Innovation and competitiveness are the cornerstones of advanced society. Innovation is essential to force society to continue advancing and avoid stagnation, and the progress continues to march forward through healthy competition – of a nature both academic and business. While a free market system is often the best course of action to cultivate this competition and innovation, sometimes policies need to intervene to keep the system working.

Policies to Support Innovation and Competitiveness

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)

STEM is an acronym that stands for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Collectively, these STEM fields are considered to be the academic and professional industries and field of studies that are the core technological foundations of an advanced society. The collective strength of a nation’s STEM workforce can act as an indicator of its ability to sustain itself. Many agencies work to support education and competition in the STEM fields.

The STEM Education Coalition is an organization that works to raise awareness in Congress and other organizations about STEM education and the critical role it plays in enabling the U.S. to remain the economic and technological leader of the global marketplace. The Coalition advocates for strengthening of STEM-related programs for educators and students and increased federal investments in STEM education. It also supports federal investment in basic scientific research to inspire current and future generations to pursue careers in STEM fields.

The National Science Foundation is a federal agency that supports all fields of fundamental science and engineering, and is a proponent of STEM Education. The NSF has a number of STEM programs, including some for students in elementary through high school, such as The Global Challenge Award ITEST Program

NASA provides programs for teachers and students that emphasize STEM education and application to aerospace.

The America COMPETES Act

This acronym stands for Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education, and Science. The legislation was signed into law in 2007 (Public Law 110-69) and bolsters the federal investment in programs aimed at boosting science, technology, engineering and math education and other measures aimed at promoting U.S. innovation. The law also grows the budgets of the three key federal agencies responsible for science technology and innovation priorities – the Department of Energy's Office of Science, the laboratories of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the National Science Foundation. Recent reauthorization of the bill in 2010 allowed for these programs and funding to continue.