How the United States is Manufacturing a Supply Chain of Innovators
Activate Executive Managing Director Aimee Rose
By Aimee Rose, Activate Executive Managing Director
This country has invested so much in me. Thanks to federal education support, I was able to study science for free until I was almost 30. As a chemistry student and post-graduate, I engaged with world-class researchers at world-class institutions. I translated that education into an explosives detection startup that, also with the help of federal funding, protected U.S. warfighters and the traveling public. This experience taught me that it is people—not patents or research publications—that transform technology into vital solutions.
I built my career on the work of my Greek grandparents, who immigrated to the United States to work in the textile mills of Manchester, New Hampshire. My middle-class upbringing positioned me to access opportunities; I never worried about my safety, health, or education. This country’s investment in a domestic manufacturing workforce was an investment in my family’s future and in me.
Family photo from Greek Easter in 1976. Aimee Rose is on the far left.
“Programs that anchor the production of innovation here will pay dividends across our economy.”
Today, the need for people who can turn technology into solutions is greater than ever—and it is vital that the scientists and engineers who develop these solutions represent the richness of diverse backgrounds and perspectives that make the United States exceptional.
But people can’t make an impact without support. Our emerging technology leaders need comprehensive support and resources from a federal government that appreciates the power of science-based entrepreneurship. That’s why I’m thrilled to have been recently named to the National Advisory Council on Innovation & Entrepreneurship (NACIE), a federal advisory committee managed by the U.S. Economic Development Administration's Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. NACIE is focused on driving our innovation economy by removing barriers to entrepreneurship and building an inclusive STEM workforce.
I see the greatest opportunity for emerging technology in two sectors: manufacturing and startups. Manufacturing jobs create spill-over jobs in the surrounding economy (one high-tech manufacturing job can support up to 16 jobs in other sectors). And startups create most new jobs in this country today. Combining these forces through supporting hardware-based STEM startups offers the potential to drive further economic growth by increasing the base of advanced technology products manufactured in this country.
But the United States needs to start building a foundation of support early in the life of a science-based startup when it is just beginning to germinate. That is our mission at Activate, where I am privileged to support first-time technical founders as they take their first steps in building businesses to commercialize new technologies that can benefit society. These talented entrepreneurs face many barriers along the way, and even getting to the point of founding a STEM-based company is a significant achievement.
“Our emerging technology leaders need comprehensive support and resources from a federal government that appreciates the power of science-based entrepreneurship.”
The United States funds basic science at such a high caliber that we need to import talent from across the globe to fill university research labs. We train international students to be world-class investigators and experts in their respective fields. But then we often lose that investment in technical leaders by failing to keep them here and encouraging them—and more than that, teaching them how to bring their research to market.
Fortunately, the recently passed CHIPS and Science Act is a tremendous step toward re-shoring the manufacturing of not only semiconductors but also another vital component of our economy: the supply chain of talent we need to innovate U.S. manufacturing. The CHIPS and Science Act authorizes $125 million in funding for science innovation, with which the National Science Foundation (NSF) is establishing a national fellowship for scientists and engineers. This concept is built on the entrepreneurial research fellowship model developed and proven by Activate founder Ilan Gur and described in a Day One Project proposal for the Biden administration written by Gur, along with former ARPA-E acting directorCheryl Martin and Fernando Gómez-Baquero of the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute.
In September, NSF announced a $20 million investment in entrepreneurial fellows through a multi-year cooperative agreement with Activate. This initiative will pay dividends not only by scaling Activate’s approach to supporting science entrepreneurship but also indirectly by supporting NACIE’s mission to ensure that the United States remains the leading startup nation and the world’s leading innovator in critical emerging technologies. Critical to that outcome and reshoring our manufacturing sectors is creating new opportunities for historically underserved students and rural communities, whose talent and perspectives the innovation ecosystem needs.
Aimee Rose receiving the MIT Technology Review TR35 and Humanitarian of the Year awards in 2008 for her work developing ultrasensitive portable chemical “sniffers” for the detection of explosives.
Establishing a stronger U.S. manufacturing base starts with supporting innovators like those who are launching startups as part of the Activate Fellowship, and those who will benefit from NSF’s investment. This work is an important first step in ensuring that what gets invented here gets made here, too. Programs that couple emerging startup capabilities with established manufacturing expertise and capacity, like FORGE in Massachusetts, are impactful, but we need to go further. Imagine if the expansive networks the Manufacturing Innovation Institutes have established could be leveraged by startups for initial pilot production and scale—upskilling their workforce to produce new innovations. Imagine if we could pay for that capacity so that small and medium manufacturers didn’t have to choose between recognizing revenue and scaling new products.
Programs that anchor the production of innovation here will pay dividends across our economy. Manufacturing provides quality jobs at almost every level of education and across geographies, delivering opportunities like those that my grandparents received in the textile mills.
I’ve built my career on U.S. investment in innovation, and through Activate and as part of the NACIE board, I’m working to ensure the next generation of scientists and engineers can, too.