SSTI Digest

The Department of Energy’s Office of Science recently announced new requirements for all research proposal applications. Applicants must submit a plan for Promoting Inclusive and Equitable Research — or PIER Plan — with their research proposal during the solicitation process. The PIER Plans will be required beginning in FY 2023 and will require investigators to describe strategies to promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in all research projects. Larger research teams will be expected to provide more detailed PIER Plans. A new merit review criterion will evaluate these PIER Plans during the peer review process.

These new requirements were developed following a systematic review of the Office of Science and were based on recommendations from peer reviews and community listening sessions. The Office of Science identified various barriers for underrepresented groups from these reviews and recognized over 40 opportunities to broaden participation.

On the closing days of the previous federal fiscal year and with an Oct. 21 deadline looming for new proposals, the National Science Foundation announced the first 24 awards for a new program to support “Pathways to Enable Open-Source Ecosystems” (OSE). NSF’s goal is to exploit the advantages of using open-source development to find technological solutions to problems of national and societal importance. According to the program’s website, the goal is “to fund new OSE managing organizations, each responsible for the creation and maintenance of infrastructure needed for efficient and secure operation of an OSE based around a specific open-source product or class of products.”

Rather than funding the development of new open-source products, NSF is striving to aid the creation and sustenance of OSE hubs, using a two-phase structure. Twenty-three of the recently announced awards are all $300,000 or less and will support one-year, Phase I conceptual development and planning awards to build OSEs. The final award announced is for a $2 million OSE training and network management program to be run by the University of California-Berkeley.

A total of $47 million has been awarded to 51 organizations by the U.S. Economic Development Administration to support programs that accelerate innovation and tech-based economic development as part of the Build to Scale program,  U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo announced yesterday. The 2022 awardees will leverage an additional $48 million in matching funds from private and public sector sources. SSTI has been an advocate of the Build to Scale program, which did not receive federal appropriations prior to the creation of the SSTI Innovation Advocacy Council.

Citing an 85-year record of promoting higher quality training and worker protection standards, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has rescinded the short-lived Industry-Recognized Apprenticeship Program (IRAP) in favor of the established Registered Apprenticeship (RA) program. DOL found the IRAP program, instituted in 2017 , to be “a duplicative, lower-quality system that was not in the best interest of workers and industries.”

As Manufacturing Week kicks off on Friday, Oct. 7, the U.S. Census Bureau and Manufacturing USA are providing valuable manufacturing statistics and data to help inform policymakers and businesses, while also highlighting careers in the industry.

The Bureau features many different resources that share statistics, infographics, webinars, and past stories that detail different aspects of the progress being made in manufacturing. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, close to 22,000 people started jobs in manufacturing this August, and 67,000 more people are working in manufacturing jobs than before the pandemic.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) recently announced 44 FAST awards, including 12 new awards,  totaling over $5.4 million, with each up to $125,000 for specialized training, mentoring, and technical assistance for research and development. The goal of the Federal and State Technology (FAST) Partnership Program is to strengthen the competitiveness of small businesses and startups to improve Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program outcomes.

The Georgia Research Alliance (GRA) — a nonprofit working to grow Georgia’s economy through supporting research at state universities — recently announced that its portfolio of companies had raised more than over $2 billion in venture capital. These startups also had a high survival rate — 88% were still in business four years after launch, outpacing the national average of 44%. Along with this announcement, GRA released 2021 data on their economic impact on the state, demonstrating growth from the previous year.

GRA’s portfolio now contains 226 startups, up from 195 in 2020. Additionally, these companies currently employ 1,710 professionals, a 22% increase from 2020, generated over $153 million in revenue and attracted over $37 million in public and private grants in 2021.

In an effort to help to determine the economic impact of higher education institutions and hospitals within their regions and how reliant these regions are on these “anchor institutions” to drive their economy, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia developed an Anchor Economy Initiative. It recently published an Anchor Economy Report and created the Anchor Economy Dashboard, a new data set and website that measures employment, income, and gross value added from the institutions and hospitals, along with a new reliance index tool, for all 524 multicounty U.S. regions (394 metropolitan and 130 nonmetropolitan).

Representing one of the largest investments in the agency’s history,  the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has opened applications for the clean hydrogen hubs (H2Hubs) program. These regional hubs will be spread out across the country and receive $7 billion in funding. The H2Hubs Program will be managed by DOE’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations with support from the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

The U.S. Department of Defense’s Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation (OLDCC) recently announced the six winners under the Defense Manufacturing Community Support Program (DMCSP), with funding of approximately $30 million. Each organization received close to $5 million for long-term investments in critical skills, facilities, workforce development, R&D, and more with the goal of strengthening the national security innovation base. The six awards are listed below, while more information can be found on the OLDCC’s website.

Last week, the U.S. Department of the Treasury released clarifications and a request for information (RFI) related to its $500 million pool for State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) technical assistance.

The new FAQs relate to the $200 million Treasury allocated to the states, and for which applications are due Oct. 14. Under SSBCI, these funds can be used to provide legal, accounting and financial advisory services to small businesses, and services can be provided with a contract to a “legal, accounting or financial advisory firm.” One new FAQ defines these firms as an entity that: makes providing these services a primary purpose; markets itself as providing these services; or, has at least 25% of its revenues or staff time related to these services. The other new FAQ clarifies that states can make subawards to a subdivision of the state.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently published statutorily-required five-year inflation adjustments for various limits placed on crowdfunding, and the increases are substantial.

The new revenue ceiling for an eligible company is increasing from $1.070 billion to nearly $1.235 billion. The total cap on the amount that can be raised via crowdfunding remains at the $5 million level added just last year, but the thresholds for new offering that require independent financials or a full audit have been increased to $618,000 and $1.235 million, respectively. For individuals, the changes mean that individuals with annual income or net worth under $124,000 can invest up to the greater of $2,500 or 5%. During 2021, crowdfunding offerings raised more than $1 billion — exceeding the total raised from 2016-2020.