Reports

An Innovation-Based Clean Energy Agenda For America

Addressing global climate change requires clean energy technologies that are cost- and performance competitive with fossil fuels without subsidies. Characterized by carbon prices, subsidies, and mandates, the dominant clean energy policy approaches in the United States and internationally are not likely to meet this goal. Only a cohesive and aggressive innovation strategy can produce the needed and rapid development of affordable clean energy options the entire world wants to purchase.

NMC Horizon Report: 2015

What are the challenges that we consider as solvable or difficult to overcome, and how can we strategize effective solutions? These questions and similar inquiries regarding technology adoption and transforming teaching and learning steered the collaborative research and discussions of a body of 56 experts to produce the NMC Horizon Report: 2015 K-12 Edition, in partnership with the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN). The NMC Horizon Report series charts the five-year horizon for the impact of emerging technologies in school communities across the globe.

2015 Green Innovation Index

The United States ranks as among the world's top countries in clean tech investments, patents, renewable energy generation and electric vehicle (EV) adoption. At the same time it is among the world's worst for energy consumption and emissions. Over the last two decades, however, the U.S. has become more energy productive, using less energy per dollar of GDP generated.

Accelerating Data Innovation: A Legislative Agenda for Congress

Data is increasingly vital to both growing the economy and solving important social problems, and Congress has many opportunities to pave the way for more use of data in the public and private sectors. This report lays out twelve concrete steps Congress can take in 2015 to accelerate data innovation in the United States.

Economic Value of College Majors

Science, technology, engineering and math – or STEM – majors on average earned $43,000 annually at the entry level, compared with $41,000 for health majors and $29,000 for arts, humanities and liberal arts majors. But by midcareer – when the college graduates are between 25 and 29 years old – STEM majors were significantly out-earning other majors, at $76,000 annually. Business and health majors followed at $67,000 and $65,000 a year, respectively. On average, entry-level jobs that require a bachelor's degree pay $33,000 annually, and $61,000 by midcareer.

Using Innovation and Technology to Improve City Services

In this report, Professor Greenberg examines a dozen cities across the United States that have award-winning reputations for using innovation and technology to improve the services they provide to their residents. She explores a variety of success factors associated with effective service delivery at the local level, including:

Why Declining Investment in Basic Research Threatens a U.S. Innovation Deficit

Last year was a notable one for scientific achievements: In 2014, European researchers discovered a fundamental new particle that sheds light on the origins of the universe, and the European Space Agency successfully landed the first spacecraft on a comet. Chinese researchers, meanwhile, developed the world’s fastest supercomputer, and uncovered new ways to meet global food demand.

Revisiting the STEM workforce

Drawing on its biennial Science and Engineering Indicators report, the NSB's latest report highlights the growing need for STEM knowledge and skills in a 21st Century economy. In 2010, 16.5 million individuals--including many in non-STEM jobs, such as sales, marketing and management--reported that their job required at least a bachelor's degree level of science and engineering (S&E) expertise. This represents about three times the number of individuals working in occupations classified as S&E (5.4 million).

A New Era for Wind Power in the United States

In the "Wind Vision" report, the Department of Energy projects that the country could do even more going forward by installing up to 11 gigawatts of new wind-generating capacity each year between now and the middle of the century. That would bring the U.S. to 400 total gigawatts of such capacity installed across the country -- enough power for 100 million homes, according to the Energy Department's estimates.

The DOE outlines a path to 35 percent, beginning with 10 percent by 2020 and rising to 20 percent by 2030.

College Majors, Unemployment, and Earnings

Hard times are becoming better times for most college graduates, though how much better varies widely among college majors – and for Communications and Journalism majors, whose unemployment rates are still rising, better times have yet to arrive. Overall, however, unemployment rates among college graduates are declining.