Science and Technology Diplomacy,
National Security,
Space Policy,
Research Security,
Research Infrastructure
Cole Donovan is the Associate Director for Science and Technology Ecosystem Development. He previously served in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) as Assistant Director for International Science and Technology and Assistant Director for Research Security and Infrastructure. He served as co-chair on the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) Subcommittees on Research Security, Research and Development Infrastructure, and International Science and Technology Coordination. His work at OSTP focused on improving government capacity for science and technology diplomacy, research infrastructure, and research security.
In addition to OSTP, Cole worked for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Space Commerce where he covered commercial space regulatory developments in Europe and Asia, mission authorization, nuclear power and propulsion, national security, and other national security technology developments. At the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine he served as Staff Director of the National Science, Technology, and Security Roundtable. Prior to that, Cole served at the State Department where he covered major research facilities, advanced technology policy, energy security, and U.S. scientific and technical relations with the EU, Africa, Southeast Asia, ITER, and CERN. He holds degrees from St. John’s College in Annapolis and the University of Maryland.
The Federation of American Scientists supports Congress’ ongoing bipartisan efforts to strengthen U.S. leadership with respect to outer space activities.
The new alignment signals a clear shift in priorities: offices dedicated to clean energy and energy efficiency have been renamed, consolidated, or eliminated, while new divisions elevate hydrocarbons, fusion, and a combined Office of AI & Quantum.
If space is there, and if we are going to climb it, then regulatory reform must be a challenge that we are willing to accept, something that we are unwilling to postpone, for a competition that we intend to win.
Using the NIST as an example, the Radiation Physics Building (still without the funding to complete its renovation) is crucial to national security and the medical community. If it were to go down (or away), every medical device in the United States that uses radiation would be decertified within 6 months, creating a significant single point of failure that cannot be quickly mitigated.