iOn May 15, 2020, U.S. Senators Cory Gardner (R-CO), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Ed Markey (D-MA), and Marco Rubio (R-FL) introduced the Bioeconomy Research and Development Act of 2020, creating a federal research initiative to ensure continued United States leadership in engineering biology. The National Engineering Biology Research and Development Initiative would focus on the advancement of societal well-being, national security, sustainability, and economic productivity and competitiveness. It would accomplish these goals through:
- Advancement of areas of research at the intersection of biological, physical, chemical, data, and computational sciences;
- Advancement of areas in biomanufacturing research;
- Support of social and behavioral sciences and economics research that advances the field of engineering biology;
- Improvement of the understanding of the engineering biology;
- Support of risk research;
- Development of novel tools and technologies to accelerate scientific understanding and technological innovation in engineering biology;
- Expansion of the number of researchers, educators, and students with engineering biology training;
- Acceleration of the translation and commercialization of engineering biology research and development by the private sector; and
- Improvement of the interagency planning and coordination of federal government activities related to engineering biology.
