SSTI Digest

While job openings surpassed 7.1 million in August, companies across the country still are struggling to attract staff with relevant skills. To address this issue, states are developing new workforce development efforts to address the increased demand. These efforts have taken many different approaches including grants to communities, free online resources, mentorship programs, or stronger partnerships with industry. While these efforts may be diverse in their processes, they share commonalities, such as bringing together all stakeholders (e.g., industry, academia, government, nonprofits, and local workforce development boards) and providing those services locally across the state, or by leveraging online platforms.  Such efforts are reflected in new programs described below in Indiana, North Carolina and South Carolina.

Indiana

For those interested in how innovation, investment, programs, and policies can help make manufacturing an economic boon to states and regions across the nation, a new special issue of the Economic Development Quarterly may offer some answers. Featuring original research and book reviews from experts around the country, Strengthening Manufacturing – How Research Can Inform Public Policy is an important read for scholars and practitioners of economic development. The introduction to the special issue, written by Ken Poole and Brendan Buff of the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness (CREC), is available online at no cost. A future Digest story will highlight some of the articles featured in the issue and discuss what their findings mean for technology-based economic development more broadly.

The U.S. Treasury released a new set of proposed guidelines around Opportunity Zones. The new regulations would provide many clarifications about eligibility and timing, but do little to address critical concerns for potential zone-based seed and venture capital investment funds. Additional guidance is forthcoming, but there is no timetable for this release. Meanwhile, the latest regulations are subject to comment once published in the Federal Register.

Tax incentive-focused accounting firm Novogradac & Co. has published a summary of the new regulations’ usefulness and omissions. Of the defined items most relevant for potential equity investments into high-growth businesses:

As the nation faces a tight labor market and industries scramble to find employees with the right skills to fill open positions, community colleges that are closely connected to a region’s economy play a key role in helping to fill that pipeline. However, the challenges facing students at community colleges often result in many not completing a degree or certificate. A report released this month by The Brookings Institution noted that less than 40 percent of community college students earn a certificate or degree within six years of enrollment. The report’s author, Elizabeth Mann Levesque, explored ways to address both structural and motivational barriers in completing community college. The barriers are real, said two community college administrators SSTI spoke with about the problem, yet the successes they see and innovative efforts some community colleges are taking to help their students are beginning to pay off.

This week we wrap up our four-part series focused on navigating innovation priorities in a variety of settings.  Following the November elections, many new faces will be a part of your state legislature. Communicating effectively with these lawmakers can help ensure the success of your programs. This week we hear from Leslee Gilbert, vice president, and Tom Quinn, associate vice president, both from Van Scoyoc Associates (jointly responding as VSA below), as well as Angela Andrews, director of the legislative staff service program at the National Conference of State Legislatures on the do’s and don’ts of working with your legislature.

Those attending the Dec. 5 conference session with our featured speakers will begin to develop a list of action items you can implement when you return home.

Q: Why is it important to communicate with your state legislature?

Jason Owen-Smith, executive director of the Institute for Research on Innovation and Science (IRIS) at the University of Michigan and a researcher with work covered previously by SSTI, has written a book explaining the benefits of university R&D. Research Universities and the Public Good: Discovery for an Uncertain Future (Stanford University Press) provides an accessible argument for the peculiar benefits of universities’ approach to R&D.

Owen-Smith’s explanation for why top research universities are strong at advancing the public good boils down to three structural elements. Universities are:

The life-risking delay in emergency response for rural areas, inadequate health care access in “medical deserts,” drinking water contamination, and the urgency of need for broad dissemination of information regarding natural disasters such as flooding and landslides are among the themes explored for civically-focused innovation in the latest round of competition for grants from the National Science Foundation’s Smart  & Connected Communities (SCC) program. NSF announced 13 projects involving collaborations among 35 institutions would share $22.6 million in funding to address societal challenges through the latest information and communication technologies.  

Still treated as a novelty by most mainstream U.S. media, there is growing global use of nature-inspired innovations to deal with a number of challenges and undesired properties of business-as-usual, whether it be infrastructure, agriculture or product design, production, use or disposal. Collectively comprising a number of approaches —such as biomimicry, green chemistry, or regenerative manufacturing — nature-inspired innovation incorporates design and use principles borrowed from and complementary to nature.  The most promising aspects of all of these efforts are their economic value and efficiency compared to life cycle analyses of similar products and processes development through conventional means.

This week we continue our four-part series focused on navigating innovation priorities in a variety of settings. With the 2018 elections less than three weeks away and 36 states facing gubernatorial races, this week we focus on how to make innovation a priority with your governor. SSTI spoke with C. Michael Cassidy, director of the new Emory Biomedical Catalyst, and Christine Smith, managing director of innovation, Rhode Island Commerce Corporation, about their experiences in working with their states’ governors over the years.

The series features excerpts of interviews with experts in the field, each of whom will also be presenting at our annual conference, where these topics will be explored in greater depth. This conference session on Dec. 4 in Salt Lake City will also feature Sandra Watson, president and CEO of the Arizona Commerce Authority. Click here for more information on the conference.

Q:  Is there one best method to gaining support for regional innovation within a state?

The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) announced its latest round of grants for Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization (POWER). The 35 grants totaling $26.5 million support workforce training and education in manufacturing, technology, healthcare, and other industry sectors; invest in infrastructure enhancements to continue developing the region's tourism, entrepreneurial, and agriculture sectors; and, increase access to community-based capital, including impact-investing funds, venture capital, and angel investment streams. The awards are projected to create or retain over 5,400 jobs and leverage more than $193 million in private investment into 59 Appalachian counties.

A few of the awards (with SSTI members in boldface) are highlighted here:

Across the country, there are nearly 6.9 million scientists and engineers, representing 4.8 percent of the nation’s workforce. There are 20 states having at least 100,000 workers in these occupations. Scientists and engineers are concentrated around the nation’s capital, making up the largest share of the workforce in Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. From 2003 to 2017, the number of scientists and engineers grew the fastest in Arkansas, North Dakota, and Utah. With an interactive map and downloadable spreadsheet, this article breaks down the changes in the science and engineering workforce across the United States over the last 15 years.

Despite an uneven economic recovery, fewer Americans are living in distressed communities and more are living in prosperous ones, according to a recent report from the Economic Innovation Group (EIG), a Washington, D.C.-based policy and advocacy organization. Comprised of seven factors measuring socioeconomic health, the Distressed Community Index (DCI) divides the country’s zip codes (communities) into five quintiles — prosperous, comfortable, mid-tier, at-risk, and distressed — and tells the story of the country’s economic health across two time periods, the recession years of 2007 to 2011 and the recovery years of 2012 to 2016. EIG finds that the employment and business establishment growth during the economic recovery has been mostly limited to prosperous communities, where the population tends to be more educated and the housing vacancy rate may be lower.