Summary¹

For centuries, chemistry has played a central role in producing a body of scientific knowledge leading to products, processes, and technologies that have transformed health, energy, food and water production, and many other critical components of human well-being. These outcomes also had a significant economic impact, not only in the production of the chemicals and materials themselves but in other sectors of the economy that are enabled by these products. There are numerous examples that illustrate the importance of chemical knowledge, such as the production of synthetic fertilizers for agriculture, the processing of carbon to meet energy needs, the microfabrication of electronic devices, and the synthesis and production of life-saving molecules. All of these products were derived from chemical knowledge developed over decades that led to enormous impacts in the chemical economy. To continue to build upon the momentum of chemical knowledge contributing to breakthroughs and large impacts in the chemical economy, it is important to consider where new knowledge, tools, and technologies are needed in the chemical sciences, in addition to considering how chemistry can continue to innovate while having a positive impact on the environment. To accomplish this, the chemical enterprise must consider the needs for training, educating, and preparing a future workforce, and how the funding landscape can best encourage future advances (Figure S-1).

To consider the impact of fundamental chemical research on the chemical economy, and understand what strategies are needed to ensure growth in and leadership from the U.S. chemical enterprise, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the American Chemical Society asked the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to convene a committee of experts to consider these issues. The committee was tasked with understanding the role of the chemical industry in the chemical economy, understanding how chemical research has impacted society and the economy, and exploring strategies and options for research investments that ensure U.S. leadership while considering environmental sustainability and a diverse chemical economy workforce. Throughout the information-gathering and -synthesizing process, the committee discovered several key themes that

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¹ Most references are not included in the Summary. Please see the associated report text for full citations.

pervade the report: the balance of U.S. competitiveness and collaboration, a changing landscape in the chemical enterprise, emerging technologies, and a focus on sustainability (Box S-1).

ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF CHEMISTRY

The size of the chemical economy is quite expansive and is a substantial portion of the U.S. economy. All sectors reliant on the U.S. chemical economy are responsible for $5.2 trillion, or 25%, of the U.S. gross domestic product, and the entire chemical enterprise supports 4.1 million jobs in the United States. The United States is home to 10 of the top 50 chemical companies and remains very competitive in the global chemical economy. However, other countries have seen large sustained investments in their chemical and overall research enterprises, including China and several others, and their rapid advances are starting to threaten U.S. leadership in chemistry.

Fundamental chemical research has played a critical role in the size and impact of the U.S. chemical economy. This can be directly shown with examples such as the development of lithium-ion batteries, the adoption of biocatalysis in synthetic methodologies, advances related to silicon chips, and widely impactful pharmaceuticals such as oral contraceptives and those developed to fight SARS-CoV-2. Additionally, when looking at chemistry-related patents, which are used as a proxy for the economic value of fundamental chemical research, we see a spillover of chemistry knowledge and products into other areas of the economy.

Conclusion 2-1: Chemical research has an outsized economic value based on the spillover of chemical knowledge and products into other areas and the fact that chemical patents, as well as patents that rely on chemical knowledge, have a higher average value than other patents. Chemical patents accounted for 14% of all corporate patents between 2000 and 2020, but they accounted for 23% of all value in the same time period.

Conclusion 2-3: Chemistry is a foundational and central scientific discipline, and sustained investment in fundamental chemical research provides the chemical knowledge for technology development, generating unexpected discoveries that are the basis for innovation. These innovations directly influence the chemical economy, environment, and quality of life and also advance knowledge and discovery in many other scientific and technological disciplines, such as the life sciences, information technology, earth sciences, and engineering.

Conclusion 2-4: The chemical economy is critically important for our national economy and our leadership in the international chemical enterprise. This leadership relies heavily on advances in fundamental chemistry that drive the creation of new tools, technologies, processes, and products and enables environmental considerations. However, our nation’s leadership in the chemical industry cannot be taken for granted, and this leadership needs continued and sustained nurturing and support.

To take action on this broad set of conclusions, the committee suggests a set of wide-ranging recommendations with an emphasis on growing and strengthening the U.S. chemical economy and U.S. competitiveness.

Recommendation 1: To foster fundamental chemical research and maintain U.S. competitiveness in the chemical economy, the U.S. chemical enterprise should support funding, workforce, and policy structures that attract international researchers and create a nurturing environment for all research talent.

