R&D Budgets,
U.S. Competitiveness,
Strategic Communications
Matt Hourihan is Associate Director of R&D and Advanced Industry with FAS, where his focus areas include R&D investment policy, novel research models, energy and space innovation, and other topics.
Before joining FAS in May 2022, Hourihan directed the R&D Budget and Policy Program for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), where he was a recognized expert in research investment policy and trends for over a decade and a relied-upon analyst among the science community and policymakers. His analysis and commentary was also featured in a range of major media including the Wall Street Journal, Science, Nature, The Atlantic, Forbes, The Hill, Politico, Scientific American, Eos, Vox, Bloomberg, and elsewhere.
His previous positions include serving as a clean energy policy analyst at the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF), where he focused on policy to accelerate energy innovation, and as Jan Schori Fellow at the Business Council for Sustainable Energy, a coalition of energy firms and utilities working to engage policymakers on energy and climate policy.
Early in his career, he worked in media affairs and strategic communications at the Ocean Conservancy and SEIU. He earned a masters degree in public policy with a focus on science and technology policy at George Mason University, and a B.A. in journalism from Ithaca College.
The CHIPS and Science Act establishes a compelling vision for U.S. innovation and place-based industrial policy, but that vision is already being hampered by tight funding.
Here’s how CHIPS and Science funding is shaping up in the battle over the federal budget.
On Thursday, President Biden kicked off the FY 2024 cycle with the latest budget request. This skinny version of the budget – full details of which will come on Monday – contained similar themes as prior budgets: a focus on clean energy and climate, manufacturing and supply chains, applied R&D, place-based innovation, and cancer research, among […]
The NIH funds the world’s most innovative biomedical research, but rising administrative burden is slowing down the speed of breakthroughs.
To help seed the ground for bipartisan progress, we’ve put together a menu of the best policy ideas on a range of critical topics.
Global competition for advanced technology leadership is fierce. China continues to build scholarship capacity across science and engineering disciplines, has surpassed the United States in knowledge- and technology-intensive manufacturing, and is hot on American heels for the global lead in R&D investment. In the U.S., domestic manufacturing jobs have enjoyed a recent surge, but the […]
Earlier this year Congress passed the CHIPS And Science Act: a once-in-a-generation piece of legislation to secure U.S. semiconductor manufacturing, enhance U.S. science investment, and foster the next generation of STEM talent. But at the core of that legislation are aggressive spending targets for the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Energy Office of Science […]
Congress extended SBIR. Now what?
Many aspects of the CHIPS And Science Act have gotten significant attention, but one potentially consequential section for U.S. science has been almost wholly overlooked: a requirement that the U.S. government establish a national science and technology strategy.
Congressional negotiations over the massive bipartisan innovation bill have stumbled over a controversial proposal to expand the geographic footprint of National Science Foundation (NSF) funding. That proposal, in the Senate-passed U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA), mandates that 20% of NSF’s budget be directed to a special program to help institutions in the many states […]
A blueprint to restore the foundation for U.S. competitiveness by embarking on a new growth trajectory for federal research spending.