SSTI Digest

Last week, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching designated 119 U.S. colleges and universities as Carnegie Community Engagement Classification recipients. The universities undergo a self-study and review process that considers their relationship within their larger communities and includes areas such as institutional commitment, student impact and outreach and partnerships. Among those designated or re-designated this year, nine are SSTI members.  To be assessed for this classification, institutions must provide evidence of community engagement through a framework broken into three parts: foundational indicators (which is divided into two sections – institutional commitment and institutional identity and culture), circular engagement, and outreach and partnerships. Among the three facets, some of the key aspects focused on are community engagement as a leadership priority, infrastructure, professional development, community voice, breadth of courses offered, depth of the curriculum, and programs and institutional resources provided for the community. Of the 119 institutions classified, 44 are receiving the designation for the first time,…

Uncommon innovation is more likely to be found in high density areas, according to recent research. An article by Enrico Berkes of The Ohio State University and Ruben Gaetani of the University of Toronto, found that high-density areas boast more unusual combinations of prior knowledge, often across technologically distant fields. Their results indicate that geography affects innovation, as high-density areas produce more diverse, original research (i.e. unconventionality) while low-density areas are more likely to produce research within specific clusters.

While the longest economic expansion in modern times in the U.S. continues and fears of a nationwide recession have subsided, there are signs that growth is slowing, and some states may be at risk for a recession. According to projections reported last month from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, several states’ economies are forecasted to slide into varying degrees of contraction within the next six months — the most since the financial crisis over a decade ago. Based on the analysis, nine states: Connecticut, Delaware, Kentucky, Montana, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and West Virginia are all facing projected economic contractions. West Virginia’s economy is expected to shrink the most, and is the state at most risk for a recession while the projected decline in Pennsylvania’s economy is anticipated to be the state’s most severe since May 2009, the tail end of the Great Recession. Delaware, Montana, and Oklahoma are identified to also see shrinking economies over the same period, which was previously projected in an analysis the Federal Reserve reported earlier in December.   In addition, the Federal Reserve also expanded its…

Education, infrastructure and budgets are all on the minds of the governors in this latest review of state of the state addresses. With more than half the governors having completed their outlooks by the end of January, this week we review the speeches through the end of month and find repeated attention to education, energy and budgeting issues, with a statewide lottery being introduced in Alaska, new energy legislation in Illinois, and South Carolina also proposed a funding increase for state universities that do not raise in-state tuition rates. This is the fifth installment of our Tech Talkin’ Govs series, where we comb through the addresses and bring you news of innovation initiatives in excerpts of the governors’ words. Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy focused on addressing the state’s budget problems: “While we contemplate the role of the Alaska people in solving our fiscal issues, any and all ideas should be explored. To that end, I’ll soon be introducing legislation to create a statewide lottery. Forty-five states have lotteries in place, and its past time for Alaskans and visitors to have the option to individually contribute to fixing Alaska’s fiscal…

The old adage, “we become/are what we measure” can push behavior of individuals and organizations into unanticipated negative space when the selected key performance indicators take on too much importance — sometimes amazingly negative space that becomes common practice and potentially damaging for the entire industry.  Counting life science startups created through the licensing work of technology transfer offices (TTOs) at the nation’s research universities appears to be the latest example of KPI (key performance indicator) pursuit potentially going bad, based on a recent Nature Biotechnology article. “The biotech living and the walking dead,” written by three Utah-based academicians, Paul C Godfrey, Gove N. Allen and David Benson, describes their research, which found over one-fourth of the 498 life-science university-licensed start-ups created since 1969 by the 50 top patenting universities in the U.S. existed merely on paper. During a forensic research project lasting eight years, the trio was unable to find any evidence that 25.1 percent of the startup firms studied ever advanced beyond the original technology transfer documents. The article includes an…

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced last week that it has approved the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund which will provide $20.4 billion over two phases to help expand broadband networks throughout rural communities. Phase one will provide $16 billion for use in communities that are currently unserved by broadband services with minimal download speeds of 25 megabits per second (Mbps) and 3 Mbps upload speeds. The remaining funds will be used in phase two which will target underserved communities after a more extensive and focused analysis has been completed to better define “underserved” areas. Although the FCC has been widely criticized for the inaccuracy of its broadband coverage maps, the organization decided to move forward with its phased plan. The FCC justified its decision by explaining that although its definition of a “served area” has been criticized as misrepresenting areas that are actually “partially served,” there has yet to be any analysis showing that any areas it classifies as “unserved” — the areas targeted in its first phase — are actually receiving adequate broadband services. The FCC argues that funds should not be withheld from the…

