By Lynn L. Bergeson

On 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.

According to Senator Rubio, the Bioeconomy Research and Development Act of 2020 has been endorsed by a number of leading research institutes, including the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), a Biobased and Renewable Products Advocacy Group (BRAG^®) member.