Reports & Briefings

For brief overviews of how key technologies work and why they matter, see ITIF’s “Technology Explainer Series.”

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May 10, 2021
“Building Back Better” Requires Building In Digital
Any national infrastructure package should include 21st century digital infrastructure—not only investments in core digital infrastructure, such as broadband and government IT systems, but also hybrid-digital upgrades to existing physical infrastructure to improve its performance.
May 10, 2021
Industry by Industry: More Chinese Mercantilism, Less Global Innovation
China’s long-standing and rampant “innovation mercantilist” policies harm global innovation by taking market share and revenues from more-innovative foreign competitors, thereby diminishing the resources they can invest in research and development toward further innovation.
April 29, 2021
Ten Ways IP Has Enabled Innovations That Have Helped Sustain the World Through the Pandemic
From vaccines and therapeutics to delivery robots, intellectual property has played an indispensable role in facilitating development of a range of inventive products that have helped address health care, work, and social challenges brought on by the pandemic.
April 27, 2021
Why the United States Needs to Support Near-Term Quantum Computing Applications
As other nations rapidly scale up their investments to develop and use quantum computing, U.S. policymakers should ensure the United States remains a leader. Investing in near-term applications would bolster the development of longer-term use cases, thereby helping to cement U.S. economic competitiveness and protect national security.
April 26, 2021
Heading Off Track: The Impact of China’s Mercantilist Policies on Global High-Speed Rail Innovation
Chinese high-speed rail firm CRRC is less innovative than European and Japanese firms, but mercantilist policies help it dominate in China and expand globally. This starves superior firms of revenue, reduces their R&D, and slows the pace of global innovation.
April 19, 2021
Seizing the Transformative Opportunity of Multi-cancer Early Detection
Blood-based multi-cancer early detection (MCED) technologies hold the promise to revolutionize America’s cancer-screening paradigm, dramatically expanding the range of detectable cancers and identifying them at earlier stages when cancers are more treatable. Policymakers should provide a supportive regulatory and coverage environment.
April 12, 2021
India Is an Essential Counterweight to China—and the Next Great U.S. Dependency
As America seeks to counter a rising China, no nation is more important than India, with its vast size, abundance of highly skilled technical professionals, and strong political and cultural ties with the United States. But the parallels between America’s dependency on China for manufacturing and its dependency on India for IT services are striking.
April 12, 2021
U.S. University R&D Funding Falls Further Behind OECD Peers
The United States continues its relative fall in university research and development funding. To become the leader among OECD nations in government funding for university research as a share of GDP, investment would have to increase by $90 billion per year.
April 12, 2021
Next Steps for Ensuring America’s Advanced Technology Preeminence
As technology and industry strategy experts, we commend Congress and the Biden administration for focusing on ensuring U.S. advanced technology competitiveness. Toward that end, we offer a number of recommendations for further action.
April 7, 2021
Federal Policy to Accelerate Innovation in Long-Duration Energy Storage: The Case for Flow Batteries
Affordable long-duration energy storage will be needed to decarbonize the U.S. energy system. Flow batteries are promising, but for that promise to be realized, DOE must invest heavily and more effectively in research, development, testing, and demonstration.

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