A recent survey of millennials by professional services firm Ernst and Young (EY) provides insights into how the generation is aging — and bucking some long-held assumptions. Evaluating the generation’s trends in living arrangements, lifestyle and career preferences, financial health, and social perspectives, EY found that some of the assumptions about millennials are not holding. For instance, the survey found that millennials — loosely defined as those born between 1980 and 2000 — are looking to put down roots and buy houses — cost effectively and not only in urban centers — although they still lag behind their predecessors in terms of home ownership rates at each age. Millennials are also less risk averse than may have been originally thought. While they still value job flexibility, the prevailing theory that they prefer the startup culture of work has been shown to be false. Millennials now appear to prefer the stability and growth opportunities provided by larger and more established organizations. Job flexibility and work-life balance are still the top concerns, but many millennials also put more stock into the value of pay equity, with 47 percent listing it…

What holds people back from starting a business? How does lifting financial constraints help promote entrepreneurship? A recent article by Vyacheslav Mikhed of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia Consumer Finance Institute,  Sahil Raina of the University of Alberta, and Barry Scholnick of University of Alberta and Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia Consumer Finance Institute, explores these questions, and how lifting these economic constraints affected entrepreneurial and self-employed business ventures in Canada from 2002-2016. By comparing lottery winnings to new business endeavors, they found that entrepreneurs face greater financial constraint when starting a business than those who are self-employed. Perhaps the biggest takeaway is that entrepreneurship faces relatively equal challenges during economic booms and busts. While this seems counterintuitive, there may be an excess of ideas during booms and, therefore, a lack of adequate capital. In the bust cycle, while there is less capital overall, demand for that capital may shrink in these times and businesses may have better chances securing investment against a smaller field. The authors suggest that…

Building on SSTI’s recent analysis of county-level GDP by industry, this edition moves beyond a single year and examines the changes in real — adjusted for inflation — county GDP and the changes in industry-specific contributions to county GDP for the 10-year period from 2009 to 2018. As shown in the interactive map below, the total 10-year growth rate for counties averaged approximately 21 percent. All 10 of the counties that experienced the greatest percentage increases in total GDP between 2009 and 2018 are in Texas. The increases for these top 10 counties ranged from 709 percent to more than 3000 percent. The growth in most of these counties was driven by dramatic increases in the mining industry and related activities such as transportation and utilities. Expanding this analysis to include the top 100 counties out of the total 3116, Texas is represented 31 times, followed by Nebraska (10 times), and North Dakota (seven times), Ohio (seven times), and Oklahoma (seven times) tied for third. The GDP increases for these 100 counties ranged from 90.6 percent to more than 3000 percent. Other notable areas of increase include the Ohio-Pennsylvania-West Virginia…

The Federal and State Technology Partnership (FAST) is intended to increase innovation-based small business awareness and participation in the SBIR and STTR programs in places and populations that are underrepresented in the programs’ award portfolios.  Through FAST, the Small Business Administration (SBA) makes small, matching one-year awards to state programs on a competitive basis. The most recent class of 24 FAST winners was announced in August 2019.  First funded in 2001, FAST has become the cornerstone for funding many states’ initiatives intended to help SBIR applicants become involved in the federal SBIR/STTR programs. But does the program work? A new, independent study prepared by Summit Consulting and funded by the SBA, suggests favorable findings along several performance indicators for FAST awards made during the FY 2015-2017 period (old enough that SBIR outcomes could be assessed but young enough that most of the companies are still trackable). Clients of FAST-awarded state programs won 285 awards totaling $79,712,439 (Phase I and Phase II for both SBIR and STTR) during the three years, FY 2015-2017. That is still less than 1 percent of…

The economy, workforce and climate change continue to surface in governors' state of the state addresses. While today’s strong economy allows most governors to reflect on how the states have grown, preparing for the next downturn continues to be a point of concern. As SSTI continues to review the addresses for news of new innovation-related initiatives, we find Delaware proposing increased investment in its economic infrastructure, while renewable energy standards are at play in states like Delaware, Hawaii, and Maine. And Wisconsin’s governor pledged to create a commission to focus on rural prosperity and another to consider redistricting across the state. Those and more innovation initiatives are excerpted from the governors’ remarks below. Delaware Gov. John Carney outlined his priorities for strengthening Delaware’s economy as he starts his fourth year as governor: “I’ve asked our Chief Information Officer, James Collins, to lead a new effort to connect state government with Delawareans through technology. This will be a game changer for our state. Together, we’ve also invested over $30 million in the Higher Education Economic Development Fund. We…

More states are employing different efforts to boost their workforce and to seek the best solutions to workforce dilemmas. The National Governors Association (NGA) recognized that governors are exploring ways to guide development and expansion of youth apprenticeship programs and has issued a white paper that explores three strategies governors can use to expand on such programs. In a separate effort, the National Skills Coalition has selected coalitions from 10 new states to join SkillSPAN, a national network of state coalitions expanding access to skills training through state policy changes that support all workers. The NGA white paper notes that today’s high school graduates with no postsecondary or industry-recognized credentials can face a bleak future. Additionally, when states have a less-skilled workforce, it is more difficult to attract business investment and requires greater funding for social services for the state’s unemployed and underemployed youth.  Youth apprenticeships combat that and connect more young people to career paths at an earlier age and help fill business workforce needs, authors Kristin Baddour and Kimberly Hauge assert. …