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Office of Science and Technology Policy Blog

  • Startup Culture Flourishes on America’s College Campuses

    Posted by Doug Rand on November 5, 2013 at 11:30 AM EDT

    Today—marking the first full week of National Entrepreneurship Month—the Department of Commerce released a new report entitled The Innovative and Entrepreneurial University, underscoring the increasingly diverse ways in which colleges and universities across America are promoting cultures of entrepreneurship on campus and encouraging students to start companies.

    As hubs of learning, networking, mentorship, and creativity, colleges and universities provide particularly fertile ground for the cultivation of world-changing, entrepreneurial ideas. The report released today, which is based on more than 130 interviews with university leaders and builds on prior work by the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, highlights more than 50 of the most promising initiatives that have sprouted up on campuses across the country, including those that promote entrepreneurship among students and faculty; accelerate the transition of research innovations from the lab to the marketplace; and encourage engagement between universities, industry partners, and regional economies.

    Of course, because America’s university-based entrepreneurship ecosystem is rapidly expanding and constantly evolving, no single report can capture every promising idea worth replicating. That’s why today, an extraordinary team of undergraduates has launched a new online University Innovation platform through which students can share information about on-campus entrepreneurship programs rapidly and effectively—including what works, what doesn’t, and what’s needed. This public, wiki-editable platform is a special project of Epicenter, a national hub for entrepreneurship and engineering education funded by the National Science Foundation.

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    Learn more about , Innovations, Startup America, Education

  • President Obama Establishes a Task Force on Climate

    Posted by Becky Fried on November 1, 2013 at 11:23 AM EDT

    Today, delivering on commitments made in his Climate Action Plan, President Obama signed an Executive Order (EO) to strengthen the Nation’s preparedness for and resilience to the impacts of climate change. Actions directed by the EO include:

    • Establishing a new Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience, comprised of state, local, and Tribal leaders, to advise the Administration on how the Federal Government can respond to the needs of communities nationwide that are on the front lines of climate change impacts;
    • Establishing an interagency Council on Climate Preparedness and Resilience, chaired by the White House and including more than 25 agencies, to develop, coordinate, and implement priority Federal actions related to climate preparedness;
    • Directing Federal agencies to examine their policies and programs to find ways to remove barriers to resilience-focused actions and investments;
    • Directing Federal agencies to evaluate how to better promote natural storm barriers, such as dunes and wetlands; and
    • Instructing Federal agencies to develop new data-driven tools and information that state, local, and private-sector leaders need to make planning decisions in the context of climate change.

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    Learn more about Energy and Environment

  • Open Data Building a Stronger Economy

    Posted by Nick Sinai on October 29, 2013 at 12:51 PM EDT

    Every day young startups and large companies are using open government data to build new products and services that address real challenges for Americans. Fueled by open data, these enterprises are hiring people in cities and towns across the country. Open data are also helping the Federal Government to be more efficient, effective, data-driven, and transparent. We’ve seen the power of open government data in action—and it pays off.

    Today, McKinsey & Company released a new report that reinforces the importance of the Obama Administration’s work to make government data more accessible and useful for citizens, companies, and innovators, while continuing to ensure privacy and security.

    According to the new report, open data can generate more than $3 trillion a year in additional value in seven key sectors of the global economy, including education, transportation, and electricity.  The report also finds that in addition to catalyzing a variety of societal benefits, open data efforts lead to increased efficiencies; the development of new products and services; and consumer surplus — meaning cost savings, convenience, and better-quality products. These findings are encouraging and provide even more fuel to mobilize all hands on deck to unleash the full value of open data.

    In another important step, the Open Data Institute announced yesterday the creation of a new international open data network. As a part of this, the Knight Foundation also announced it will be seed-funding a U.S. Open Data Institute modeled after the nonprofit Open Data Institute in the United Kingdom, which aims to promote collaboration among governments, organizations, and businesses to catalyze the adoption of open data.

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    Learn more about Economy, Innovations, , Technology

  • After Sandy, Rebuilding Smarter with S&T

    Posted by John P. Holdren on October 28, 2013 at 4:48 PM EDT

    As the solemn first anniversary of Hurricane Sandy’s landfall nears, communities along the East Coast continue to rebuild, taking lessons learned from an unprecedented disaster to ensure new infrastructure and services are stronger and smarter than before.

    Recognizing that large storms are expected to grow more frequent and more severe as a result of climate change, the Federal Government has partnered with states, cities, communities, and other stakeholders to make the Sandy-affected region—and all of America—more resilient. This goal is a guiding principle of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan.

