The National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC), newly appropriated in the CHIPS and Science Act, is intended to be the central hub for research and engineering within the semiconductor ecosystem. This paper delves into the socioeconomic and geopolitical context of the CHIPS legislation, the infrastructure supporting the NSTC, and crucial business considerations for its success. Specifically, the authors highlight the potential benefits for smaller and medium-sized enterprises, which stand to gain the most from the NSTC.

Breaking up Big Tech companies could trigger unintended, and possibly irreparable, collateral damage to America’s quest to remain the world’s leader in new technologies, write Venkatesh Narayanamurti and Steven C. Currall.

The CHIPS Act may indeed be a watershed development for restoring America’s global leadership in research and development, but whether it truly marks an inflection point for American competitiveness remains to be seen. Global technological leadership is likely to be determined by much more than simply an influx of dollars.

Venkatesh Narayanamurti and Jeffrey Y. Tsao discuss lessons learned from the success of the great 20th- century industrial research labs and warn against three common misconceptions about what drives, and how one can stimulate, scientific and technological progress. They advocate for the value of learning and surprise, and for an irreverence for boundaries of all kind — between disciplines, science and technology, and the finding of new questions and new answers.

In a letter to the editors of The Wall Street Journal, Venkatesh Narayanamurti warns that breaking up large tech companies in the name of antitrust activity may sacrifice the scale necessary for success in artificial intelligence and quantum computing.

In reshaping the National Science Foundation and other institutions to best support innovation, policymakers should apply evidence-based principles drawn from scholarship and previous experience, write Steven Currall and Venkatesh Narayanamurti.

Over the past decade, there have been consistent alarm signals about U.S. leadership in science and technology. Venkatesh Narayanamurti argues that the remedy is not merely additional funding for R&D, but also more effective funding in technoscientific research, a key engine of innovation.

In The Genesis of Technoscientific Revolutions, Venkatesh Narayanamurti and Jeffrey Tsao propose a new and holistic system, a rethinking of the nature and nurturing of research. They share lessons from their vast research experience in the physical sciences and engineering, as well as from perspectives drawn from the history and philosophy of science and technology, research policy and management, and the evolutionary biological, complexity, physical, and economic sciences.

Technological innovation and widespread deployment of clean-energy technologies in emerging economies are critical for a global clean energy transition. Success or failure in this endeavour will have long-term energy and carbon consequences. A fundamental question exists about whether, and how, emerging economies can accelerate clean-energy transitions, given the unprecedented scales of their impending socio-economic and infrastructure transitions, and often-underdeveloped technological innovation capabilities and supporting finances.