Science and Technology Innovation Program

As the COVID-19 pandemic gripped the world in late 2019 and early 2020, the world’s great hope was in the rapid development and deployment of vaccines. Global public health organizations hoped to seize upon the crisis to advance international cooperative efforts to fight COVID-19, and the promise of advanced economies embracing “vaccine diplomacy” to get shots into arms around the planet was a key element in this strategy.

Open data has seen great progress in recent years, but new opportunities and challenges continue to emerge. Future progress requires greater attention to equity, security, and a better understanding of context and culture.

The Wilson Center’s 5G Beyond Borders project explores how the U.S., Canada, and Mexico can work together to maximize the benefits of 5G and related technology through informed policy solutions. The project offers an overview of the landscape of 5G technology around the globe, while also focusing on the impact of 5G on North American business, and smart manufacturing. Cross-border collaboration between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico is essential to a secure transition. 5G Beyond Borders explores not only 5G security, but how North American cooperation can reduce risks, maximize economic gains, and ensure an efficient 5G rollout.

The Wilson Center's Technology Labs provide the knowledge foundation for core science and technology policy topics through a six-week seminar themed series. Each seminar session is led by top technologists and scholars drawn from the private, public, and non-profit sectors. We cover two main topic areas: Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence.

The Serious Games Initiative communicates science and policy complexities through the world’s most dynamic medium: gaming.

From DIY microscopes made from paper and household items, to low cost and open microprocessors supporting research from cognitive neuroscience to oceanography, to low cost sensors measuring air quality in communities around the world, the things of science -- that is, the physical tools that generate data or contribute to scientific processes -- are changing the way that science happens.

The sky is no longer the limit. We take you across the Karman Line for global insight and analysis on space technology and policy.