SSTI Digest

The clean energy sector has continued to feel the economic strain brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, with many businesses citing the need for additional federal assistance to prevent future employee layoffs and furloughs. Third Way, working together with the Clean Energy Business Network, recently released their second survey of clean energy firms and the impacts that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused to their business.

The incoming Biden administration continues to outline its priorities for the Federal Communications Commission. According to the Brookings Institution, net neutrality, broadband access and 5G security will be among the next administration’s top policies. Executing on these priorities will require both a new FCC chair and legislative action.  

Repealing 2018’s Restoring Internet Freedom Order appears to be a primary goal for the Biden administration, allowing for the reestablishment of net neutrality through a return to 2015’s Open Internet Order. Brookings notes that because of Americans’ increased reliance on the internet due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a Biden FCC “could go further and explicitly prohibit data caps, zero-rating, and interconnection fees within a net neutrality rulemaking.”

In nearly every research institution, there are individuals who achieve oversized impacts. In the academic environment, publications and citations were the traditional standard bearers for advancing science, engineering and discovery — unfortunately, tenure and title are still stubbornly tied to these measures in universities. Patents became the next tier for measuring performance many years ago. Beyond scientific advancement, however, a paper or patent that isn’t applied or put to practical use has little real value from the perspective of national competitiveness or economic development. 

Increasingly, researchers who invent and see through the commercialization of their patents and technologies are being celebrated for impacts to both their fields of study and the economy. The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) has recognized more than 1,400 such people since 2010 through its Fellows program, adding 175 of them this year from more than 100 universities and governmental or nonprofit research institutions across the planet. 

The Census Bureau is requesting public input on the Economic Census. Conducted every five years, the survey serves as the most comprehensive source of information about American businesses. According to the Census, the survey establishes data for nearly 1,000 industries and more than 20,000 regions, including company revenues, and is used to support measures of gross domestic product and standard industry classifications (i.e. NAICS). The starting point for the 2022 survey will be the questions asked in 2017. Comments are requested by Feb. 12, 2021, and should be directed to Kimberly Moore, the Census Bureau’s chief of the economy-wide statistics division at econ.content@census.gov.

Over 5.2 million homes and businesses are now planned to receive broadband internet access through the Federal Communications Commission’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund. The FCC announced on Monday that 180 service providers, ranging from satellite companies, cable operators, fixed wireless providers, electric cooperatives, and telephone companies, have been awarded funding to begin expanding broadband internet access to rural areas throughout 49 U.S. states and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The FCC’s news release explains that these providers “must meet periodic buildout requirements that will require them to reach all assigned locations by the end of the sixth year,” while also noting that “they are incentivized to build out to all locations as fast as possible.”

At a critical junction for the American workforce, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation (USCCF) has launched a new initiative to develop new models for investment in the workforce of the future. Partnering with Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, the Talent Finance initiative advances a new public-private approach to talent development that is intended  to address the challenges and requirements of the new economy — one that competes on talent. In the wake of the pandemic’s upheaval of the economy, workers are facing greater uncertainty and the prospect of jobs that may not return.

COVID-19 could affect 3.1 percent of private sector jobs due to business failure among small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) in 17 different countries (not the U.S.), according to a new working paper from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Findings also revealed that the fiscal cost of an intervention that narrowly targets at-risk firms can be modest (0.54 percent of GDP), while non-targeted subsidies can be substantially more expensive (1.82 percent of GDP) to achieve the same level of effectiveness. Without government support, the paper estimates a failure rates of SMEs of nearly 9 percentage points.

Combining the adages “necessity is the mother of invention” and “two heads are better than one,” the best innovations often arise by broadening the community of minds focused toward addressing a particular problem or need. The Obama Administration took the concept of funding open innovation competitions toward specific issues to heart, encouraging federal agencies to use prizes and challenges as much as practical. Going a step further, Congress enacted legislation in 2011 to make it easier for federal agencies to use the cost-effective tool and the practice was maintained during the four years of the Trump Administration. With early signs suggesting the incoming Biden administration will see a return of many key policymakers and themes from his Democratic predecessor, there may also be a renewed focus on using challenges and problem-solving prize competitions to spur innovation and prosperity coming out of the pandemic. A recent Department of Energy press release adds further weight to this hypothesis and provides a good opportunity for prospective grant seekers to begin to familiarize themselves with the concept in anticipation future federal funding rounds.

An important element of a region’s innovation community is its knowledge capital, and one way to try to determine a locality’s knowledge capital is to examine the number of individuals receiving research-based doctorate degrees in the science and engineering (S&E) fields. The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently updated their Survey of Earned Doctorates with data for the 2018-2019 academic year. For the period ranging from July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019, the number of total PhDs awarded increased nationally by 1.1 percent over the previous academic year to 55,703. The update also shows that the number of degrees awarded to recipients in S&E fields was 42,980. SSTI’s analysis explores the total number of S&E PhDs awarded per state, as well as the number of S&E PhDs per 100,000 state population.

The federal Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund released a new report profiling certified CDFIs in FY 2019. Notably, 14 active CDFIs are certified as venture funds, an increase from just four in FY 2017. Between the periods covered by these reports, the CDFI Fund updated their certification process and received encouragement from SSTI and members to be more open to equity financial structures. The results suggest that this change has taken place. An overview of the CDFI program with insights from members who have recently received funding follows.

For many innovators, entrepreneurs, investors, and corporations, American capitalism has been a boon. But there is another side to the story. A recent report published by McKinsey & Company questions whether the American model of capitalism is on the brink of change. The report details the unequal and disparate economic outcomes of the current model of capitalism in the U.S., which has been compounded by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Current challenges to capitalism include the potential for market disruption triggered by climate change and the rise of countries with other economic systems like China.

Stemming from a collaboration between the Census Bureau and the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) within the National Science Foundation (NSF), a new data set aims to untangle the dynamics of research and development (R&D) performed by private companies. Specifically, the new Annual Business Survey incorporates previously experimental data on the R&D performance by microenterprises — businesses which employ between one and nine people. SSTI’s analysis of this new data shows the total R&D performed by microenterprises in each state, and the portion of that R&D which the companies paid for themselves.