SSTI Digest

ESI ThoughtLab, a branch of economic consulting firm Econsult Solutions, has announced a new effort to study the return on investment of smart city programs across the world. Sponsored by groups like Accenture, General Motors, CBRE, and Oracle, the group is focusing on how the cities of the future can use sensors, data, and analysis to help fully realize the beenfits of working and living in a city. The new effort will be a follow-up to research released late last year by the group on building sustainable business and financing plans for smart cities. In Smarter Cities 2025, ESI ThoughtLab surveyed government leaders in 136 global cities, as well as 750 businesses and 2,000 citizens in 11 cities deemed representative of smart cities at large. They find that smart city investments have the potential to catalyze economic growth, although social and political challenges remain.

NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership program is seeking participants for its second Policy Academy cohort designed to leverage manufacturing growth in your state. Funded by NIST MEP and organized by SSTI and the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness (CREC), the Policy Academy will provide participants with an opportunity to collaborate with other states to identify best practices, partnerships, and policies that will strengthen their manufacturers. The process is customized to build on existing strategies, leverage available resources, and spur creative new ideas about how to address major challenges and build on current opportunities. On May 8, the organizers held an informational conference call to discuss the Policy Academy, which may be accessed here. The downloadable RFP includes application guidelines. The deadline to submit a proposal is June 7, 2019.  States may choose to focus on a range of issues relevant to manufacturing, including talent and skills, technology adoption and supply chain competitiveness. Selected states will participate in a robust process that will help clarify goals, build action plans, engage…

As covered recently in the SSTI Weekly Digest, the IRS has released its second round of guidance related to Opportunity Zones. At the same time, the agency announced its intention to release a request for information (RFI) around program reporting. Days earlier, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released an RFI for ways to adjust programs to better-support the zones. Comments close on the IRS reporting RFI May 31, on the HUD policy RFI June 17, and on the IRS investment guidance July 1. Members interested in SSTI’s responses to the agencies should contact Jason Rittenberg (rittenberg@ssti.org | 614.901.1690).

Although emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and advanced robotics have the potential to drastically change the nature of work, recent research from the Aspen Institute suggests that policies for shared prosperity can help address the challenges and opportunities related to automation. In Automation and a Changing Economy, the authors explore the impact of emerging technologies on workforce and economic security, as well as policies that address potential challenges and offer support for shared prosperity. From targeted interventions to systems-level changes to the social safety net, the report identifies 22 potential solutions meant to address four overarching objectives: encouraging employers to lead a human-centric approach to automation; enabling workers to access skills, training, good jobs, and new economic opportunities;  helping people and communities recover from displacements; and, understanding the impact of automation on the workforce. 

Many regional economic development strategies emphasize employment in manufacturing or high-tech, as these industries tend to provide well-paying jobs. Through an analysis of American Community Survey five-year data for 2013-2017, SSTI assessed state-level employment concentration within these sectors. The portion of a state’s employment based high-tech sectors ranged from 3.8 percent to 13.6 percent (or 14.4 percent for D.C.), from 2013-2017 (see “methodology” for a detailed description of what industries are included). Nationally, approximately 8.2 percent of the public is employed in high-tech industries. The distribution of states is slightly skewed, with 35 states below the national benchmark and 16 states (and D.C.) above 8.2 percent. Washington (13.6 percent), Massachusetts (13.1 percent), Virginia (12.3 percent), and Colorado (12.0 percent) are at the high end of the spectrum. The concentration of state employment share in the high-tech sector is visible in the map, below.   Nationally, 10.7 percent of the population is employed in the manufacturing sector. Unlike high-tech employment, the state distribution for manufacturing…

In the first quarter Manufacturers’ Outlook Survey for 2019, manufacturers continue to report a positive outlook for their own company and marked nine consecutive quarters of record optimism. However, their top concern remains the inability to attract and retain a quality workforce (71.3 percent cited the inability to attract skilled workers as their top challenge). The National Association of Manufacturers issued a report last month detailing the job openings in manufacturing, with the report’s author, Chad Moutray, calling the skills gap challenge “a full-blown workforce crisis.” In A Hiring Engine: A Breakdown of the Job Openings in Manufacturing, Moutray analyzes the employment trends in manufacturing, gives a sector-by-sector breakdown of recent job openings, identifies states where manufacturing jobs are located, and identifies the in-demand skills needed to fill them. Moutray notes that with unemployment at 50-year lows and manufacturing adding 20,000 workers on average a month over the past year, the challenge to find qualified workers is even more difficult. He contends that the problem is expected to worsen in coming years. Unless the…

