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Dear Colleagues,
Scientific discovery and technological innovation are the largest drivers of societal advancement-making the world safer, healthier, and more prosperous. For much of the 20th century, the United States was unmatched in these domains. But now we are living in an era of disruption. Competition with foreign countries has intensified, while at home the American science and technology enterprise has been taken for granted-and we see our global leadership eroding before our eyes.
Without a strong compass and rapid action, America's primacy in science and technology will be lost, and we will be unable to confront rising threats to our security, our prosperity, and our wellbeing.
These are the opening words of the newly released Vision for American Science and Technology, or VAST . Over the last six months, I have had the honor of chairing a task force of more than 70 leaders from across industry, academia, government, and the non-profit sector-including early-, mid-, and senior-career scientists-to develop this strong roadmap and three avenues for action that will help us achieve it. We began this work in August 2024, knowing that whatever the outcome of the election, the new administration and Congress taking office in January 2025 would need a blueprint. Take a look:
This morning, we released our vision and recommendations to a packed room in Washington, D.C. but the work is far from complete. Today begins a new but critical phase of our next-day plan, where we must redouble our efforts to ensure our leaders and policymakers are equipped to make the best decisions to secure a better future-powered by American science and technology.
You can check out the full Vision at VASTfuture.org.
I hope you'll join me on Wednesday, March 19, at 12 PM ET for a conversation moderated by Andrew Black, AAAS Chief Public Affairs Officer and VAST Executive Director, with several of my VAST colleagues from across the scientific community. We'll dive deeper into our recommendations and offer suggestions for how you can become engaged in the next steps.
To borrow more language from the task force: "The opportunities before us are too great, the benefits are too sweeping, and the risks of complacency and inaction are all too real. We must realize America's vast potential together."
AAAS is committed to continuing the work with our partners to make this vision clear and lead the way to achieve it.
I hope you'll join us.
Sincerely,
Sudip S. Parikh, PhD
Chair, Task Force on a Vision for American Science & Technology
Chief Executive Officer, AAAS
Executive Publisher, Science Journals
PS: If you're wondering about the here and now, please see our communication from yesterday.
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