In a hyper-competitive world where the pace of scientific and technological progress is at an all-time high, what is the role of the national labs in ensuring the continued leadership and security of the United States?
A recent report authored by the National Laboratory Directors Council, titled “Ensuring U.S. Leadership in a Competitive Future” (also known as “2024 Horizon Scan”), provides the perspective of the 17 DOE national laboratory directors.
The report identifies five areas in which national labs can make a significant contribution to U.S. competitiveness and security.
Accelerating Discovery and Advancing Technology
Other nations are making significant strides in the development and application of new, fast-growing, and critical technologies such as quantum information science, artificial intelligence, and bioengineering. To ensure that the U.S. stays in the lead, the DOE national labs’ expertise and infrastructure can be deployed to accelerate progress in key areas, including an energy-efficient computational ecosystem for the nation, next-generation semiconductors and microelectronics, quantum information systems, artificial intelligence, fusion energy, and omics innovations.
Powering Economic Prosperity through Future Energy Systems
National labs can significantly impact finding solutions to some of our biggest energy challenges. There are a multitude of ways national labs can make a difference, whether through research into alternative power sources, long-duration energy storage, grid modernization, nuclear energy, carbon management, or building and industry decarbonization.
Assuring Our National Security
The well-being of our citizens is threatened by extreme weather events, cyber threats that can damage critical infrastructure, and biosecurity concerns. Here, too, national labs can make a difference, through research into AI, environmental research, and biotechnology. The national labs can address a full spectrum of national security challenges and provide new tools to address these challenges.
Ensuring U.S. Science & Technology Leadership through World-Class Research Facilitie
Overall, the national lab system’s large-scale research facilities are unparalleled; however, today, countries around the world are developing new capabilities that could challenge American technological leadership. Strategic, long-range planning, with investments in critical new facilities and the upgrade or maintenance of existing facilities, is critical for the U.S. to maintain its leadership.
Training and Scaling the Science and Technology Workforce of the Future
The national labs employ nearly 80,000 people and host nearly 60,000 visiting scientists, students, and users of their scientific facilities each year and also work with many industry collaborators and community partners. The labs are thus in a position to introduce a broader science and engineering workforce to research in important sectors, including the most recent innovations and research approaches, thus multiplying the impact of the labs across the nation.
Read the full report.