As a way to help encourage innovation and workforce development in Northern Indiana, a five-year, $42.4 million grant from the Lilly Endowment will support the Labs for Industry Futures and Transformation (LIFT) Network. An effort of the University of Notre Dame and the South Bend – Elkhart Regional Partnership, the LIFT Network will launch iNDustry Labs at Notre Dame’s Innovation Park, a burgeoning innovation district on the campus’ southern end. This is the sixth region in Indiana where the Lilly Endowment has made an economic development commitment. The program will “serve as a front door to the University for industry partners and others in the LIFT Network to more effectively connect industry and community partners with faculty expertise, students, research capabilities and the university’s entrepreneurship and technology innovation hub,” according to a press release. As part of the grant, five other developments throughout the region will offer training in advanced industries, leveraging partnerships with K-12 schools and regional colleges and universities. The grant will also help launch the LIFT Catalyst Fund, which will…

Describing the 125+ page document outlining the administration’s thoughts regarding the movement of federal R&D into market use as a “discussion guide, not a policy document,”  Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and NIST Director Walter Copan announced the report’s release April 24 during the early minutes of the national convening of one of the communities most directly affected by any changes likely to result from the document: the technology licensing practitioners and offices which make up the Federal Laboratories Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC).  While there are no funding proposals contained within the paper, there are many specific recommendations and examples of policy leading language included in the culminating report from the multi-staged information-gathering phase of the high-profile “Return on Investment” initiative jointly led by NIST and the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP).  Another group that is likely to join the FLC in feeling direct impact if the paper guides legislative and regulatory changes as the administration desires,…

Last week, U.S. Air Force secretary Heather Wilson released a new Science and Technology Strategy outlining three broad areas for realignment within the branch. The secretary’s emphasis on transformational partnerships should be particularly noteworthy for non-defense organization working with new technologies or STEM workforce. The strategy outlines three objectives: improving delivery of transformational capabilities, reforming S&T management, and likely to be of most interest to the tech-based economic development community, expanding the S&T enterprise with a particular focus on workforce and facilitating innovation partnerships.

We’re sad to report that in the last month, three individuals who helped shape the field of tech-based economic development have passed away. Bruce “Tab” Wilkins was most recently the President and Center Director of Impact Washington. In addition to five years with the Washington Technology Center, the majority of his career was spent with the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) network, going back to 1994 when he helped form and then lead CONNSTEP. His calm, gracious presence is missed by all those including the SSTI team who had the good fortune to work with him. Among David Hamburg’s many accomplishments was serving as the President of the Carnegie Corporation of New York from 1982 to 1997. During his tenure the Carnegie Commission on Science and Technology operated and SSTI received a grant critical to the launch of its operations. A full profile of Dr. Hamburg can be found here.  In the late 1980s, Ed Cohen served as founding executive director of the New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology, an agency spun out of the higher education department during the first term of Gov. Thomas Kean, with support from the state’s key business leaders.  Under Ed’s leadership, the Commission became one of the premier state tech-based economic development organizations that kicked off the wave of state involvement in encouraging economic growth through science and technology. A complete obituary can be found here and is listed below.

Earth Day has evolved from environmental consciousness raising in its beginnings in the early 1970s to this year’s celebration surrounded with climate change concerns and development of the clean energy industry..  A recent report from the Brookings Institution shows more discussion needs to happen around the types of workers, activities and skills that will be needed in the clean energy industry, and how those efforts can be more inclusive. Transitioning to a clean energy economy will involve 320 unique occupations spread across clean energy production, energy efficiency and environmental management, the authors found. The report highlights the fact that those workers earn higher and more equitable wages compared to all workers nationally, and many of those occupations tend to have lower educational requirements.

As a bedrock of American innovation, universities and federal laboratories research and develop new products that help drive economic growth. A new study from the Economic Growth Institute at the University of Michigan aims to improve national competitiveness in this arena by providing a roadmap for universities that includes best practices on translating research from the lab to the marketplace. U-M researchers interviewed and surveyed representatives at 59 Innovation and Economic Prosperity (IEP) universities designated by the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities (APLU), and identified the following best practices for technology commercialization: Value technology innovation and lab-to-market activities at all levels through cultural norms. Support lab-to-market innovation at all levels through champions and organizational programming. Motivate and reward new ideas with career incentives and provide resources to support technology commercialization. Focus on partnerships to foster, speed and enhance lab-to-market activities. The University of Michigan received support from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and…