SSTI Digest

Last week, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced plans to relocate nearly 550 USDA scientist positions from the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., to the Kansas City metropolitan area. Originally announced in August 2018, the planned relocation of scientists within the USDA Economic Research Service, a statistical agency, and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, has gained widespread attention. The scientists involved are arguing that the move is political: that their research is so important to setting policy that they should be in the Beltway. On the other hand, proponents of the decision argue that the move will cut costs and bring the scientists closer to stakeholders in the nation’s agricultural heartland. Here are four takeaways about the proposed move. Takeaway One: This marks another step in the politicization of federal science. Americans are increasingly polarized when it comes to public trust in science, according to an analysis by the blog FiveThirtyEight, and politics play a major role. The reaction from USDA scientists subject to the move have been overwhelmingly negative, according to the Washington Post…

Founded in 2015, venture-backed aerospace firm, Relativity Space, is poised to disrupt the rocket manufacturing and launch markets as it secures long-term contracts at NASA’s Stennis and Kennedy Space Centers. Relativity is reimagining the process to iterate and scale rockets quickly, relying on its revolutionary “Stargate” metal 3D printer and new autonomous facilities to build and launch rockets in days rather than years. The Mississippi Development Authority supplied the cost reimbursement and tax incentive package that, combined with a $59 million infrastructure investment from Relativity, enabled the firm to move into a 220,000 square foot facility, unused for the last 20 years, in southern Mississippi. Relativity will begin operations at its new facility in July, bringing 190 new tech jobs to the area over the next five years. It is currently on track to complete development and testing of the world’s first 3D printed rocket by 2020 for entry into commercial service in 2021.

Are you looking to increase the success rate of your state’s SBIR/STTR proposals? If so, a reminder that applications for the Small Business Administration’s Federal and State Technology (FAST) Partnership Program are due next Friday, June 28, at 4 p.m. EDT. This program provides one-year funding to organizations executing programs related to SBIR/STTR outreach, technical assistance, or financial support. As a way to help inform these proposals, SSTI has updated the data from a January Useful Stats article on NIH SBIR/STTR success rates to include the most recent year available, FY 2018. Overall, Montana had the highest combined success rate for NIH SBIR/STTR awards in FY 2018 (38.7 percent), while California received the most total NIH SBIR/STTR funding (271 awards), nearly twice as many as second-place Massachusetts (137 awards). The map below highlights total NIH SBIR/STTR awards and overall NIH SBIR/STTR success rate for each state in FY 2018.       Detailed NIH STTR/SBIR success rate data for each state from 2008 to 2018 can be found in this spreadsheet, or at the NIH website. Here is a link to the funding solicitation:…

After 18 months, some communities are starting to see Opportunity Zones (OZ) investments. LISC, a community development entity with a long track record of project finance, has published a new guide to help communities plan to capitalize on the investment. These activities remain heavily focused on real estate projects but may still be informative for groups looking to bolster their regional innovation economy. Several sizeable OZ projects have been announced in the last few days. In Denver, a 10-story apartment building in an up-and-coming neighborhood is thought to be one of the first in the region. A $23 million apartment building in Cleveland is said to be “80 percent” financed with OZ investments. Of course, many more projects could be occurring without public announcement. A new analysis tracks real estate investment in OZs, Census tracts that were not selected but were eligible as OZs (called “also ran” by Real Capital Analytics), and ineligible tracts. The data indicate that real estate sales in OZs were up substantially in 2018 versus 2017 and have continued to grow into 2019. Some of this activity, which includes substantial…

While higher education remains a viable path to economic advancement, adults without a postsecondary degree are increasingly benefitting from non-degree certificates and certifications, according to a recent report. As automation and technological advances demand more skills from workers in the changing economy, Strada Education Network and Lumina Foundation partnered to determine the value and impact of the growing number of non-degree credentials. They found that certificates and certifications can stand as a beneficial stand-alone credential, leading to higher full-time employment rates and annual incomes, although the findings vary among occupations and there are gender gaps across all occupations. The report, Certified Value: When do Adults without Degrees Benefit from Earning Certificates and Certifications, is based on data from the Strada-Gallup Education Consumer Survey, using a subset of nearly 50,000 individuals aged 25-64 in the labor force who do not have postsecondary degrees and are not currently enrolled in college. It found that those who hold a certificate or certification are more likely to perceive themselves as marketable, lending credence to the…

The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC) plans to launch a seed fund to support the development of life sciences startups outside of the Greater Boston area. These areas, many already rich in major research university and medical center anchor institutions, should be bolstered by this early-stage funding currently concentrated in Boston. Although the MLSC hopes to expand the program in future years, the fund will provide individual investments of up to $250,000 in convertible notes with up to $1 million of capital investment available Lowell, Worcester, Springfield, Amherst, and Pittsfield. Having won a $300,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the MLSC board has approved $300,000 in matching grants, which will be administered in conjunction with the Massachusetts Transfer Technology Center.

