The Importance of Chemical Research to the U.S. Economy

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Conclusion 2-1: Chemical research has an outsized economic value based on the spillover of chemical knowledge and products into other areas and the fact that chemical patents, as well as patents that rely on chemical knowledge, have a higher average value than other patents. Chemical patents accounted for 14% of all corporate patents between and , but they accounted for 23% of all value in the same time period.

Conclusion 2-3: Chemistry is a foundational and central scientific discipline, and sustained investment in fundamental chemical research provides the chemical knowledge for technology development, generating unexpected discoveries that are the basis for innovation. These innovations directly influence the chemical economy, environment, and quality of life and also advance knowledge and discovery in many other scientific and technological disciplines, such as the life sciences, information technology, earth sciences, and engineering.

Conclusion 2-4: The chemical economy is critically important for our national economy and our leadership in the international chemical enterprise. This leadership relies heavily on advances in fundamental chemistry that drive the creation of new tools, technologies, processes, and products and enables environmental considerations. However, our nation&#;s leadership in the chemical industry cannot be taken for granted, and this leadership needs continued and sustained nurturing and support.

To take action on this broad set of conclusions, the committee suggests a set of wide-ranging recommendations with an emphasis on growing and strengthening the U.S. chemical economy and U.S. competitiveness.

Recommendation 1: To foster fundamental chemical research and maintain U.S. competitiveness in the chemical economy, the U.S. chemical enterprise should support funding, workforce, and policy structures that attract international researchers and create a nurturing environment for all research talent.

Sub-Recommendation 1-1: Because it is not possible to predict where the next fundamental breakthroughs will come from, funding agencies that support the chemical sciences, such as the U.S. Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Defense, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and U.S. Department of Agriculture, should fund the largest breadth of fundamental chemical research projects possible. This should include funding for a large range of topics in chemistry, as well as different scales of research projects, ranging from small grants for individual laboratories, to large-scale collaborations and facilities.

Sub-Recommendation 1-2: Participants in the chemical economy including chemical industry, pharmaceutical companies, and instrumentation developers should continue to invest in research and development at universities and scientific research institutions in the United States and should increase investments in broad areas of fundamental chemical research, including a focus on environmental sustainability.

Sub-Recommendation 1-3: The U.S. government should continue to produce policies that support international and open exchange of ideas in the chemical sciences and should engage policy and security experts, academic researchers, and industry professionals

Thank you to Accenture&#;s Jeff Hutson for his contributions to this blog.

Fun fact: 96% of manufactured goods depend on chemicals.1 That&#;s a powerful testament to the vitality of the industry. But it also means that protecting chemical assets and operations from theft or disruption is more critical than ever. And because the chemical industry processes hazardous, toxic and explosive materials as part of its manufacturing processes, the safety of people and their environment must also be a prime focus of business leadership. Today, managing those safety and security risks requires a new focus &#; cybersecurity.

Where are the cybersecurity shortcomings in the industry? And what can be done to raise maturity levels?

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Understanding the demand for operational data and information

Historically, operational technology (OT) environments have been locally managed with limited corporate oversight and few regulations specifically oriented around cybersecurity.

Today, as chemical companies initiate transformational changes, they recognize the valuable data OT systems offer &#; especially when integrated with information technology (IT) systems &#; to enable real-time decision-making, predictive equipment maintenance, insights for improving operational efficiency and fully maximizing the use of intellectual property and trade secrets in manufacturing processes.

The problem, however, is many companies lack a holistic security strategy that spans both the OT and IT worlds. Consequently, greater connectivity and integrations risk exposing OT networks to threats that never before existed. In recent years, there have been prominent stories in the news about cyberattacks on critical operational infrastructure. These OT cyberattacks allowed threat actors to move laterally across the network and ultimately impacted supply chain operations. One such attack compromised industrial control systems and manipulated chemical flow settings at a public water treatment utility. Another hit offshore facilities in North America with ransomware. Phishing opened the door for cyber criminals to access a company&#;s OT systems simply because an employee clicked a link in an .

Not only are cybercrimes costly, but they also have the potential to weaponize a chemical facility. The impacts can include theft or damage to intellectual property, production downtime, regulatory violations, environmental contamination and, most critical, safety of workers and the public. Consider the potential damage if a bad actor breaches an OT system controlling a critical process and tampers with the recipe, resulting in an explosion when the wrong mix of chemicals is used.

The cybersecurity landscape is continually changing. Threat actors are getting smarter, exploits more sophisticated and potential attack surfaces ever broader. Chemical companies need to strengthen their digital core and invest more in cybersecurity measures to keep up with the bad guys &#; and minimize the potential damage they could inflict on the business. And they need to start early. Accenture's State of Cybersecurity Resilience report found that by converting cybersecurity from an incident-driven reaction into part of the fabric of transformation efforts, organizations can not only boost cybersecurity resilience but also position themselves to reinvent the whole enterprise and set a new performance frontier, safely.

Addressing technology and organization challenges

Chemical companies face several challenges in elevating their cybersecurity maturity and strengthening protection of critical OT systems. The reality is typical OT environments have been in place for many years and were designed to ensure uptime and optimization, not necessarily cybersecurity. Their age and complexity also make many of these systems sensitive to new integrations, updates or software changes.

Many chemical companies also lack visibility into what OT devices and systems are on the network, other systems with which they communicate and/or share data and how they operate with one another. Lack of automation is another obstacle to producing utilization reports, lifetime patch status and other important information associated with securing these systems.

Companies must also address organization and process challenges, such as ongoing system governance. Ensuring that consistent security measures are in place across multiple plants and processes is difficult if there are different people in each plant responsible for the systems. Clear roles and responsibilities are needed for proper governance and accountability. Since security has not traditionally been a focus in OT, companies may also lack the necessary security expertise, requiring a talent assessment and possible workforce changes.

Often, industrial change management processes do not incorporate security. Additionally, response plans may be well designed to support maintenance, repair and overhaul but overlook security, potentially leaving a serious gap in the event of a cyberattack. Companies should have a robust incident response plan that is designed specifically to react to major security impacts within the OT space. Critical business processes mapped to threat modeling scenarios can give focus to cybersecurity investment decisions, as well as identify the correct trigger points for an incident response plan and the key activities associated with it. For example, who makes the decision to pay the ransom if critical data has been encrypted on a system due to a ransomware attack?

Strategies for elevating cybersecurity maturity

The need for chemical companies to improve cybersecurity maturity is critical and urgent. The question for most companies is where to begin.

It is first important to define the scope for new cybersecurity initiatives. This starts by determining the maturity requirements of the organization &#; which is the capability required to mitigate cybersecurity risks to an acceptable level &#; and then developing a plan to get there. The process typically involves a risk assessment and evaluation of current security programs, technology and governance. As part of this work, companies will also want to identify a maturity target based on Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) levels (see Figure 1).

An OT security capability plan for chemical companies

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