Members of the standards community representing the public and private sectors convened earlier this week at an information session hosted by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) on the draft implementation roadmap for the U.S. Government National Standards Strategy for Critical and Emerging Technology (USG NSSCET).
Released in May 2023, the USG NSSCET outlines U.S. government goals to advance U.S. competitiveness, protect the integrity of standards-developing ecosystems, and assure the long-term success of the U.S. innovation ecosystem, with a focus on critical and emerging technology (CET). It commits to increasing U.S. government support for the private sector-led standards system, and calls out its alignment with the United States Standards Strategy (USSS) published by ANSI.
At the April 24 session, open to ANSI members, Dr. Jayne Morrow, senior standards policy advisor to the NIST director and Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology, spoke on the development of a draft implementation roadmap for the USG NSSCET. The roadmap will provide guiding principles of implementation of the NSSCET, including recommendations for:
Dr. Morrow noted that the roadmap takes into account the feedback received through a Request for Information (RFI) and over 100 listening sessions held around the country, with key findings grouped into seven areas: public-private sector coordination; federal government coordination; foreign government coordination; standards funding opportunities; standards education; standards communications; and real and perceived barriers. NIST will post fact sheets on these findings on www.standards.gov.
Among other topics, Dr. Morrow highlighted the importance of identifying available government funding for standards-related initiatives, including pre-standardization activities like research and development. Communication is another area of focus: how to foster discussions with senior leaders in government and industry on the value proposition of standards involvement. How can stakeholders from academia and new technology areas be brought into the conversation early and often? Dr. Morrow outlined barriers to be addressed, including visa wait times for standards meetings held in the U.S. and knowledge gaps between U.S. policymakers and technical program leaders.
The draft implementation roadmap is expected to be released for public comment in the coming weeks. Following this comment period, the implementation plan is anticipated to go into effect from August 2024 to July 2025; a period of measurement and adjustment will follow in July 2025.
ANSI will continue to keep its constituents updated on the status of the USG NSSCET draft implementation roadmap. Further information can be found on NIST’s website.