TECHNOLOGY VISION 2020: The U.S. Chemical Industry

The Technology Vision 2020 is a call to action, a strategic plan, for the U.S. chemical industry. Chemical companies must innovate and change to keep the U.S. chemical industry competitive in the global environment. The participants in the visioning process concluded that "the growth and competitive advantage of our industry depend upon individual and collaborative efforts of industry, government, and academe to improve the nation's research and development (R&D) enterprise." The Executive Summaryis a short version of the Vision. The complete "Technology Vision 2020: The U.S. Chemical Industry" is available electronically from ACS I&EC Division. Technology Vision 2020 is a joint effort of the:

	American Chemical Society (ACS),
	American Chemistry Council (ACC)
	American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE)
	Council for Chemical Research (CCR)
	Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association (SOCMA)

The Technology Vision 2020 focuses on four areas of high priority R&D:

Roadmap activities are underway in many of these areas, to chart specific R&D needs over the short-, mid-, and long-term that are necessary to achieve the Technology Vision 2020.

Technology Vision 2020 is a living document encompassing many activities. This fact is reflected in the "Schedule" section that identifies the important planned and highlighted events in 3 broad categories; workshops, implementation and other major event.

Roadmap activities are underway in many of these areas, to chart specific R&D needs over the short-, mid-, and long-term that are necessary to achieve the Technology Vision 2020. The "Roadmaps" sections explain the content of the a roadmap including one example of a table of contents, the process one may use to develop a roadmap, and copies of completed roadmaps. The roadmap/workshop includes schedules, contacts, sponsors and cosponsors.

Identified in the Organizations section are associations, government agencies, laboratories, academic institutions and companies involved with Vision 2020. The Council for Chemical Research established the CCR Vision 2020 Committee to lead CCR's Technology Vision 2020 efforts. The American Institute of Chemical Engineers established the AIChE Vision 2020 Task Force to chart AIChE's direction. The American Chemical Society, Industrial and Engineering Chemistry (I&EC) Division agreed to take the lead for ACS's involvement in Vision 2020 activities. The Additional Resources section identifies those organizations offering resources for the implementation of Vision 2020 activities.

Key parts of the Vision are summarized in the Technical Disciplines section. Included is a copy of the Vision 2020 exhibit.

The International activities section identifies organizations in various counties, that have visioning activities relating to the chemical industry.

Finally, the Additional Information section provides contacts to the Vision 2020 organizations as well as a list of references.

Sections which are added since the last update are identified with . Sections changed since the last update are identified with .

The Vision 2020 web site is supported by Council for Chemical Research (CCR), as part of its commitment to the Vision 2020 and the chemical enterprise.