the american transformational innovation trust (AT IT) …

Innovation is an expensive business, and transformational innovation requires a whole lot more than daydreaming and dogged pursuit of a goal.

It used to be that governments like the United States of America, the Russian Federation, and its predecessor, the Union of Soviet Socialists Republics footed the bill for space travel, for example. 

The United States put 14 men on the moon and the first American in space.  The Russian government has operated space missions for decades, even when the U.S. ended its successful Space Shuttle program in July 2011.  Russian space firsts included putting the first human in space, Yuri Gargarin.

Space exploration is no longer just a government-funded enterprise. Commercial launch teams have been pushing the envelope of space for years now, funded by several billionaires who have discovered that entering space is a risky proposition.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX nearly went bankrupt in 2008 trying to get humans into space aboard a privately funded rocket, even though Musk was a billionaire tech entrepreneur with a good idea about what he was doing.  His company was founded in 2002, and just a few short years ago, it successfully put two Americans in space through a public-private partnership with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Richard Branson knows, too, the pain of space exploration failure financially.  He had to work for a long time to successfully overcome the in-flight loss of a crew member aboard his Virgin SpaceShip Two, the VSS Enterprise, in October 2014. Branson’s company was founded in 2004.  The British business mogul wanted to build commercial spaceships and launch aircraft for space travel, especially for the benefit of private individuals.

Blue Origin, owned by Amazon founder and multi-billionaire Jeff Bezos, has developed suborbital vehicles he dubs New Shepard.  Founded before Musk and Branson in 2000, Blue Origin is a privately funded space company making significant inroads into personal space of the financing exploration innovation.

Even the commercial space business represented by Boeing Corporation, which produces the Starliner low-earth orbit transportation system to and from the International Space Station with NASA, is innovative.

Commercial space is a business loved in Florida, Texas, California, Virginia, and Nevada. 

The expensive nature of innovation means that it can no longer be funded solely by governments or industry. It will require even greater investment, which we propose comes from private individuals and their philanthropy—public-private-philanthropic partnerships.

We are advocating for the legislative creation of a concept we refer to as the American Transformational Innovation Trust, or AT IT.

This trust would utilize the stock market, philanthropic investments, and government support and clearance to collaboratively fast-track some of this nation's and even the world's greatest innovation needs.

Innovations might include the following categories, for example, but are not necessarily limited to these suggestions:

1.    Space exploration and habitation

2.    Artificial intelligence

3.    5G Networks

4.    Solar, wind & battery energy

5.    Mission Critical Data Centers & Cyber Security

6.    High-speed rail & driverless transportation

7.    Robotics & automation

8.    Manufacturing

9.    Virtual reality

10.  Propulsion systems

11.  Flight dynamics and design

12.  Construction materials and design

13.  Serverless computing

14.  Wearable tech

15.  Agriculture & sustained food supplies

16.  Water systems

17.  Sanitation and waste systems

18.  Climate management

19.  Entertainment

20.  Consumer & crowdsourcing

We have excluded healthcare innovations from this list because of a Medical Innovation Zone (MIZ) concept that we also propose for improving American innovation policy found in that area more broadly.  You can learn more about the MIZ Act by clicking here.