demonstrate a promising asteroid-deflection technique called a gravity tractor. Also, in an effort to better plan for space weather hazards, OSTP led the development of the October 2015 National Space Weather Strategy and National Action Plan, and subsequently, President Obama signed an Executive Order in October 2016 to minimize the harm that space-weather events can cause across our Nation, save lives, and enhance national security. The called-for actions include identifying mitigation technologies, creating nationwide response and recovery plans and procedures, and improving prediction of space-weather events and their effects.

Harnessing the small satellite revolution. A critical area for space-technology development is advancing the capability of small satellites (“smallsats”) and constellations of smallsats to support important commercial, civilian, and national-security applications. Potential applications include capturing continuously updated imagery of the entire planet and providing high-speed Internet connectivity to remote rural communities. Traditional large satellites typically cost hundreds of millions of dollars per satellite and often take years to build and launch. Smallsats sometimes can be delivered at a fraction of the cost and time of legacy satellite systems. Scientists and engineers can quickly test smallsat systems on orbit, allowing them to shorten the innovation cycle to devise new, better systems. The next Administration should consider working with OSTP, NASA, the Department of Defense, the Department of Commerce, and other Federal agencies to foster innovation in the development and use of smallsats.

[1] The Office of Science and Technology Policy was established in 1976 by Public Law 94-282.

[2] From remarks by President Obama on November 23, 2009 at the launch of his “Educate to Innovate” campaign for excellence in science, technology, engineering, and math education.

[3] Presidential Memorandum on Promoting Diversity and Inclusion in the National Security Workforce (October 5, 2016)

[4] In 2015, there were more than 600,000 high-paying tech jobs across the United States that were unfilled, and by 2018, 51 percent of all STEM jobs are projected to be in computer-science-related fields.