Dear Council on Competitiveness Community,
This past year’s National Competitiveness Forum was consequential for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, we welcomed our new Council Chair, Erik Fyrwald, CEO of IFF. Erik’s experience leading a research-driven, innovation-intensive enterprise comes at a pivotal moment for the Council — one that demands ambition, insight, and sustained cross-sector collaboration to meet the challenges ahead. And Erik outlined a bold vision for the Council’s 40th anniversary year in 2026.
And, of course, the 2025 NCF convened the Council’s broad, deep, and diverse Members across industry, academia, labor, and the national laboratories for a candid and forward-looking examination of the forces shaping productivity, national security, and shared prosperity. Against a backdrop of accelerating technological change and intensifying global competition, the NCF reinforced an urgent message: strengthening U.S. competitiveness will require moving with greater speed, scope, and scale — aligning talent, technology, infrastructure, investment, and policy in more deliberate and integrated ways.
We were honored to hear from leaders across our Membership, including National Commissioners, members of the University Leadership Forum, and members of our Technology Leadership and Strategy Initiative, alongside senior government officials, including the Honorable Darío Gil, Under Secretary for Science at the U.S. Department of Energy, and Representatives Stephanie Bice (R-OK) and Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), co-chairs of the bipartisan House Biotech Caucus. Their engagement underscored the Council’s distinctive role as a trusted, nonpartisan convener at the intersection of innovation, competitiveness, and public policy.
During our Annual Dinner, I had the privilege — alongside Chair Erik Fyrwald — to present the 2025 National Competitiveness Award to four extraordinary leaders whose careers exemplify sustained dedication to the nation’s economic and productivity growth, public-private partnership, basic and applied research, and deployment of technology to the marketplace:
- The Hon. Laurie Locascio, Under Secretary of Commerce and Director Emeritus, National Institute of Standards and Technology; President and CEO, American National Standards Institute
- The Hon. Sethuraman “Panch” Panchanathan, Director Emeritus, National Science Foundation; University Professor of Technology and Innovation and Foundation Chair in Computing and Augmented Intelligence, Arizona State University
- Dr. Steven Ashby, Laboratory Director Emeritus, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Senior Vice President for Strategic Partnerships, Battelle
- The Hon. Steve Isakowitz, President and CEO Emeritus, The Aerospace Corporation
I extend my sincere thanks to everyone who made the 2025 National Competitiveness Forum possible — our Members, speakers, special guests, and generous sponsors. A list of sponsors appears just below this letter. I also invite you to read my January Forbes.com article highlighting six key insights from the 2025 NCF.
The NCF would not have been nearly as rich if its discussions were not informed by a year of sustained Council impact across regions, sectors, and policy domains. Let me share a few 2025 reflections, a very important year for the Council.
We held five editions of our Competitiveness Conversations Across America series in 2025, expanding both the geography and demography of the nation’s innovation economy. Convenings took place in San Antonio, TX, focusing on cybersecurity and critical infrastructure; Boulder, CO, examining the intersection of quantum technologies, resilience, energy, and national security; Santa Fe, NM, spotlighting next-generation computing, advanced manufacturing, and place-based innovation; Medford, MA, exploring opportunities in the blue and green economies; and Pittsburgh, PA, which convened U.S. and global leaders to examine how AI, healthcare, and emerging technologies are shaping the industries of tomorrow in partnership with the Global Federation of Competitiveness Councils.
In 2025, we also advanced the national competitiveness agenda through major Council-led reports, including the “National Commission on Innovation and Competitiveness Frontiers’” Competing in the Next Economy: Innovating in the Age of Disruption and Discontinuity, which we released at the start of the new Administration. This major report offers an action-oriented roadmap to strengthen U.S. productivity, resilience, and global leadership.
Complementing this, last year our Technology Leadership and Strategy Initiative released Compact for America, outlining ten concrete recommendations to accelerate technology translation, fortify the defense industrial base, and expand innovation ecosystems nationwide.
We also achieved a milestone with our bioeconomy convening in Lafayette, Indiana, hosted by National Commissioner Jim Stutelberg at Primient’s advanced processing facility. This gathering was a key launch point for our new initiative focused on the future of the U.S. bioeconomy — linking innovation, manufacturing, and supply-chain resilience as pillars of 21st-century competitiveness.
Internationally, we deepened collaboration with allies, launching Phase Two of the U.S.–Australia Strategic Innovation Alliance. Our delegation engaged government, industry, and research leaders, culminating in the U.S.–Australia Competitiveness Dialogue and the signing of a new Innovation Compact to advance sustained, institution-to-institution collaboration.
All of this work sets the stage for a consequential 2026.
This year, the Council marks its 40th anniversary — a moment to reflect on four decades of impact: from defining core drivers of competitiveness to shaping the America COMPETES Act to advancing transformational legislation like the CHIPS and Science Act to expanding the innovation economy to more places and people.
This milestone underscores a central reality: global competition for innovation capacity and capability now operates at a strategic level far beyond that of 1986. With China emerging as the most formidable technological, economic, and security competitor the United States has ever faced — and with productivity gains unevenly distributed across the economy — there has never been a greater need for a nonpartisan, action-oriented competitiveness agenda.
Looking ahead, our Competitiveness Conversations Across America series, under the auspices of the National Commission, will continue to spotlight innovation ecosystems shaping U.S. leadership. We hope you will join us for any/all of these upcoming regional leadership convenings, including:
- March 23–24, 2026, in Baltimore and College Park, MD, hosted by Morgan State University President David Wilson and University of Maryland President Darryll Pines, focusing on unlocking U.S. innovation in the AI and quantum era;
- April 29–30, 2026, in Omaha, NE, co-hosted by University of Nebraska System President Jeff Gold, centered on leading the new frontier in the global bioeconomy; and
- July 20–22, 2026, in San Diego, CA, (website coming soon) where University of California, San Diego Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla will welcome us to one of the world’s most dynamic innovation ecosystems.
Finally, please save the dates of December 16–17, 2026, and plan to join us in Washington, DC, for our 40th Anniversary National Competitiveness Forum — a defining moment to reflect, recommit, and help shape the next chapter of U.S. competitiveness.
As we begin the new year, I want to thank you for your continued leadership and commitment to delivering the Council’s mission. In an era defined by profound disruption and discontinuity, but also extraordinary opportunity, we look forward to working together to seize what lies ahead and advance U.S. productivity, security, and prosperity for all Americans.
Sincerely,
Deborah L. Wince-Smith
President & CEO
Council on Competitiveness
###
Read the full edition of the January 2026, Compete Connect newsletter, including much more about the Council's upcoming engagement opportunities and initiatives led by Council Members, below:
