Enabling transition of carbon neutrality research from into results

A U.S. program director in energy research funding agency once said that if you don’t commercialize the technology, you won’t save any energy. That statement holds true for carbon neutrality, circular economy, and most research areas. Across Asia there are many great universities that are surpassing the West’s ability to conduct groundbreaking research. Traditionally the U.S. has had a leadership role in translating that research into start-up companies and later into commercial technologies that save energy, reduce carbon emissions, and promote a circular economy. In 2025 the U.S. is experiencing uncertainty in the support of university research, loss of attraction of the most talented international students, restrictions of funding to support early-stage deployment, and sunsetting incentives to transition to a clean and low-carbon economy. This opens an opportunity for the mega cities in Asia to take a world leadership position in both university research and deploying the world’s best clean technologies. The author is a long-term researcher in clean energy technologies, and now an advisor and investor in clean energy and climate technologies. We present opportunities for Asia to take a leadership role in the transition to carbon neutrality. This will happen by supporting top research, identifying the most promising technologies and then fostering the early career scientists and engineers to launch start-up companies to commercialize the technologies from their graduate research. We will provide several case studies to achieve success.