Introduction

On September 22, 2022, the National Academy of Sciences, with support from the Kavli Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, held a symposium entitled “Endless Frontier 2022: Research and Higher Education Institutions for the Next 75 Years.” The event was a follow-up to a February 2020 NAS symposium convened to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Vannevar Bush’s landmark report Science, the Endless Frontier. This proceedings summarizes the 2022 symposium, which was held both online and in person in Washington, D.C. The committee that planned and convened the symposium included Alan Leshner (Chair), Mahdieh Aghazadeh, Kim Hunter Reed, Richard Meserve, Shirley Tilghman, and Michael Witherell.¹

Building on the 2020 symposium and on lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic, the September 2022 symposium sought to generate tools, strategies, and actionable steps that people and institutions can implement to ensure that science and technology continue to serve the public good. The symposium was designed to progress from broad perspectives that encompass the entire science and technology enterprise to consideration of more specific issues. Marcia McNutt, President of the National Academy of Sciences, Cynthia Friend, President of The Kavli Foundation, and Alan Leshner, Chair of the 2022 Endless Frontier Symposium Planning Committee, offered opening remarks, many of which are shared in the Preface. In the first of four subsequent sessions, a panel of experts in science and technology policy looked at the broad trends that are forcing institutions to adapt and change, including the rise of international competition, the need for a systems perspective on science and technology, the growing role of philanthropy in supporting research, and changes in the nature of science (Chapter 1).

The following three panels examined narrower questions. The panel, whose presentations are summarized in Chapter 2, discussed the “valley of death”—the often unbridged chasm between research discoveries and innovations that can improve human life. The next panel turned to ways of improving the technical and scientific workforce by ensuring inclusivity, increasing diversity, and improving training (Chapter 3). Returning in part to the broader perspective of Chapter 1, the final panel considered how the science and technology enterprise can be optimized to benefit society (Chapter 4), thereby reprising some of the issues covered in Chapters 2 and 3. Three members of the U.S. Congress provided videotaped statements that are included in this summary, and Adam Falk, president of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, offered a final overview of the day’s discussions (Chapter 5).

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¹ This Proceedings of a Workshop was prepared by the workshop rapporteurs as a factual summary of what was presented and discussed at the workshop. The planning committee’s role was limited to organizing the workshop. The statements made are those of the rapporteurs and do not necessarily represent positions of the workshop participants as a whole, the planning committee, or the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Videos of the symposium are available at https://www.nationalacademies.org/event/09-22-2022/endless-frontier-symposium-2022-research-and-higher-education-institutions-for-the-next-75-years, as are an agenda for the meeting and the slides shown by presenters.