[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 196 (Tuesday, October 11, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 62869-62871]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-26088]
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OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY
Request for Information: Building A 21st Century Bioeconomy
ACTION: Notice of Request for Information (RFI).
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SUMMARY: The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to
solicit input from all interested parties regarding recommendations for
harnessing biological research innovations to meet national challenges
in health, food, energy, and the environment while creating high-wage,
high-skill jobs.
The public input provided through this Notice will inform the
Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) as it works with Federal
agencies and other stakeholders to develop a National Bioeconomy
Blueprint.
DATES: October 7, 2011--December 6, 2011.
ADDRESSES: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Purpose
The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to solicit
input from all interested parties regarding recommendations for
harnessing biological research innovations to meet national challenges
in health, food, energy, and the environment while creating high-wage,
high-skill jobs.
The public input provided through this Notice will inform the
Office of Science and Technology Policy as it works with Federal
agencies and other stakeholders to develop a National Bioeconomy
Blueprint.
Background
On September 16, 2011, President Obama announced that his
Administration will develop a National Bioeconomy Blueprint detailing
Administration-wide steps to harness biological research innovations to
address national challenges in health, food, energy, and the
environment. Biological research underpins the foundation of a
significant portion of our economy. By better leveraging our national
investments in biological research and development, the Administration
will grow the jobs of the future and improve the lives of all
Americans.
Twenty-first century advances in biological research and
technologies are poised to return tremendous public benefits. For
example, advances in human genome-informed personalized medicine and
data analytics could be combined to improve human health in novel ways.
In bio-based industry, biological design can create new opportunities
for biofuels, chemicals, materials, and energy-efficient manufacturing
processes.
The National Bioeconomy Blueprint will identify strategies to meet
grand challenges, promote commercialization and entrepreneurship, focus
research and development investments in areas that will provide the
foundation for the bioeconomy, expand workforce training to prepare the
next generation of scientists and engineers for the bioeconomy jobs of
the future, identify regulatory reforms that will reduce unnecessary
burdens on innovators while protecting health and safety, and describe
appropriate public-private partnerships to accelerate innovation in key
areas.
OSTP seeks comment on the questions listed below to inform the
development of the National Bioeconomy Blueprint:
Grand challenges: President Obama has identified ``grand
challenges'' as an important element of his innovation strategy, such
as ``smart anti-cancer therapeutics that kill cancer cells and leave
their normal neighbors untouched; early detection of dozens of diseases
from a saliva sample; personalized medicine that enables the
prescription of the right dose of the right drug for the right person;
a universal vaccine for influenza that will protect against all future
strains; and regenerative medicine that can end the agonizing wait for
an organ transplant.''
(1) Identify one or more grand challenges for the bioeconomy in
areas such as health, energy, the environment, and agriculture, and
suggest concrete
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steps that would need to be taken by the Federal government, companies,
non-profit organizations, foundations, and other stakeholders to
achieve this goal.
Research and development: R&D investments, particularly in platform
technologies, can support advances in health, energy, the environment,
and agriculture, and accelerate the pace of discovery in fundamental
life sciences research.
(2) Constrained Federal budgets require a focus on high-impact
research and innovation opportunities. With this in mind, what should
be the Federal funding priorities in research, technologies, and
infrastructure to provide the foundation for the bioeconomy?
(3) What are the critical technical challenges that prevent high
throughput approaches from accelerating bioeconomy-related research?
What specific research priorities could address those challenges? Are
there particular goals that the research community and industry could
rally behind (e.g., NIH $1,000 genome initiative \1\)?
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\1\ http://www.genome.gov/27541190
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(4) The speed of DNA sequencing has outstripped advances in the
ability to extract information from genomes given the large number of
genes of unknown function in genomes; as many as 70% of genes in a
genome have poorly or unknown functions. All areas of scientific
inquiry that utilize genome information could benefit from advances in
this area. What new multidisciplinary funding efforts could
revolutionize predictions of protein function for genes?
Moving life sciences breakthroughs from lab to market: It is a
challenge to commercialize advances in the life sciences because of the
risk, expense, and need for many years of sustained investment. The
Administration is interested in steps that it can take directly, but is
also interested in encouraging experimentation with new private-sector-
led models for funding commercialization of life sciences research.
