Guidance

UK Science and Innovation Network Country Snapshot, USA 2021

Updated 10 September 2021

US Science and Innovation Landscape

The United States spends almost $550 billion per year (2.8% of GDP) on research and development—the most of any country. US scientists and innovators demonstrate excellence in nearly every research field and economic sector.

The majority of American R&D (73%) is funded and operated by the private sector. Consequently, public research funding, largely the domain of the federal government, is strongly focussed toward fundamental science rather than innovation. At the federal level, science funding is highly decentralised, with over 20 executive departments and agencies supporting research, the largest being the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Department of Energy (DOE), and the Department of Defense (DOD). Federal laboratories span the country, including the 17 DOE National Laboratories, and the 90+ labs of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) acts as a convener and coordinates cross-agency priorities on broad federal science initiatives. Many federal agencies also provide competitive or strategic research funding to external delivery partners, mainly the vast network of US public and private universities.

In addition to the US federal system, state and local governments have considerable discretion to provide funding or policy support for science and innovation, although this varies widely across the country. Innovation programmes are often tailored to fit a state’s economic focus - for example, life sciences in Massachusetts, agriculture in Iowa - and may be supported by public and private stakeholders, including local universities.

US Science & Innovation Priorities

President Joe Biden has set out a number of policy goals relating to strengthening US S&I scientific capacity, among these:

• Establishing a new ARPA agency for health (ARPA-H) to drive transformational innovations in diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease;
• Delivering significant budget increases to offices in NIH and CDC that investigate the impacts of climate change on human health;
• Increasing funding for clean energy innovations by $10 billion
• Ensuring that the US is the world leader in emerging and critical technologies, especially in competition with China

The American AI Initiative was launched by a 2020 Act of Congress, and established a National AI Initiative Office in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. It boosted AI investments at more than a dozen federal agencies, including NSF (+$4.8 billion over five years), DOE (+$1.15 billion), and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (+390 million). It also established AI research institutes within NSF and DOE, and called for a task force to look at creating a national research cloud. The National Quantum Initiative, launched by a 2019 Act of Congress, commits the federal government to spending up to $1.2B to support the development of the American quantum information science (QIS) sector. As part of a broad strategy, the initiative stimulates quantum research through grant programmes and funding for R&D hubs; puts forward support for academic training of the quantum workforce; expands federal and private infrastructure for the QIS sector; and seeks to promote international cooperation on quantum with trusted partners.

UK-US Science and Innovation Cooperation

The UK and US have a long history in S&I collaboration, and there are countless examples of organic partnerships between researchers, innovators, and funders. Building upon this, in 2017 the two countries signed a government-to-government Science & Technology Agreement, which outlines a commitment to collaborate on world-class science and innovation. BEIS and DOE have established bilateral cooperation on a number of projects including a £65 million investment by the UK to support the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment hosted by Fermilab, plus joint work on nuclear energy and fusion. More recently, in 2020 the UK and US agreed a Statement of Intent to jointly develop programmes in artificial intelligence R&D.

Science and technology cooperation was reaffirmed as a core tenet of the bilateral relationship in the New Atlantic Charter and the Joint Statement issued by the Prime Minister and President Biden in June 2021.

UK Science and Innovation Network in the US

The Science and Innovation Network in the US includes 13 officers working across seven regions to develop science and innovation opportunities for the benefit of the UK. The team is led from the British Embassy in Washington DC.

In 2021-22, SIN US priority workstreams focus on three overarching themes: Energy, Climate, and Environment; Health and Life Sciences; and Emerging Technologies. These workstreams reflect both high-level HMG campaigns (for example on climate ahead of COP26, or to encourage action on anti-microbial resistance) and the breadth of opportunity for bilateral partnerships at the US federal and regional levels.

SIN US supports multi-stakeholder UK-US research and innovation collaborations; identifying and supporting emerging opportunities for UK business; tracking and influencing US science and innovation policy; and supporting UK policy development with US insights. The team works closely with colleagues in the UK government like the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and other UK organisations. There is also a strong partnership with UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) who have a US office in Washington DC.

Our Work and Impact

In the past few years SIN US has:

• Delivered key insights for HMG into the role of S&I in the US experience of Covid-19 through reporting and relationship brokering, and catalysing new UK-US collaborations to study ‘long Covid’
• Grown UK-US cancer research partnerships, including leveraging $225M from the US National Cancer Institute to fund collaborations with Cancer Research UK
• Showcased UK expertise in offshore wind to US coastal states, leading to a UK-Maine MOU on OSW cooperation
• Facilitated the UK joining the Global Power Systems Transformation (G-PST) Consortium; bringing together power system operators and other key institutions to implement technologies to improve grid reliability, resiliency, and security – thereby enabling the transition to a global clean energy system. BEIS SOS Kwasi Kwarteng helped launch it officially as part of the Biden Climate Summit in April 2021 alongside US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.
• Sponsored a special climate-focused issue of the Journal of Science Policy & Governance, encouraging early-career US scientists to get involved in UK-aligned climate action and raise awareness of COP26.
• Produced virtual events addressing climate, nature and biodiversity at major US events such as the World Food Prize, Blue Tech Week, and the Midwest Climate Summit to highlight UK thought leadership and research expertise for hundreds of civil society stakeholders and the wider public.
• Worked with US Centres for Disease Control and Wellcome Trust to publish a report on environmental AMR, featured in Nature. This report ultimately influenced the adoption of environmental AMR guidance in the US National Action Plan on AMR (published October 2020)
• Opened new opportunities for UK-US collaboration on innovation for smart cities, including membership for UK cities and universities in the US Metrolab Network
• Convened UK and US researchers, clinicians, and data scientists to discuss how AI can be used to strengthen maternal health, establishing new partnerships
• Helped UK robotics researchers set up new collaborations with US academic and industry
• Facilitated R&D MOUs with US partners on mobility and precision agriculture
• Helped UK healthtech SMEs access a major incubator/accelerator programme at Texas Medical Centre
• Worked with the United Nations, Athena SWAN, Bloomberg LP and others to form a partnership which uses data to accelerate the closing of the gender pay gap in STEM fields.
• Since 2016, supported £188 million in export wins, £194 million in FDI, and leveraged £156 million in R&D funding

For further information or to reach an individual SIN US officer, write to usa.si@fco.gov.uk.

September 2021

The information in this document is believed correct at the time of distribution. However, the UK government accepts no liability for any loss or damage incurred as a result of any inaccuracies, however caused.