Sub-Recommendation 1-1: Because it is not possible to predict where the next fundamental breakthroughs will come from, funding agencies that support the chemical sciences, such as the U.S. Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Defense, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and U.S. Department of Agriculture, should fund the largest breadth of fundamental chemical research projects possible. This should include funding for a large range of topics in chemistry, as well as different scales of research projects, ranging from small grants for individual laboratories, to large-scale collaborations and facilities.

Sub-Recommendation 1-2: Participants in the chemical economy including chemical industry, pharmaceutical companies, and instrumentation developers should continue to invest in research and development at universities and scientific research institutions in the United States and should increase investments in broad areas of fundamental chemical research, including a focus on environmental sustainability.

Sub-Recommendation 1-3: The U.S. government should continue to produce policies that support international and open exchange of ideas in the chemical sciences and should engage policy and security experts, academic researchers, and industry professionals

when considering any limitations on open engagement that are meant to mitigate economic or security risks to the U.S. chemical enterprise.

Sub-Recommendation 1-4: To help guide policy and funding decisions around chemical research, federal agencies who fund and track data related to scientific research should collaborate to collect, and make available, the tools and data needed to understand the impact of fundamental chemical research on the chemical economy. As a part of this initiative, large-scale evidence-building efforts to collect, standardize, use, and interpret these data should be funded.

CHEMICAL RESEARCH AND SUSTAINABILITY

Along with the advances in chemistry, it is important to remember that the chemical economy is also responsible for considerable negative impacts on the environment, including the production of greenhouse gases, the mismanagement of plastic waste, and cases where toxic chemicals have been released into the air or dumped in soil or water. Ironically, chemical research will be critical to solving many of these issues and help the world move toward achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.² To build upon previous innovation, pressures in the form of policy will need to incentivize sustainability, decarbonization, and environmental stewardship. While there are a number of mechanisms available, market- and purchasing-based policies are particularly important tools for supporting a green and circular economy and encouraging innovation in green chemistry. Some of these include national policies such as greener procurement and international policies such as regulation.

As the chemical enterprise continues to look for avenues where chemical research could make the largest impact in sustainability, there are a number of concrete areas where initial steps have already been made and further advancement is possible. The areas that are prime for chemical innovation include

• better measurements for life-cycle assessments;
• enhancement of recycling technologies and co-design of plastic products for recyclability;
• sustainable syntheses;
• sustainable feedstocks and energy sources;
• carbon capture, utilization, and storage;
• monitoring and improving air quality;
• monitoring and improving water safety; and
• monitoring and improving food safety.

To accomplish these, there are important changes to make as the chemical enterprise considers its role in sustainability.

Conclusion 3-1: To implement a circular economy, the future will require a paradigm shift in the way products are designed, manufactured, and used, and how the waste products are collected and reused. These new processes, and the use of clean energy and new feedstocks to enable these processes, will require novel chemistries, tools, and new fundamental research at every stage of design.

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² See https://sdgs.un.org/goals.

Conclusion 3-2: Transitioning the chemical economy into a new paradigm around sustainable manufacturing, in which environmental sustainability is balanced with the need for products that will improve quality of life, enhance security, and increase U.S. competitiveness, will require substantial investment and innovation from industry, government, and their academic partners to create and implement new chemical processes and practices.

To accomplish this paradigm shift in the chemical sciences, many steps will need to be taken, and a concerted effort will be needed from government, industry, and academia.

Recommendation 3: The chemical industry and its partners at universities, scientific research institutions, and national labs should create opportunities to collaborate so that the objectives of fundamental research can directly assist in the design process of companies implementing new processes or practices toward environmental stewardship, sustainability, and clean energy.

While the conclusions and recommendations above take a broad view of environmental sustainability, and think through a shift of the entire chemical economy, there are specific conclusions and recommendations that apply to researchers. For chemical research to evolve with, and help advance, the moving landscape of the chemical economy toward sustainability, the committee makes two key conclusions, one of which is included below.

Conclusion 3-3: As fundamental chemical research continues to evolve, the next generation of research directions will prioritize the future of environmental sustainability and new energy technologies. Keeping sustainability principles in mind during every stage of research and development will be critical to accomplishing this goal.

To encourage academic researchers to keep environmental sustainability in mind at every stage of research, the committee noted that grant mechanisms usually do not ask researchers to consider the environmental impact of their work unless it is directly related to the grant or contract the researcher is applying for. Although not ubiquitous in grant writing, “broader impacts statements” have been an important mechanism in encouraging researchers to think through how their labs and research are interacting with the community around them. To similarly encourage all academic chemical researchers to keep environmental sustainability and stewardship at the forefront when considering all different types of research endeavors, the committee thought an optional “environmental impacts” statement would be the best way to accomplish this.

