For three decades, the SSTI Digest has been the source for news, insights, and analysis about technology-based economic development. We bring together stories on federal and state policy, funding opportunities, program models, and research that matter to people working to strengthen regional innovation economies.
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The 50 individuals who will serve as state governors come this January are the closest the group has ever been to reflecting the true melting pot that has made this country a global leader in science, innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship.
With a number of state legislative races yet to be called, it is already clear that the 2026 election will be remembered as one that significantly changed the national political landscape. Democrats not only won majorities in the U.S. House and Senate but also had significant wins at the state level.
Across the country, many voters on Nov. 3 just said no to ballot issues regarding new progressive tax policies in which the wealthiest individuals pay a larger percentage of income than average Americans struggling with affordability in the current economy.
The U.S. National Science Foundation Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (NSF TIP) announced its inaugural NSF Translation to Practice (NSF TTP) award portfolio, investing more than $20 million across 22 projects. The awards span a range of emerging technologies, including human-super intelligence collaboration, semiconductor design and manufacturing, critical minerals, and agriculture and food production. There are three award tracks, which are intended to reflect different elements of the commercialization effort. Of interest for Digest readers may be the NSF TTP-Partner (NSF TTP-P) track, which “supports translational efforts that demand one or more partnerships for technology development and deployment. Here, strategic partnerships with stakeholders beyond U.S. institutions of higher education are essential ingredients for success and may include industry partners, government entities at all levels, philanthropies, international organizations, or other groups associated with large-scale productization and distribution."
California outranks all other U.S. states in value of agricultural outputs. And the bulk of that production takes place in the Central Valley. It produces more than 250 different crops with an estimated value of $17 billion per year. Drawing from only 1% of U.S. farmland, the region supplies 8% of U.S. agricultural output (by value) and produces 25% of the nation's food, including 40% of the nation's fruits, nuts, and other table foods.
With the rapidly changing landscape of AI-assisted technologies and related software designed to improve productivity and efficiency, SSTI is calling attention to an upcoming free, virtual demo day organized by one of our sister innovation organizations that might be useful for technology-based economic development organizations.
Tech Transfer Demo Day | Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) | virtual and free on Dec 8 | AUTM’s annual conference in San Diego next February will provide a great chance to learn about resources to address some of the biggest challenges for moving technology to market or helping connect research needs to research resources. Now, AUTM is offering a free virtual demo day to learn from some of their AI and software-related exhibitors for all commercialization managers. More info
On Oct 20, the National Science Foundation posted in the Federal Register an opportunity for the public to comment on plans to begin collecting data to inform an assessment of the Technology, Innovation and Partnership Directorate. Established in the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 and comprising several well-publicized initiatives, TIP has three mission areas of interest to the TBED community: technology translation, workforce development, and regional innovation ecosystems. The register notice announces NSF’s intention to exercise generic information-gathering authority under an as-yet-undefined TIP Evidence and Evaluation Measurement Framework. There are no details provided in the public notice regarding what might be requested from recipients and focus group participants for each of the three programmatic buckets and how that data might be tested in future assessments. NSF states in the announcement that it will work those details out with OMB approval rather than through the formal public comment period.
Innovation and skilled trades haven’t always been linked in TBED policy discussions, but AI and other technological advances have united the two in many areas. The Alliance for America's Skilled Trades, comprised of many large U.S. corporations, has developed a new dashboard to help policymakers understand where the demand and supply of workers and training do not match. Most importantly, the dashboard also scores which specific trades are seeing the most or least pressure. The dashboard illuminates that the mismatch isn’t limited to the fastest growing states. One can explore the dashboard here.
In this edition of Useful Stats, SSTI examines Survey of Earned Doctorates data to explore the most common research doctorate fields, the time it takes to earn a doctorate, and the percentage of employment postgraduation.
The Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED) is an annual census of all individuals receiving a research doctorate from an accredited U.S. institution in a given academic year. Note that professional doctoral degrees (e.g., MD, JD, DPharm, PsyD) are not included in the survey.
Georgia Tech and Emory University are investing more than $1 billion in artificial intelligence, with plans to expand computing power, prepare students for the workforce, and advance research in Georgia. The combined investment includes approximately $600 million from Emory and more than $575 million from Georgia Tech, according to the universities.
The Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center will accelerate brain cancer and neuro-oncology research through the new Jeff Schwarz Center for Neuro-Oncology Research, established with a $10 million gift.
Gov. Moore and the Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC) recently announced a $2.38 million federal grant to launch the Maryland Rural Pathways to Prosperity Network (MD Pathways). The four-year initiative connects nine rural community colleges and universities across the Eastern Shore, Western Maryland, Southern Maryland, and Northern Maryland. According to the press release from the governor’s office, “By partnering directly with local businesses and state agency leaders, MD Pathways ensures students graduate with industry-recognized credentials, paid workplace experience, and clear degree pathways in fast-growing local careers in healthcare, cybersecurity, aerospace, high-tech agriculture, and education.”
The quick answer is "not really."
The latest PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor, which presents venture capital activity, revealed the industry invested $98.4 billion during the third quarter of 2026. But as SSTI’s past analyses have shown—and the most recent quarter’s data further confirms—the national VC market is overwhelmingly dominated by one technological phenomenon, artificial intelligence, and by the mega funds managing more than $500 million.
