CHIPS and Science Act boosts U.S. technology investment

NSF will receive a significant $81 billion over the next five years, once Biden signs the bill as expected.

It will use $20 billion of those funds to establish a Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP) to rapidly develop technologies such as artificial intelligence, 6G communications and quantum computing.

The new directorate crosses all topic areas, helping more ideas make it across what entrepreneurs call the “valley of death” to deployment, said Margaret Martonosi, assistant director for NSF’s Computer and Information Science and Engineering directorate. The “valley of death” refers to the period before a startup business makes any money after it launches a product.

With the additional dollars NSF would receive from the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, Martonosi said there could be a “richer set of entities” funded The new tech directorate will manage NSF programs related to funding small businesses, as well as “transition to scale” awards that help technologies make it to commercialization, she said. TIP is about “creating a framework that will make it happen more often, more easily and across more topic areas,” Martonosi said.

“Every year, we have billions of dollars of highly rated, meritorious proposals that we simply cannot fund because we only have resources for a small fraction of them,” she said. “The idea of something like the science part of [the CHIPS and Science Act] is to make more of those ideas couple into the resources they need to actually bring benefits to the nation.”

Meanwhile, the Department of Commerce would receive $11 billion over five years to establish regional technology hubs focused on technology development and expanding U.S. innovation capabilities.

NIST would get $9 billion and “more flexibility” to partner with the private sector on critical technology research and development of standards for emerging tech industries, including quantum science information, semiconductors and advanced communications technologies.

The bill also authorizes $40.5 million through 2027 to establish a Foundation for Energy Security and Innovation affiliated with the Department of Energy. The foundation is tasked with working with the private sector to raise funds supporting the “creation, development and commercialization of innovative technologies that address tomorrow’s energy challenges,” according to a legislative summary.