Our Programs

The United States has stood apart from the rest of the world during the past half-century in its record of sustained innovation – across industries old and new, and through the ups and downs of economic cycles – yet today faces new realities and imperatives transforming the context for innovation leadership.

Rapid and accelerating changes in technology have contributed to a turbulent and transforming nature of innovation beyond anything experienced in human history, creating new opportunities for nations around the world to develop their own, distinctive innovation ecosystems. The world today is dramatically more interconnected and fast-paced, making real the potential to spark imagination through shared ideas and networks. The increased access to constantly evolving tools of innovation and emerging business models allow the individual and institution alike to discover, conceptualize, develop and scale a disruptive innovation.

In that vein, the Council launched a new, flagship initiative, the National Commission on Innovation and Competitiveness Frontiers (Commission) – a multi-year national movement to transform the way in which we innovate across the United States, and to drive long-term productivity and inclusive prosperity – is making a tangible impact on rewiring America to succeed in this changing global innovation landscape.

Phase 1 of the National Commission - kicked off in 2019 (learn more about the kick-off by reading its summary, Launch) – generated during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic a seminal report, Competing in the Next Economy, outlining 50+ strategic recommendations to improve U.S. innovation tenfold: 10X.

Phase 2, debuting in Fall 2022 after a “test run” with a major Mountain West Innovation Summit, will focus new policy-generating Working Groups four key and connected pillars, outlined in a new concept paper, Competing in the Next Economy: Adapting to a Changing World:

• The Future of Sustainability
• The Future of Technology: Developing and Deploying Disruptive Technologies at Speed and Scale
• The Future of Work: Developing, Supporting, and Expanding the Modern Innovation Workforce in an Era of Creative Destruction
• The Future of Place-Based Innovation: Broadening and Deepening the U.S. Innovation Ecosystem

Please check back often for the latest updates as the Commission embarks on this new path to move the United States beyond resiliency and into a position to thrive, not in spite of turbulence and transformation, but because of it.

LAUNCH

Competing in the Next Economy

Sustainability: Pursuing Innovation with Purpose

Phase 2: Competing in the Next Economy – Adapting to a Changing World 

Executive Vice President Chad Evans