In a Digest article published May 8, 2025, SSTI outlined how the proposed White House 2026 discretionary budget proposal, which aims to cut non-defense discretionary funding by 22.6%, could impact TBED programs. In that article, we laid out some specifics of how the cuts were anticipated to affect key U.S. research-funding bodies. In a recent report from The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF), Meghan Ostertag, compares four scenarios to estimate a variety of potential losses to the U.S. from 2026 to 2035 that would result from reduced federal R&D spending levels, with the second through fourth scenarios presented as benchmarks compared to the first scenario. The scenarios are described below…

Long concentrated geographically, venture capital also is growing more concentrated in a small number of larger deals, as SSTI has reported in recent Digest issues. In fact, deals under $100 million—not a small figure in itself—have fallen by 71% according to SSTI’s analysis of PitchBook data. Even more troubling is evidence showing deals under $100 million are moving to later-stage investment and away from early-stage companies. The trend, SSTI believes, should be of concern for nonprofit venture development organizations as well as TBED policy makers and regional stakeholders working to keep their local economies competitive through innovation-driven entrepreneurship. This shift in private capital market behavior may have negative impacts on company survival rates, downstream economic growth opportunities, and the long-term competitiveness of U.S. industry.

Commercializing patented inventions is a common goal of innovation policy, as it drives company revenues and regional economic growth. However, tracking the commercialization of inventions stemming from R&D is challenging. While programs like the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program are explicitly designed to encourage commercialization, most evaluation tools rely on approaches that may be anecdotal or incomplete, such as surveys, case studies, or patent counts. A working paper by Carlo Bottai, Gaétan de Rassenfosse, and Emilio Raiteri proposes a new web-based methodology for detecting commercialization, offering a potentially more objective, real-time way to gauge the return on public innovation investments. It might prove a useful tool for state TBED programs that support R&D grants, research centers, and university-industry research collaboration.

As agencies begin delivering their implementation plans in response to President Trump’s executive order that called for the implementation of “gold standard science (GSS)” and asserted that “(r)eproducibility, rigor, and unbiased peer review” must be maintained, the proposed agency actions appear less disruptive than many funded parties had feared. NIH notes that its embrace of GSS is a continuation of its existing commitment to scientific excellence and that the agency “welcomes the opportunity to reaffirm its continued commitment to this goal.” NSF sets forth plans to “redouble” its commitment to GSS. 

Research parks in North America impact innovation communities in key areas, including the economy, jobs, occupancy, culture and placemaking, cluster development, entrepreneurship, and development and growth. In its recently released 2025 Economic Impact Report, The Power of North American Research Parks, the Association of University Research Parks (AURP) presents data that shows just how significant these impacts are.

From 2022 to 2023, domestic R&D expenditures increased 4%, or $29 billion, but remained nearly unchanged when adjusted for inflation. This apparent slowdown follows a streak averaging nearly 12% ($59 billion) year-over-year growth from 2018 to 2022, and 8% over the past decade from 2014 to 2023. Adjusting for inflation paints a different picture of the growth trends, with a more modest annual average of 8% from 2018 to 2022 and 6% over the past decade. In this edition of Useful Stats, SSTI uses new Business Enterprise R&D (BERD) survey data to explore business R&D expenditures since 2009. Then, we present the data by sector and industry, allowing for closer analysis of which business R&D see the most investment in the U.S.

“Buckeye Bridge,” a new initiative between The Ohio State University and Columbus State Community College, will provide students with a tuition-free path to finish their bachelor’s degree. Low- to middle-income Ohioans who earn an associate degree from Columbus State will qualify for the new program at Ohio State, which will cover all tuition and mandatory fees.