Recommendation 4: All chemistry-related research grants and proposals should have an option to explain the “environmental impacts” of the proposed research as an option under the “broader impacts” statement. The “environmental impacts” statement should include a summary of the possible environmental impacts, what is being done to mitigate those impacts, and any outcomes from the research that will directly impact environmental sustainability.

CHALLENGING THE UNDERLYING ASSUMPTIONS OF CHEMICAL RESEARCH

As a part of the paradigm shift toward sustainability, there is a transition happening in the way people collect and use energy. This change is happening rapidly and is affecting the materials, technologies, and processes that are needed to effectively implement the energy landscape. Chemical

research and the chemical economy have been critical to the implementation of the current energy landscape, and there are many areas ripe for chemical discovery in a new energy landscape that prioritizes clean alternatives and decarbonization. To accomplish these scientific advances more effectively, there are several factors to take into account, such as the changing needs for metals and minerals that arise with the increase in electric vehicles and complications with acquiring metals based on shifting international politics. By understanding what is most likely for the energy landscape in the future, chemical researchers can make decisions about what the pressing needs will be to help move sustainability forward.

Conclusion 3-5: As the world moves deeper into its current energy transition—including the switch to electric vehicles, the implementation of clean energy alternatives, and the use of new feedstock sources—coupled with an increasing focus on circularity, the committee expects that decarbonization, computation, measurement, and automation will significantly alter the operations and processes of current industries, creating new opportunities and challenges that will benefit from fundamental chemistry and chemical engineering advances.

Recommendation 5: Changes in energy sources complemented by the technology and processes offered by chemical companies will lead to entire industries being created, transformed, and terminated. A group of experts from chemistry and other impacted disciplines, who represent the chemical economy and academic research, should be convened to assess the implications of these industrial shifts and understand their impacts on current chemical research paradigms. Based on the information from these discussions, funding agencies and the chemical industry should put money toward interesting opportunities for chemical research that might emerge based on these trends.

EMERGING AREAS AND NEEDS IN THE CHEMICAL SCIENCES

For chemistry to continue making advances in different areas of sustainability, emerging areas of chemical research, along with new tools and technologies, will be critical. Among the various tools and technologies that are available to scientists at present, a few are key pillars that are particularly impactful to understanding the molecular world and promoting real-world discovery:

• Measurement: Our ability to quantify and visualize molecules and their interactions is becoming faster and more accurate and can be accomplished on smaller instrumentation. This is driving new research with increasing accessibility to measurement capabilities and the subsequent measurement data.
• Automation: High-throughput techniques for measurement, synthesis, and other areas of chemistry, particularly in combination with flow chemistry, offer new avenues to researchers by enabling large numbers of chemicals or reactions to be tested, measured, and analyzed, and thus to more quickly determine new research questions to pursue.
• Computation: Computational chemistry is integral to fundamental research in every discipline of chemistry, and fundamental, multidisciplinary research in chemistry, physics, and engineering has played a critical role in the ongoing development of modern computing architecture.
• Catalysis: To establish new methods of synthesis and manufacturing that do not rely on energy-intensive processes, new advances in catalysis will be important. Promising

• methods include photocatalysis, electrocatalysis, and biocatalysis, coupled with efforts to synergize theory with experimentation.

Conclusion 4-2: Measurement, automation, computation, and catalysis are the enabling tools and technologies of fundamental chemical research that will have a substantial impact on both the adoption of novel methodologies and future discoveries in the chemical economy.

ROLE OF CHEMISTRY IN TEAM SCIENCE

Major chemical discoveries that have large economic and societal impacts do not happen in a vacuum. Much scientific research in areas such as the life sciences, physics, engineering, and the social sciences contribute to every important chemical and technological advance. Additionally, the converse is true. Chemical knowledge contributes to many diverse fields of science and technology. When teams of researchers with diverse expertise gather to solve a central problem in a critical area, chemistry drives basic knowledge and practical application in order to help teams accomplish major advances. The emerging areas of measurement, automation, computation, and catalysis all rely heavily on different fields of research in order to successfully advance. The following conclusion and recommendation emphasize this.

Conclusion 4-1: Chemistry is an enabling scientific discipline that will continue to have the largest impact on society when chemists collaborate with experts from other areas such as engineering, biology, physics, computation, and data science to generate new fundamental knowledge and create translational impact at larger scales.

