Welcome to the first meeting of the newly reestablished National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE).

I’d like to thank our co-chairs:  Assistant Secretary Castillo, Director Panchanathan, Steve Case, and Kristina Johnson.

And I want to thank all of you – our members – for your commitment to serve. Your expertise, and more importantly, your work on this Council will help us build a better America and further strengthen our competitiveness on the global stage. 

Because technology innovation and entrepreneurship fuel our global competitiveness, I’m charging NACIE with identifying and then developing roadmaps for three transformative achievements to serve as the core of an American National Entrepreneurship Strategy.

These three moonshots, enabled and fueled by critical, emerging technologies, will improve our prosperity and strengthen our economic and national security. You will then recommend how America can develop and deliver the technologies to achieve these moonshots. 

Moonshots shift paradigms. They make our lives better – happier, healthier, safer – and they inspire us to build and achieve more. But they are hard, requiring not just innovation but also collaboration across disciplines and leadership across technologies. So we’re also asking you to recommend how we can better support innovation and entrepreneurship broadly – from growing a skilled STEM workforce to removing barriers for entrepreneurs.

I strongly believe that America’s diversity is our core strength and our greatest competitive advantage. But millions of workers are sitting on the sidelines of our economy.

Investing in women, minorities, and underserved communities – as workers, entrepreneurs, and innovators – is essential to our economic competitiveness. If we – the government and the private sector – get this right, we can ensure more Americans have the tools they need to get into the high-paying, good quality jobs of the future.

We can ensure America remains at the leading edge of discovering and commercializing the technologies that enable us to realize transformative technological and societal achievements that keep America competitive.

Today, we are hitting the ground running. First, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the National Science Foundation will provide an overview of emerging technologies and why they’re critical. 

Then the Boston Consulting Group will give an overview of how other countries have approached their National Entrepreneurship Strategies. Then you will form working groups focused on certain innovation levers.

I’m excited to see your recommendations and I’m looking forward to working with you. Thank you all for contributing to this important effort.