A new program designed to support additive manufacturing (AM) technology insertion into the existing U.S. Army supply chain could also grow the southwestern Pennsylvania manufacturing sector. Catalyst Connection, in partnership with the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) and America Makes, launched AMNOW, a potentially multi-phase, multi-year contract funded by the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC) under the U.S. Army Futures Command. Catalyst Connection President and CEO Petra Mitchell said in a statement that the program “signifies a tremendous regional economic growth opportunity for small-to medium-sized manufactures within the SWPA region.” Catalyst Connection, a private not-for-profit organization headquartered in Pittsburgh, is part of the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership. It is expected that AMNOW will help facilitate the U.S. Army’s on-demand production of materials in support of warfighters and commanders on the battlefield. More information is available here.

For passive control of tidal electricity systems, permeable courtyard tiles, and fog water collection units, three winning teams of middle school and high school innovators looked to cucumber seeds, plants from the yam family and Namib beetles, respectively.  The three projects were among the six selected for recognition out of 78 participating in the 2019 Biomimicry Youth Design Challenge.  Biomimicry approaches sustainable innovation by looking first to nature to find proven competencies — patterns and strategies in the systems vernacular — for dealing with similar challenges.  The resulting innovations often draw models for adaptation or replication from unexpected aspects or elements of nature. “Other innovations honored in this year’s Challenge were inspired by the unique traits and strategies of hagfish slime, oyster reefs, prairie dogs, and Saharan silver ants,” writes Gretchen Hooker for the Biomimicry Institute (BI), the Challenge organizers. Combining STEM elements, innovation, and entrepreneurship through team-based experiential learning, biomimicry education and challenges present a promising approach toward…

The New Mexico Economic Development Department is launching a new grant program to facilitate the transfer and commercialization of technologies developed in New Mexico national labs and universities to business startups. The New Mexico Technology Transfer Assistance Grants (NM-TAG) are designed to help offset the risk associated with licensing new technologies and assist the transfer and deployment of new innovative technologies. The grant amount, which covers 75 percent of the cost of the technology license (maximum amount of $3,750), goes to the institution providing the technology. Applicants must be a New Mexico-based company. Applications will be accepted on rolling basis beginning July 1, 2019.

A recent paper published by SSRN provides a detailed look at the relationship between financial incentives and state fiscal health. The authors control for many potentially-related factors and still find significant, negative impacts of incentives. While the study helps fuel calls for critical analysis and careful implementation of tax incentives, the results may not be as clear cut as some coverage may suggest. Bruce McDonald et al.’s, “You Don't Always Get What You Want: The Effect of Financial Incentives on State Fiscal Health” measures the incentives against current-year fiscal health. This approach is reasonable for assessing immediate fiscal impacts, which particularly matter in states with balanced-budget requirements, and also makes sense for a starting point in a potential line of research. However, the methodology may help incentives designed for immediate impact appear to have better returns than incentives designed for long-term effects. For example, R&D tax credits encourage corporate spending in the hopes of eventual gains in efficiency or the creation of a new product that will eventually produce new sales and income taxes…

Funds for entrepreneurial training, technical assistance with R&D, and matching grants for innovative small businesses are among the items now part of Minnesota’s economic development toolkit thanks to new funding in the state’s recently signed FY 2020 biennial budget. Under the approved budget, Launch Minnesota will receive $2.5 million in each of the next two fiscal years to support innovation and entrepreneurship. Originally called the Minnesota Innovation Collaborative in Gov. Tim Walz’s proposed budget, the suite of Launch Minnesota programs will be administered by the state’s Department of Employment and Economic Development. The program includes four types of grants: funds for universities and nonprofits offering entrepreneurial training; funds for startups in need of R&D and other types of technical assistance; funds to alleviate housing and/or childcare expenses for entrepreneurs; and, matching funds for SBIR/STTR Phase II awardees. Entrepreneur Education: Grants are available to institutions of higher education and other organizations to provide educational programming to entrepreneurs and provide outreach to and collaboration with…

Federal and private R&D portfolios are investing heavily in designing and refining the key innovation components of the transition to cyber-physical systems of production: artificial intelligence, automation, IoT, advanced materials, and dynamic, decentralized decision making to name a few elements. There also is a fair amount of buzz about Industry 4.0 from the big manufacturing consultants and around industry trade shows.  Innovation and optimization, however, appear to be two very distant points on a continuum for both U.S. companies’ implementation of Industry 4.0 and public policy response to the opportunities and potential socio-economic impacts. A March 2019 survey of 230 executives of mid-market manufacturers across the U.S., found very little action toward implementing 4.0 change into their companies. Specifically, BDO USA, a professional services firm providing companies assurance, tax and advisory services, found 99 percent of the executives interviewed were “at least moderately familiar” with Industry 4.0 — yet only 5 percent of them are currently implementing or have implemented an Industry 4.0 strategy.  Two-thirds of the executives…