NIST IoT Technology Economic Research Study and Future Investments

The Internet of Things (IoT) promises to disrupt and transform every aspect of our lives, whether at home, at work, at school and at play. Its impact will be felt across industry, academia, and government, while creating profound economic, societal, and national security implications.

In response, IoT has been identified as an area of focus for the federal “Lab to Market” process, from research and development investments to technology transfer. In September 2019, the United States National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) awarded Strategy of Things a grant for a a two-year NIST IoT study to assess the potential economic impacts, resulting from federal research investments, of meeting the Nation’s need for technology infrastructure to support IoT.

In support of this program, Strategy of Things will:

Assess the current state of the IoT technology infrastructure covering research, development and adoption across industries
Analyze these findings and identify technology gaps
Perform an economic analysis to understand the industry impact of addressing those gaps
Recommend potential areas for federal IoT-related research investments that will enhance U.S. competitiveness and national and economic security
Communicate these findings across the federal government, academia and industry through a variety of channels, including publications, speaking engagements, journals, online and digital means

We have identified the top ten industries to be studied as part of this project. They were selected based on the combination of the following factors:

Industry GDP contribution to the national economy
Impact of IoT to industry
Impact to market competitiveness
Impact to national security

The top ten industries we will be studying are:

Agriculture
Construction
Energy/Utilities
Financial Services
Healthcare
Manufacturing
Retail
Public Sector - local, state, federal (cities)
Telecommunications
Transportation and Logistics

Our project was recently covered in Industry Week magazine in an article titled "Where is IoT headed? NIST looks at gaps in infrastructure, research".

The United States federal government invests over $150 billion annually in research and development, including over $50 billion annually in extramural research conducted by universities, companies, and nonprofit organizations. As a non-regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) promotes American technology innovation, competitiveness and commercialization of federally sponsored research across all government agencies. NIST is central to the Administration’s Lab-to-Market efforts, serving as the coordinator of the President's Management Agenda Cross Agency Priority Goal 14 and co-chairing a National Science and Technology Council subcommittee under the Committee on Science and Technology Enterprise.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging technology area with significant transformative benefits to the United States global competitiveness, economic prosperity and national security. However, like many early-stage technologies, it can take ten or more years to move an IoT related technology from incubation to market maturation. As such, IoT has been identified as one of the growing areas of federal R&D investments and federal technology transfer or the “Lab-to-Market” process. Given the strategic importance of IoT and in support of the President's Management Agenda Cross Agency Priority Goal 14, NIST needs to understand the current state of IoT research efforts, the top technology infrastructure gaps, and where future federal government research investments should be made in order to accelerate the adoption, deployment and economic benefits of IoT. With this understanding, the NIST IoT team can develop the necessary programs, initiatives and investments to create these outcomes.

We need your opinions and feedback to shape the future of IoT. Your input to our study is vital for the success of this NIST funded IoT research project.

We are proactively reaching out to IoT professionals across industry, government and academia for input. We are seeking input from current and potential IoT users, IoT solutions providers and developers, IoT solutions resellers, policy makers, university and government researchers, government and industry association policymakers. Whether you represent a large organizations or startups, government agencies, universities or professional and industry associations, we want to hear from you!

There are three ways to participate:

Complete our research survey
Participate in a 60 minute research interview
Submit content (research papers, white papers, articles) that you wish for us to consider as inputs for our research

In return for your feedback, we will provide you with a copy of our final report. To get involved in our study, please do the following:

Complete the Short Survey here. This survey asks some basic questions around six areas for a variety of industries.
If you are interested in a 60 minute interview, please contact us using the Contact Form below. A list of the interview questions can be found here (depending on your organization type, the questions will vary slightly).
If you wish to submit research or white papers, or articles for us to consider and use in our research, please contact us using the Contact form at the bottom of this webpage.
Tell your colleagues! We are looking for participation from as many people as possible. If there are other people you think we should talk to - let us know. We appreciate any referrals.

If you have questions about our research, or want to learn more, please let us know through the Contact form below.