(5) What are the barriers preventing biological research
discoveries from moving from the lab to commercial markets? What
specific steps can Federal agencies take to address these shortcomings?
Please specify whether these changes apply to academic labs, government
labs, or both.
(6) What specific changes to Federal Small Business Innovation
Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs
\2\ would help accelerate commercialization of federally-funded
bioeconomy-related research?
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\2\ http://www.sbir.gov/
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(7) What high-value data might the government release in the spirit
of its open government agenda that could spur the development of new
products and services in the bioeconomy?
(8) What are the challenges associated with existing private-sector
models (e.g. venture funding) for financing entrepreneurial bioeconomy
firms and what specific steps can agencies take to address those
challenges?
Workforce development: Investment in education and training is
essential to creating a technically-skilled 21st century American
bioeconomy workforce.
(9) The majority of doctorate recipients will accept jobs outside
of academia. What modifications should be made to professional training
programs to better prepare scientists and engineers for private-sector
bioeconomy jobs?
(10) What roles should community colleges play in training the
bioeconomy workforce of the future?
(11) What role should the private sector play in training future
bioeconomy scientists and engineers?
(12) What role might government, industry, and academia play in
encouraging successful entrepreneurship by faculty, graduate students,
and postdocs?
Reducing regulatory barriers to the bioeconomy: As President Obama
has stated, our regulatory system must ``identify and use the best,
most innovative, and least burdensome tools for achieving regulatory
ends'' and ``protect public health, welfare, safety, and our
environment while promoting economic growth, innovation,
competitiveness, and job creation.''
(13) What specific regulations are unnecessarily slowing or
preventing bioinnovation? Please cite evidence that the identified
regulation(s) are a) slowing innovation, and b) could be reformed or
streamlined while protecting public health, safety, and the
environment.
(14) What specific steps can Federal agencies take to improve the
predictability and transparency of the regulatory system? (Please
specify the relevant agency.)
(15) What specific improvements in the regulatory processes for
drugs, diagnostics, medical devices, and agricultural biotechnology
should federal agencies implement? What challenges do new or emerging
technologies pose to the existing regulatory structure and what can
agencies do to address those challenges?
Public-private partnerships: The Administration is interested in
serving as a catalyst for public-private partnerships that build the
bioeconomy and address important unmet needs in areas such as health,
energy, agriculture, and environment.
(16) What are the highest impact opportunities for public-private
partnerships related to the bioeconomy? What shared goals would these
partnerships pursue, which stakeholders might participate, and what
mutually reinforcing commitments might they make to support the
partnership?
(17) What are the highest impact opportunities for pre-competitive
collaboration in the life sciences, and what role should the government
play in developing them? What can be learned from existing models for
pre-competitive collaboration both inside and outside the life-sciences
sector? What are the barriers to such collaborations and how might they
be removed or overcome?
Response to this RFI is voluntary. Responders are free to address
any or all the above items, as well as provide additional information
that they think is relevant to the development of a National Bioeconomy
Blueprint.
Please note that the Government will not pay for response
preparation or for the use of any information contained in the
response.
How To Submit a Response
All comments must be submitted electronically to:
[email protected].
Responses to this RFI will be accepted through December 6, 2011.
You will receive an electronic confirmation acknowledging receipt of
your response, but will not receive individualized feedback on any
suggestions. No basis for claims against the U.S. Government shall
arise as a result of a response to this request for information or from
the Government's use of such information.
Responses received after the deadline will be considered during
implementation of the activities of the National Bioeconomy Blueprint
if not received before finalization of the National Bioeconomy
Blueprint.
Responses to the RFI, including the names of the authors and their
institutional affiliations, will be posted at http://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/bioeconomy.
Inquiries
Specific questions about this RFI should be directed to the
following e-mail address: [email protected].
Form should include:
[Assigned ID ]
[[Page 62871]]
[Assigned Entry date]
Name/E-mail
Affiliation/Organization
City, State
Comment 1
Comment 2
Comment 3
Comment 4
Comment 5
Attachment
Ted Wackler,
Deputy Chief of Staff.
[FR Doc. 2011-26088 Filed 10-7-11; 8:45 am]
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