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GAITHERSBURG, Md. — The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) participated in a summit at the White House last week where representatives of government agencies, industry and standards development organizations discussed the U.S. Government National Standards Strategy for Critical and Emerging Technology (USG NSSCET). This strategy promotes technologically sound standards that help American industry compete internationally on a level playing field and is intended to support and complement existing private sector-led standards activities.

In addition, the Biden-Harris administration has released the USG NSSCET Implementation Roadmap, which includes recommendations and actions for implementing the strategy, along with a fact sheet about the roadmap.

“This plan is a call to action,” said Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and NIST Director Laurie E. Locascio. “It is time for all of us — the U.S. government, our partners and allies, the private sector, academia, professional societies and civil society organizations — to work together to sustain our proven, voluntary, consensus-driven, private sector-led standards system. In short, the release of the Implementation Roadmap is the start of our efforts, not the end.”

The USG NSSCET, released in May 2023, focuses on critical and emerging technologies (CETs), including communication and networking technologies, quantum information technologies, semiconductors and microelectronics, artificial intelligence, biotechnologies and clean energy technologies, among others.

U.S. government departments and agencies worked together to create the Implementation Roadmap with extensive feedback from the private sector and the broader stakeholder community. The roadmap recommends actions that the U.S. government can take to increase investment in pre-standards development activities for CETs, broaden CET standards participation, grow a CET standards-savvy workforce, and ensure inclusivity and integrity in the CET standards development process. 

Actions and outcomes spelled out in the USG NSSCET Implementation Roadmap also define how the U.S. government can bolster support for the private sector-led standards system in the United States and the U.S. Standards Strategy published by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). 

“The fact that our U.S. system is open, market-driven, and private sector-led is critical to achieving the widely shared policy goals of expanded U.S. leadership and innovation on the global stage,” said Mary Saunders, ANSI senior vice president of government relations and public policy. “U.S. government actions to enhance standards coordination across the federal government — at both the technical and policy levels — and to provide strong and sustained funding for CET R&D are important. Enhanced educational efforts across the government will also contribute to a stronger, more informed public-private partnership and a robust standardization system.”

After the roadmap was introduced at the summit, Cabinet-level leaders discussed navigating a rapidly evolving international standards landscape and strategies for strengthening U.S. economic and national security through standards development. Remarks and panel discussions focused on the U.S. government’s plan to foster its commitment to public-private partnerships for CET standards, address challenges and opportunities in the global CET landscape, support private-sector leadership in global standards, and improve workforce development and partnership models.

To develop the roadmap, NIST published a Request for Information (RFI) in the Federal Register in fall 2023 seeking public input on how best to implement the USG NSSCET and held a series of listening sessions and stakeholder events about the strategy while the RFI was open.

The roadmap recommends immediate and long-term actions for the government to achieve sustained implementation outcomes, including:

• Increase investment in CET R&D and standardization to sustain U.S. technical leadership.
• Increase support for federal programs to remove barriers and promote U.S. stakeholder participation in international standards development.
• Enhance coordination across U.S. government departments and agencies to sustain and grow participation in standardization.
• Expand communication, information sharing and other cooperative efforts between the U.S. government and the private sector.
• Enhance educational efforts for current and future standards leaders.
• Enhance the representation and sustained influence of the U.S. government and governments of like-minded nations in the international standards system.
• Enhance academic engagement by providing critical partnerships that sustain the global standards innovation ecosystems.

“Today we received a charge, a call to action to work together as public and private sectors to build capacity and coordinate our efforts to sustain U.S. engagement in the international standards system and leverage our combined expertise to advance critical and emerging technologies and U.S. innovation,” said NIST senior advisor for standards policy Jayne Morrow. “This is an exciting time for standards.”