Research Library

Progress on the UN’s sustainable development goals — aimed at achieving peace and prosperity for all people and the planet — has been slow. However, fellow Harris A. Eyre and his co-authors explain how applying a brain capital framework could change the trajectory.

The creation of a new industry of brain capital technologies could stimulate major economic activity, create jobs, and contribute to technological advances for the U.S. and its allies, write Harris Eyre, Rachel Meidl and co-authors.

“Green brain capital” places a central emphasis on the brain to deliver a healthy environment, and likewise on a green environment to safeguard brain health. The authors look at the existing literature and explain how this concept can help us build a sustainable future.

Electronic waste is surging globally, presenting growing threats to the environment and human health. Rachel A. Meidl explains how coordinated action can help us move to a sustainable, circular economy of electronics.

The food environment currently dominated by the industrialized food industry is undermining both brain health and our environment.

In the next year, the EPA could make a final decision on whether to classify PVC as hazardous waste. What would this entail? Fellow Rachel Meidl explores why a hazardous designation for PVC would have costly implications — moving the U.S. further from its goal of achieving a sustainable, circular economy.

China’s dominance over the supply of rare earths — which are critical for energy transition and defense technologies — should spur U.S. policymakers to bolster raw materials supply chains, write energy fellow Michelle Michot Foss and co-author Jacob Koelsch.

Without urgent action, the impact of China’s water shortages will ripple across the globe and dramatically perturb global markets for food, energy and industrial goods, write fellow Gabriel Collins and co-author Gopal Reddy.

High-skilled immigrants from emerging markets are playing an increasingly important role in the global knowledge economy, writes nonresident scholar Elizabeth Salamanca Pacheco. In this paper, Salamanca Pacheco explains how high-skilled migrants from Mexico are well positioned to alleviate a STEM talent shortage in the U.S. and stimulate innovation in their native country.

As China’s power reaches its peak over the next decade, President Xi Jinping may make a bold move against Taiwan. To protect American interests and the rules-based order, the authors argue that the United States and its allies should immediately mobilize resources to deter Chinese aggression.