Recommendation 2: Research groups across all scales—small-to-medium interdisciplinary teams, large-scale collaborations, and facilities—should reflect the centrality of chemistry to science and engineering. Because of the central and enabling nature of chemistry, experts across chemistry and its subdisciplines should be considered when there are large interdisciplinary projects, highly collaborative institutions, national lab research, and other team-based scientific activities.

CHEMICAL DATA AND ANALYSIS

In assessing emerging tools and technologies, a common thread was detected: well-curated and accessible data benefit all aspects of chemistry. Although there have been some efforts to collect and share chemical data, the practice is not universal, and there is a particularly large dearth of negative data in chemistry. A large supply of both positive and negative data would be particularly helpful for developing models and for understanding different molecular properties and interactions, as well as learning how to more accurately measure chemical systems. For progress to continue, researchers must make a concerted effort to establish standards for how chemical data are collected, stored, and distributed, leading to the following conclusion and recommendation.

Conclusion 4-3: The ability to collect, document, store, share, and use chemistry-related data is needed to advance the use of new tools, such as computation and automation in fundamental chemical research, and increase the accessibility of chemical research to a larger community of practitioners. This information architecture will produce an

indispensable tool for the chemical sciences research community to increase the pace and efficiency of innovation by fully harnessing advances made with previous research investments.

Recommendation 6: The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), in consultation with the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, the American Chemical Society, and other global chemistry professional societies, should lead an effort to explore pathways that provide an open-source, accessible, and standardized way for chemical researchers to store, share, and use data from chemical experiments. In establishing these pathways, NIST should seek input from professional societies and stakeholders from different areas of chemical research and data science so that they can best understand the infrastructure needs of different research communities such as inorganic, organic, and analytical chemists. Once standards and data repositories are established, publishers should require researchers to submit all data related to reactions, measurements, or other chemical experiments to these established open-source repositories.

CHEMICAL WORKFORCE

When considering advances in fundamental chemical research and the chemical economy, there is an important emphasis on the individuals who are driving that work. While there are millions of employees in the chemical economy, this report focuses on the needs of those who go through chemistry and chemical engineering training programs. There are several critical components to training, preparing, and empowering the next-generation chemical workforce, including the need for a diverse workforce and equitable training practices, the need for well-developed mentorship and professional development programs, and an emphasis on educational training that is adaptable to the future needs of the chemical enterprise.

In building a diverse workforce that is developed through equitable training practices, it is important to incorporate well-developed mentorship and professional development programs at all levels of training. Opportunities exist at all stages of learning, including pre-college, undergraduate, graduate, postdoctoral, and beyond, to learn about chemical research and build knowledge and expertise with experienced professionals in the chemical sciences. Professional development is also a key component of these opportunities, and should be accessible and a continuous process throughout each person’s career. Effective mentorship at all levels of education is an important component of professional development and a critical component of building a diverse workforce. Many programs and chemistry professional societies offer opportunities to find and network with other professionals to build a broader mentorship network that fits the needs of each individual.

In addition to professional development and networking, training a future workforce will require chemistry curricula to be adaptable to the future needs of the chemical enterprise. Chemistry is constantly adopting new tools, methods, and technologies, in order to better understand, measure, and build molecules and materials. It is important that chemistry curricula have the necessary flexibility to incorporate and teach new and emerging techniques. Introducing greater flexibility into chemistry and chemical engineering curricula without placing undue burden on faculty who already have a substantial number of teaching requirements will entail communication and collaboration across departmental leadership, university leadership, and accreditation bodies.

There are three conclusions that incorporate some of the ideas related to an emerging chemical workforce.

Conclusion 5-1: A skilled science and engineering workforce paired with a diverse, inclusive, and equitable science and engineering research enterprise is central to a thriving, nimble chemical economy equipped to respond to emerging challenges and maintain U.S. competitiveness.

Conclusion 5-2: The current structures and systems governing funding, promotion, retention, and professional development are in conflict and can stymie holistic career advancement for students, faculty, and research staff.

Conclusion 5-5: Creating an equitable and inclusive learning environment that exposes trainees of the future chemical workforce to new and innovative chemical tools, technologies, and instrumentation, as well as interdisciplinary knowledge and critical collaboration skills, will require a serious and sustained investment from funding agencies, universities, industry partnerships, and accreditation programs. This investment is critical because the tools and practices that enable chemical research are constantly evolving, and training programs must be able to adapt to best facilitate the learning of basic-to-advanced chemical principles that will help students succeed.

