Mapping the Enabling Conditions for the Mountain West’s Competitiveness Strategy for the Next 25 Years

Overview

During the Mountain West Competitiveness Conversation, attendees heard from experts on a variety of topics—spanning semiconductors, cyber security, advanced nuclear energy technologies; and the growing talent challenges and opportunities facing the Mountain West. This final panel tied together the multiday summit, examining the enabling conditions essential for the region to remain competitive over the next quarter century. As the state plans for its future, it is critical to understand the factors at the intersection of policy, infrastructure, education, innovation, energy, and workforce development propelling the Mountain West forward.

Key Session Insights

As Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Council on Competitiveness Mr. Chad Evans made it clear, the Mountain West has a lot of opportunity to look forward to. The two previous days of panels convincingly made the case that the region has numerous challenges and opportunities ahead of it in building an innovation-based economy. In a world of increasing competition, radical change, and evolving technologies, innovation is an issue of both economic and national security. But as the need for leadership in innovation grows by the day, an unbridled Mountain West has the opportunity to make transformational changes, both at home and nationwide.

This change cannot come too quickly, as the challenges facing both the region and the nation continue to mount. The critical infrastructure systems that underpin our modern society are increasingly intertwined, leaving the whole vulnerable to both malicious acts and unforeseen accidents that can cause havoc. Cybersecurity grows as an area where proactive and radical change is needed, as digital infrastructure becomes an integral part of every facet of our lives. Electricity demand is growing at an unprecedented pace, having doubled in North America in just the past few years and showing little sign of slowing down. While these challenges could hamstring the nation’s ability to innovate, they also present the Mountain West with a once-in-a-generation opportunity to lead the nation in solving them.

Mr. Evans asked both of his fellow panelists what they perceived as the biggest opportunities and challenges facing the Mountain West over the next quarter century. Vice President of Research & Economic Development at Boise State University Dr. Nancy Glenn put forward that the two biggest areas to focus on were education and climate. While an incredible innovation ecosystem is developing in the Mountain West, and in Idaho specifically, its growth will be limited if it doesn’t have the workforce to supply it. From her perspective, the state’s current efforts to get workers into the innovation workforce are inadequate and require a “radical” rethink. From the perspective of a university, whose primary function is to educate students who will ultimately form the innovation workforce, Glenn asked how Boise State and other higher education institutions can better partner with industry to create opportunities for students to engage with, and eventually become a part of, that ecosystem. For climate, the Mountain West faces unique vulnerabilities including farmland desertification and pressure on water supplies critical for industry, consumers, and power generation. A reminder of the region’s vulnerability to climate change was brought home by the cloud of wildfire smoke that hung over Boise for the duration of the Competitiveness Conversation. But while the region faces vulnerabilities, it also has opportunities to lead the fight against climate change. Advanced energy production is a cornerstone of the emerging innovation ecosystem, meaning that Idaho is well-positioned to help blunt the effects of climate change while also securing the enormous economic opportunities that entails.

Deputy Laboratory Director for Science & Technology & Chief Research Officer for Idaho National Laboratory Dr. Todd Combs echoed his colleague’s view that climate change was both a challenge and an opportunity for the region. In his view, more attention needs to be paid to the question of securing supplies of the critical minerals needed to fuel an energy transition. Going one step further, he suggested that the country expand its focus from critical minerals to strategic materials, including things like copper, phosphate, and uranium that, while not currently getting as much attention as a vulnerability, nonetheless are an absolute requirement for the functioning of a clean economy. Of course, mining as an industry has a negative reputation when it comes to environmental concerns, but Combs suggested that, like the nuclear industry, better education about the realities of modern mining and the unparalleled necessity of mining to our national competitiveness may help. But along with securing critical materials, there also needs to be attention paid to building out the region’s infrastructure. Finding investment for new infrastructure – like EV chargers – necessary to sustain the region’s growth will be a deciding factor in the rate at which the Mountain West can expand. Finally, Combs agreed that education and workforce development are still huge challenges. It has proven difficult to get people interested in the research path, but better advertising the desirability of innovation as a career may prove successful. For example, Combs noted that at Idaho National Laboratory the average salary is $120,000. Making the case of innovation as a lucrative career path may be invaluable in drawing in greater public interest.

Local leaders wanted participants to leave Idaho with a sense of the people who lived there. When asked what they wanted Conversation attendees to leave Boise with, both leaders responded by outlining what made the people of the Mountain West unique. For Combs, that was a spirit of entrepreneurship, resilience, and a can-do attitude that is ready to face the challenges presented to the region and turn them into opportunities, making the Mountain West the envy of innovators the world over. For Glenn, it was the people’s connection to the land that defined them, describing how residents of Idaho come together to work to solve problems based on their common appreciation of the natural environment that they live in. Together, these attributes, shaped by the region’s rural character, deep personal connectivity, and history of self-reliance, position the Mountain West to take its place as a leading innovation hub, both for the United States and the world.