SSTI Digest

Faced with the sudden, unprecedented fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Ned Lamont last month launched a new resource to provide workers and businesses in Connecticut with career tools, including partnering with Indeed and workforce training providers. Last week, the Mississippi Legislature passed a bill appropriating $55 million for short-term training and support of programs for training of employees and others displaced due to the health crisis. Minnesota is partnering with Coursera to offer free courses to its workers that have lost jobs because of the pandemic. And noting the reality that many of the jobs previously held in the service industry will not recover, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation reported that “the first priority for recovery is to reskill and upskill these workers, and get them back to work as soon as possible, at family-sustaining wages that offer them a strong future.” These efforts are just a few of the initiatives underway across the country to address the workforce crisis. While there has been some recovery in the workforce, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last week that the unemployment rate declined by 2.2…

The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) is recommending a set of bold actions to help ensure continued American leadership in Industries of the Future (IotF), comprising artificial intelligence (AI), quantum information science (QIS), advanced manufacturing, advanced communications, and biotechnology. The three pillars underpinning these actions are: enhancing multi-sector engagement in research and innovation; creating a new institute structure that integrates one or more of the IotF areas and spans discovery research to product development; and ensuring the availability of a qualified, diverse IotF workforce. PCAST recommends that federal agencies take full advantage of their administrative authorities to partner with industry and academia in new and innovative ways, particularly to ensure the effective transition and translation of early-stage research outcomes into applications at scale. In the area of AI, this includes establishing a joint AI Fellow-in-Residence program, AI Research Institutes in all 50 states, national AI testbeds, partnerships for curating and sharing large datasets, joint international programs for attracting and…

Voters in Maine will consider a high-speed internet infrastructure bond issue on the July 14 ballot. The legislatively-referred measure would authorize $15 million in general obligation bonds for the Connect ME Authority to provide funding for high-speed internet infrastructure in unserved and underserved areas. The bond revenue would be used to match an estimated $30 million in federal, private, local and other funds. Increasing broadband connectivity is part of Gov. Janet Mills’ 10-year economic development plan, released late last year. The plan notes that “Connectivity in rural communities enables talent attraction, innovation, skills upgrading, and access to a global economy.”

A new coalition funded by the Lumina Foundation and driven by manufacturing experts from across the country has formed to help solve the recruitment challenge and build a more racially inclusive future for manufacturing. The Urban Manufacturing Alliance teamed up with The Century Foundation to launch Industry and Inclusion 4.0. It is focused on developing partnerships with employers, educational institutions, and community groups, and deploying training models anchored by industry-recognized credentials, while focusing on how to improve chances of success for a new more diverse workforce. Work that has already started ranges from the services workforce development organizations can offer companies behind the scenes to the training they already offer to young adults in their communities. The eight manufacturing leaders in the coalition include MAGNET Cleveland; the Jane Addams Resource Corp. in Chicago; LIFT in Detroit; Manufacturing Renaissance in Chicago; Menomonee Valley Partners in Milwaukee; MxD in Chicago; Northland Workforce Training Center in Buffalo; and WRTP/BIG STEP in Milwaukee. The coalition will focus on solving workforce challenges in…

COVID-19 is not just wreaking havoc across the national and global economies but is specifically causing that damage in a way that widens the existing fault lines between the “haves” and “have-nots.” Further, as countries and companies contemplate the possibility of managing operations alongside the new coronavirus, rather than an entirely “post-COVID” society, there is little reason to believe the worsening economic inequality will mend without specific intervention. The problem will not be easy to solve. As SSTI covered last November, income inequality worsened in America — and in all 50 states — between 2006 and 2018, a period that includes the Great Recession. According to the World Bank, America rates worse on income equality than all countries with which our economy or power is often compared, including China, Germany, Japan, Russia and the United Kingdom. New research from West Virginia University finds that economic downturns tend to contribute to worsening income equality within states. Specifically, states that cut their budgets in response to a recession tend to see their lowest fifth of wage earners receive a smaller share of income. The end result…

Banking regulators recently announced new rules, effective in October, that will allow banks to invest in venture capital funds. These arrangements had been barred by the “Volcker Rule,” which was put in place after over-leveraged banks caused a global financial crisis in 2008. A statement by the National Venture Capital Association praised the change and predicted a “significant impact on entrepreneurial capital formation … particularly in emerging ecosystems.” The deregulatory announcement comes on the heels of two pieces of news that seem to support the Volcker Rule’s original purpose: the U.S. Federal Reserve Board deciding to restrict banks’ capital plans following stress tests; and, conflict-of-interest complaints over SoftBank investments in Credit Suisse’s working capital funds (as well as the firm that manages those funds), which have made loans to four SoftBank-backed companies. Regardless of the implications of the rule change for the broad economy, venture development organizations should be aware of a potential new class of limited partners for their funds.