To properly address these conclusions on a practical level, the committee recommends that steps be taken to fund research in chemical education, continually reassess chemistry curricula, and continue to provide opportunities for professional development. The following recommendations lay out these ideas in more detail.

Recommendation 7-1: Funding agencies that support chemical research should put a substantial investment toward education research to continue enabling the development of innovative ways of teaching students about new and emerging concepts, tools, technologies, and instrumentation in chemistry while creating an inclusive learning environment for all students.

Recommendation 7-2: Universities, colleges, and accreditation programs should continually reassess their curriculum requirements and pedagogical practices to ensure that chemistry students in the chemical sciences are receiving state-of-the-art inclusive training and the most current chemical information and advances.

Recommendation 7-3: Universities and agencies that fund and support education in the chemical sciences should provide professional development at all levels, allowing for opportunities that are specific to the needs of each educational or career stage, such as programs that connect students with internships or resources for career exploration and providing faculty with professional development opportunities aimed at advancing their scholarship and teaching.

Recommendation 7-4: To continue progress in improving the diversity and equity of the chemical workforce, universities and chemical sciences departments should regularly assess their recruitment and retention practices related to trainees, faculty, and research staff. These assessments should be guided by relevant experts in research-informed equitable recruitment and retention practices of higher education institutions and units that also understand the nuances and details of the particular institution or entity. Institutions and units should continually take action and make meaningful investments based

on their assessments. This work should be reported in a timely and transparent fashion to the institutional community.

FUNDING CHEMICAL RESEARCH

The funding landscape for chemical research in the United States is quite broad and includes a diverse set of private and public sources. One of the major advantages of this broad network of funding opportunities is that many different types and scales of chemical research are able to seek out and secure funding. Despite this wide range of funding sources, there are specific programs or changes that have a high likelihood of being impactful to the U.S. chemical research enterprise and the chemical economy. One of these is the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) programs in chemistry. This is one of the few government funding mechanisms that supports opportunities to convert fundamental chemical research into a product, process, or technology that will impact the broader chemical economy. The following conclusion and recommendation highlight SBIR/STTR programs.

Conclusion 6-2: Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) programs have proven to be an important mechanism for advancing the chemical enterprise. There are many examples of fundamental chemical research being further pursued as a marketable product or process to contribute to the chemical economy through SBIR/STTR programs, and these programs also foster an emerging area of the chemical workforce where university researchers create and work in these small start-ups that are based on the grants from these programs.

Recommendation 8: Funding agencies should continue to support innovations in the chemical sciences through Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs in order to leverage their previous investments in fundamental research and allow researchers the opportunity to bring new products or processes to market.

In the landscape of public and private funding, one area that has become more prominent over the past several years is the rise of philanthropic support. While philanthropies have contributed to fundamental chemical research, relative to federal funding for basic research, philanthropy supports far fewer schools and research projects. The future of scientific funding will include larger percentages of money from philanthropic organizations and independent donations. To ensure that science works to address big societal issues such as climate change and human health, funders will need to invest in the fundamental chemistry that informs and is critical to so many other areas of science. The following conclusion and recommendation start to address these issues.

Conclusion 6-4: In the near term, foundation and individual philanthropic support is likely to grow as a resource for innovations in chemistry. This support provides an important opportunity to use scientific evidence and exploration to address challenges that will benefit all of society such as climate change and human health.

Recommendation 9: The American Chemical Society, along with other chemistry-related professional societies, universities, and their academic leaders, should explore mechanisms to be more proactive in communicating to philanthropists and foundations about the promise of fundamental chemistry in addressing national and global problems. University

and academic leaders should emphasize the importance of funding structures between philanthropic and federal funding mechanisms that ensure balance and complementarity.

To accomplish the chemical research described in this report, there is a critical need for laboratory space, instrumental facilities and support, access to computation, and much more. Infrastructure is critical for training the next generation of the chemical workforce, as educators continually rethink and adapt curricula based on new tools and technologies that will be critical to the future of research and industry. Having infrastructure in place gives institutions the ability to train students, researchers, and other professionals on these emerging technologies. These ideas are summarized with a conclusion and a supporting recommendation.

Conclusion 6-1: Investment in the infrastructure at research universities is not well supported. This diminishes the opportunities for many talented chemical researchers to use the newest tools, technologies, and instrumentation and prevents trainees from having access to the newest technologies being used in the chemical workforce.

Recommendation 10: The federal government should invest more to support research infrastructure at research institutions to ensure that talented chemical experts and trainees with outstanding ideas can be competitive for research awards.