    Over the past year, the Obama Administration has worked diligently to apply the latest developments in science and technology (S&T) to Sandy-rebuilding efforts—and to do so in ways that are scalable and relevant to resilience-building activities in other regions. S&T-driven efforts undertaken over the past year include:

    • Deploying Data-Driven Tools for Decision Makers: In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA); the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE); and the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) partnered to launch a Sea Level Rise Tool for Sandy Recovery to help decision-makers access the most up-to-date information on sea-level rise and floodplain projections. The tool includes a set of map-based services to help communities, residents, and planners consider risks from future sea-level rise in planning for reconstruction after Sandy, and an updated Sea-Level-Change Calculator to provide site-specific details of projected flood elevations for 5-year intervals from 2010 to 2100. This tool is an important element of the broader climate-data toolkit called for in the President’s Climate Action Plan.
    • Challenging Innovators to Design New Disaster-Response Solutions: In August, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and FEMA gathered 80 of the Nation’s top public- and private-sector innovators at the White House and challenged them to brainstorm ideas for products, apps, and services that could aid in disaster response. The group developed ideas for a real-time communications platform to help survivors suffering from power outages; a crowd-funding platform to increase access to capital in the immediate aftermath of a disaster; and a device that could power cell phones and wireless networks in the event of loss of grid power. In addition, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has launched a design challenge calling on innovators to develop life-sustaining solutions, during a disaster or power shortage, for patients whose medical devices rely on electricity.
    • Launching Scientific Work to Understand Risks: With supplemental funding from the Disaster Relief Appropriation Act of 2013, a number of Federal agencies have launched scientific activities to better understand the risks associated with Sandy-like storms and to identify the most effective ways to address them. USACE, for example, is undertaking a comprehensive study to determine how best to reduce risks from floods and storms along the North Atlantic Coast. And the United States Geological Survey has developed a science plan aimed at connecting scientific information to management decisions about preparation for future storm-related hazards – including impacts on coastal habitats, fish and wildlife, beaches, and more.

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    Learn more about Energy and Environment, Technology

  • Six American Scientists Win Nobel Prizes

    Posted by Connor Schmidt on October 28, 2013 at 10:23 AM EDT

    This month, six Americans, including three chemists and three biologists, were honored with one of the scientific community’s highest honors, the Nobel Prize. Sharing the 2013 Prize in Physiology or Medicine were James E. Rothman, Randy W. Schekman, and Thomas C. Südhof, while the 2013 Prize in Chemistry went to Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt, and Arieh Warshel. OSTP Director John P. Holdren called each of the winners to congratulate them on their outstanding achievements, and will host a celebratory meeting with them at the White House before they travel to Sweden to collect their awards in December.

    In the field of Physiology or Medicine, the Nobel Prize Committee selected the winners “for their discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells.” As that language suggests, cell interiors are busy places, with molecules such as hormones and enzymes getting hauled like cargo inside bubble-like vesicles and then released at incredibly specific times and locations. The three laureates dramatically enhanced understanding of vesicle traffic-control in cells, providing insights that have proven critical to the study of diseases, brain signaling, hormone release, and neurological and immunological disorders, among other biological processes.

    Schekman, of the University of California, Berkeley, was supported by funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) as he studied mutations and various defects within cells to reveal three classes of genes that control different aspects of cellular transport systems.

    Rothman, of Yale University, also received NSF funding and discovered a protein complex that targets vesicles and then binds them to their destination like two sides of a zipper. The proteins bind only in specific combinations, ensuring that each vesicle is delivered to its correct destination within a cell before releasing its contents.

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  • New S&T Roadmap Sets Course for Biological Response and Recovery

    Posted by Jayne Morrow on October 25, 2013 at 5:15 PM EDT

    Today, OSTP released a Biological Incident Response and Recovery Science and Technology Roadmap to help ensure that decision makers and first responders are equipped with the information and tools needed to effectively respond to and recover from a biological incident—whether naturally occurring (such as an influenza pandemic), accidental (such as a laboratory spill),  or intentional (such as a bioterror attack).

    A catastrophic biological incident could threaten the Nation’s human, animal, plant, environmental, and economic health, as well as America’s national security. Such an event would demand swift and effective responses in order to minimize loss of life and other adverse consequences or, in the case of suspected criminal activity or terrorism, to prevent additional attacks.

    Standing ready to respond to a biological incident requires ongoing data and information collection, data integration and scientific analysis, evidence-based review, strategic decision making, and continuous coordination across government and with nongovernmental partners. In addition, an effective response and recovery process requires the coordination of data and capabilities from several sectors—such as public health, law enforcement, waste management, infrastructure management, transportation, and more. 

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