Emerging Technology
day one project

Creating a National DeepTech Capital Fund

01.26.21 | 1 min read | Text by Leslie Jump & Mack Kolarich & Ellen Brooks Shehata

Summary

The Biden-Harris Administration should establish a National DeepTech Capital Fund (NDTC Fund) to bridge capital gaps and enable more DeepTech entrepreneurs to bring promising and beneficial technologies to market. 

Greater investment in DeepTech is critical in order to return the United States to the forefront of advanced science and technology research and development (R&D). “DeepTech” refers to companies and innovators building science-based, or R&D-based, products and services including hardware and advanced materials, robotics, manufacturing, and biotech. U.S. government investment in technology has declined by two-thirds in the past decades. Private capital typically eschews investment in advanced technologies, due to a combination of the additional expertise needed for and risks inherent to advanced-technology investment. Silicon Valley’s early days were cushioned by government risk capital at a time when the private sector could not see the value of investing in R&D. But relying entirely on Silicon Valley to drive investment in innovation has led the U.S. to a point where it risks being replaced by other innovation centers such as China. A National DeepTech Capital Fund would encourage and enable investment in companies building solutions to society’s greatest challenges, while ensuring that the United States remains at the center of global innovation.

publications
See all publications
Emerging Technology
day one project
Policy Memo
ASTRA: An American Space Transformation Regulatory Act

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.

09.02.25 | 16 min read
read more
Emerging Technology
Blog
Creating A Vision and Setting Course for the Science and Technology Ecosystem of 2050

To better understand what might drive the way we live, learn, and work in 2050, we’re asking the community to share their expertise and thoughts about how key factors like research and development infrastructure and automation will shape the trajectory of the ecosystem.

08.06.25 | 4 min read
read more
Emerging Technology
Blog
Why Listening Matters for Moonshot Programs: ARPA-I’s National Tour

Recognizing the power of the national transportation infrastructure expert community and its distributed expertise, ARPA-I took a different route that would instead bring the full collective brainpower to bear around appropriately ambitious ideas.

08.05.25 | 7 min read
read more
Emerging Technology
day one project
Policy Memo
Establish a Network of Centers of Excellence in Human Nutrition (CEHN) to Overcome the Data Drought in Nutrition Science Research

NIH needs to seriously invest in both the infrastructure and funding to undertake rigorous nutrition clinical trials, so that we can rapidly improve food and make progress on obesity.

08.04.25 | 12 min read
read more