The Trump administration has released a sweeping strategy outlining steps the executive branch can take to promote and protect the country's competitive advantage on emerging technologies. The White House issued its National Strategy for Critical and Emerging Technologies on Thursday, setting out policy goals for fields that include artificial intelligence, quantum information science, and military and space technologies. The strategy doesn't set specific measures like some of President Donald Trump's executive orders focused on AI and quantum science, but senior administration officials told reporters the strategy signals a new level of coordination among agencies. Priority actions in the strategy include increasing the priority of federal R&D in annual appropriations, accelerating the adoption of emerging technology within agencies and recruiting a workforce with in-demand science and technology skills. Insight by Micro Focus Government Solutions: Learn how NGA is working with artificial intelligence, the adoption of zero trust and how the agency keeps its employees safe from cyber threats in this free webinar.

President Trump Monday proposed cutting federal research spending--except in key areas including artificial intelligence and quantum technologies. Trump's budget for the fiscal year beginning October 1 proposes spending $142.2 billion in research and development, 9 percent less than in the current year. The White House says its proposal is 6 percent more than it requested last year. The budget request is something of a gambler's approach to funding American innovation, betting big in select areas. "I find it disappointing and concerning that funding for basic research is down," says Martijn Rasser, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, a policy think tank in Washington, DC. "We just don't know where the next breakthroughs will come from."

President Trump intends to nominate Kelvin Droegemeier, an expert in extreme weather from the University of Oklahoma, as his top science and technology adviser at the White House, according to an administration official. Droegemeier's selection, if approved by the Senate, could soon end a roughly 19-month vacancy at the top of the Office of Science and Technology Policy -- a critical arm of the White House that guides the president on such issues as self-driving cars, artificial intelligence, emerging medical research and climate change. Droegemeier is a meteorologist by trade who has also served in government, including as Oklahoma's secretary of science and technology, and he aided the federal National Science Board under former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. The Washington Post first reported him as a front-runner for the post in March. His selection drew early praise from the scientific community Tuesday.