Just 10 percent of STEM faculty at four-year institutions are from underrepresented backgrounds, according to a new report by the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities. The report and an accompanying guidebook, which were supported by the NSF INCLUDES grant, look at the lack of individuals from underrepresented backgrounds in STEM faculty positions and outline several key findings and steps for higher education leaders, researchers, and policymakers to bolster diversity in STEM faculty. The findings highlight that not only is there a lack of data on why individuals from underrepresented groups are not prevalent in STEM faculty (i.e. missing where barriers to profession entry may be), but also how support wanes at the post-doctoral and early-career stages compared to levels found in undergraduate programs. This is due to the pervasiveness of the “pipeline” assumption, or the idea that most students follow a single track from undergrad to a professorship, which does not account for the challenges unrepresented minorities may face along this path. Challenges include a lack of role models, mentors, and quality advising; the importance of support during…

The longer the pandemic lasts, the greater the jeopardy to many small businesses. A recent report from McKinsey & Company finds that the sectors most affected by the coronavirus and the least financially resilient include 1.7 million small businesses, employ 20 million workers, and earn 12 percent of U.S. business revenue. Additional research from JPMorgan Chase & Co found that small business revenues dropped as much as 50 percent and cash balances dropped 12.7 percent through April 2020, with Black and Asian-owned businesses suffering larger declines than white-owned businesses. With their roles as employers, economic multipliers and community hubs, the McKinsey report notes that interventions need to give more than immediate relief and help build longer-term resilience. In addition to sectors that are experiencing well-known challenges, like restaurants and hotels, other small businesses in educational services, healthcare, social assistance and retail trade also reported being highly affected. The McKinsey report notes that government leaders could consider additional support to small businesses, including: Providing sector-specific support,…

A new report by the Urban Institute indicates that the Opportunity Zone (OZ) tax incentive program has had varied success throughout the country. An Early Assessment of Opportunity Zones for Equitable Development Projects assesses the effects that OZs have had within low-income communities while also reviewing the types of developments that have benefited most from the incentive. An over-arching finding in the report is that it has been difficult for mission-oriented and community-driven projects to access capital, as investors have instead focused on funding projects that can produce larger, short-term returns, including luxury real estate properties. The authors suggest that policymakers could redesign the program to better incentivize investments that target innovative small business opportunities and equitable community-focused projects.

Since 2005, the One North Carolina Small Business Program has made 423 SBIR/STTR matching awards worth nearly $26 million to more than 250 businesses throughout the state. A new assessment, which updates an earlier report, provides academic rigor to a standard program review. The results indicate that even beyond survey-based attestations to the program’s value, there is a statistically-significant impact of North Carolina’s funding for the competitiveness of recipients. The new assessment is published in the Annals of Science and Technology Policy by John W. Hardin and David J. Kaiser of the North Carolina Board of Science, Technology, and Innovation and Albert N. Link of UNC Greensboro, the editor-in-chief of the publication. The most original portion of the article is an assessment of program data using regression analysis, which provides a more rigorous evaluation of relationships between variables than can be achieved through correlation alone. The regression analysis reveals several clear benefits of the North Carolina matching program. First, while North Carolina has been improving its rate of SBIR/STTR Phase II awards over time, the years since the…

Tulsa Innovation Labs has received a $50 million commitment from the George Kaiser Family Foundation to help develop the city of Tulsa as a technology hub. The funds will go towards assisting the new organization to support local talent, startups and academic innovation. Tulsa Innovation Labs, founded earlier this year, has already begun identifying the most promising areas of growth including virtual health, energy tech, drones, cyber and analytics. The organization intends to define its first phase of initiatives by the end of the year, and with input from university, industry and community leaders’ initiatives will likely include a mix of startup incubation and acceleration, workforce development and academic innovation. In the meantime, the organization has already launched two programs, the Holberton School, a two-year academy that will graduate 500 software engineers each year; and TU-Team8 Cyber Fellowship, a collaboration with the University of Tulsa to support 10 doctoral students each year focusing on turning cyber-related academic research into startup companies.

This week’s release of the Annual Survey of Manufacturers (ASM) from the Census Bureau provides the most detailed statistics on the U.S. manufacturing sector and provides a snapshot of where the sector stood prior to the pandemic. Based on the 2018 summary statistics, the Census Bureau offers the following preliminary insights which can also be seen in the image below. Transportation Equipment had the greatest total value of shipments (more than $1 trillion) and was the first manufacturing subsector to surpass the $1 trillion mark; Transportation Equipment had the greatest total payroll (over $106 billion) and the greatest number of employees (1,563,273); Food manufacturing had the second greatest total value of shipments ($787 billion); Food manufacturing had the second greatest number of employees (1,498,491) and the fourth greatest annual payroll (nearly $69 billion); Chemical manufacturing had the third greatest total value of shipments ($765 billion); and Fabricated metal product manufacturing had the second greatest annual payroll ($77.6 billion) and the third greatest number of employees (1,400,643) [Source: U.S. Census Bureau] The summary statistics…