Section 2 Major MIT Initiatives National Policy Initiatives 38 Research Initiatives 43 MIT Briefing Book 37 National Policy Initiatives has similarly prospered, encompassing core MITEI activities and those under the auspices of programs MIT has had major involvement in technology policy at such as the Center for Energy and Environmental the national level since before World War II, with MIT Policy Research (CEEPR) and the Joint Program on the faculty and administrators frequently serving as advi- Science & Policy of Global Change. MITEI, CEEPR, and sors to national policymakers. A more formal “policy the Joint Program each hold workshops at least annu- initiative” model first emerged in 2005, when incoming ally to bring MIT faculty, research staff, and students MIT President Susan Hockfield announced that MIT together with outside experts to address current would create a major cross-disciplinary, cross-school technological, economic, and political challenges in initiative around energy. Over the intervening decade, energy and climate. policy initiatives have been created to tackle several other science and technology issues with national, and MITEI’s best-known policy products are the often global, policy dimensions. Inherently cross-disci- eleven in-depth, multidisciplinary “Future of …” plinary, these initiatives draw on deep MIT expertise studies released to date (see http://mitei.mit.edu/ across science and engineering disciplines, the social publications/reports-studies/future). sciences, economics, and management. Major policy initiatives to date are described below. Some have had New “Future of” studies will continue to inform relatively short-term, specifically defined goals, while future decisions regarding energy research, tech- others, such as the original energy initiative, address nology choices, and policy development. The Utility broader long-term goals and are ongoing. of the Future: Preparing for a Changing Energy Sector is expected to be released in the fall of 2016, and Energy additional studies are in the planning stages. The MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) was formally launched in the fall of 2006, following the recom- As it enters its second decade, MITEI is organizing its mendations of the 2006 Report of the Energy research efforts around specific technology research Research Council regarding new approaches to areas, with associated Low-Carbon Energy Centers multidisciplinary research, education across school supporting sustained collaboration across academia, and department boundaries, energy use on campus, industry, government, and the philanthropic and and outreach to the policy world through technically NGO communities. The first five Low-Carbon Energy grounded analysis. Centers will bring together stakeholders in Solar; Storage; Materials for Energy and Extreme Environ- MITEI is now recognized as the first and the foremost ments; Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage; and campus-wide energy program at a U.S. academic Advanced Nuclear Systems. (See https://mitei.mit. institution, with important educational, research, edu/research/low-carbon-energy-centers.) and policy components. MITEI’s educational activi- ties affect MIT students at every level, from incoming Convergence freshmen who learn about energy issues in pre- “Convergence” is a term for the merging of distinct orientation to the Energy Studies Minor, through technologies, integrating disciplines, into a unified undergraduates who use MITEI-developed curricular whole that creates a host of new pathways and materials in many classes and can now obtain an opportunities. It involves the coming together of Energy Studies Minor, to graduate fellows researching different fields of study—particularly engineering, national and international energy issues. MITEI has physical sciences, and life sciences—through collabo- helped energy research at MIT grow by developing ration among research groups and the integration of strategic alliances with companies across a broad approaches that were originally viewed as distinct range of energy-related businesses, attracting and potentially contradictory. Convergence implies government and philanthropic support, and stimu- a broad rethinking of how all scientific research can lating faculty members from across the campus to be conducted, to capitalize on a range of knowledge consider how their research expertise is relevant bases, from microbiology to computer science to to energy issues. Its policy outreach component engineering design. It is a new organizational model 38 MIT Briefing Book Major MIT Initiatives for innovation, taking the tools and approaches of The National Academies of Science has also one field of study and applying them to another, provided leadership in the convergence effort paving the way for advances in all fields involved. At through its Board on Life Sciences. The Board’s MIT the policy focus has been on Convergences for September 2013 workshop on “Key Challenges biomedical advances. in the Implementation of Convergence,” was co-chaired by MIT President Emerita Hockfield. The In 2011, then-President Susan Hockfield appointed workshop findings are summarized in Convergence– Institute Professors Phillip Sharp and Robert Langer Facilitating Transdisciplinary Integration of Life to lead a faculty committee which developed a Sciences, Physical Science, Engineering and Beyond widely cited whitepaper entitled Third Revolution: (National Academies Press, 2014). Convergence of The Life Sciences, Physical Sciences And Engineering. Simultaneously, MIT created the At the American Association for the Advancement Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and of Science’s 2014 Annual Meeting, Professor Phillip organized it around the convergence research model, Sharp delivered the AAAS President’s Lecture on the with biologists, engineers and physical scientists topic of Convergence; President Emerita Hockfield working in close collaboration. led a AAAS workshop on the topic. Support for this integrated research approach The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency continues to grow. MIT continues to be a leader in (DARPA) has been expanding its focus on conver- the Convergence revolution on campus and beyond. gence model research, forming a new Biological At MIT, this model is now deeply anchored in many Technologies Office in 2014 with a research portfolio areas of life sciences, including work in quantum in areas including bio-fabrication, neuroscience, and information studies of neurons, neuroscience and infectious disease, and leading DARPA’s participation computing, synthetic biology, and cancer research. in the BRAIN initiative. Just as engineering and physical sciences are trans- forming the life sciences, biological models are In the past year, MIT has twice convened large groups transforming engineering and physical science, with experts from around the country to discuss the role campus research in biofuels, biomaterials, and viral of Convergence research in the future of health and self-assembly drawing on the Convergence model. healthcare, aiming to develop the framework for a research strategy for biomedical convergence. The White House featured “Fostering Convergent Cross-sector workshops were held in December 2015 Science” in its January 2013 Blueprint For Action, at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and and included advancing the convergence approach in March 2016 at the American Association for the among four annual goals. Later that year, Presi- Advancement of Science, with contributing experts dent Obama announced the BRAIN (Brain Research from academia, industry, government, and philan- through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) thropy. A policy report drawing on these convenings initiative, a major public-private partnership utilizing is scheduled for release in June 2016. a convergence research approach, with federal participation by NIH, NSF, and DARPA complemented Additional information on the convergence research by contributions from companies, health systems, model, including further details on major develop- patient advocacy organizations, philanthropists, ments described above, is available online at http:// state governments, research universities, private www.convergencerevolution.net/. research institutes, and scientific societies. In 2015, the White House launched the Precision Medicine initiative across three agencies, aimed at applying big data and analytics to enable personalized medi- cine approaches. In 2016, the White House launched a new Microbiome initiative, also organized on a convergence research model. MIT Briefing Book 39 Advanced Manufacturing including Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveris, who MIT leaders have played a major role in the design co-led the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, of national efforts to confront structural problems and senior federal officials. The National Academy of in the U.S. manufacturing sector, starting in 2011 Sciences hosted key PIE researchers at a November 1 with the MIT Production in the Innovation Economy presentation of the PIE report, in its historic Lecture (PIE) study project. Building on PIE research, national Room in Washington, led by PIE Commission co-chair policy work continued with MIT taking a leadership Suzanne Berger. They summarized the study results to role in the President’s Advanced Manufacturing a packed house of federal officials and representatives Partnership (AMP). Two major reports (AMP1.0, from industry, universities, and non-governmental 2012, and AMP2.0, 2014) were