SSTI Digest

Are you tired of your organization's impact going unnoticed? Join our webinar to discover how to use compelling, attention-grabbing impact reports to tell your success stories in a way that resonates with funders, media, and the public. You’ll hear from three types of organizations with three very different funding models. Our expert panel will share real-world examples of TBED organizations using impact reports to secure funding, boost media coverage, strengthen partnerships, and elevate their reputation. Learn how to highlight the long-term value of your initiatives, use various communication channels to reach a wider audience, and avoid common pitfalls and maximize the impact of your reports. Don't miss this opportunity to take your TBED organization to the next level. Register now for our TBED Community of Practice webinar on Maximizing visibility: leveraging impact reports for TBED success. Speakers include President & CEO, Arkansas Research Alliance Bryan Barnhouse; Director, Muskegon Innovation Hub at Grand Valley State University Kevin Ricco; and Director of Marketing & Communication, South Carolina Research Authority…

Despite recent attacks on affirmative action and diversity, equity, and inclusion, the TBED community continues to work toward broadening participation in innovation driven growth. This continuing attention may be attributable—as stated in the recently released report Tech Equity in Action—to the practical knowledge among TBED practitioners that “(e)fforts to grow local economies are hampered when sizable portions of the population are left out of this high-growth sector.” The report, published by the New Growth Innovation Network (NGIN), provides practical advice for TBED professionals who want to continue to ensure their projects are equitable and inclusive. “Put frankly, whether one calls it DEI or not, the work must be done,” Mark Skinner, SSTI’s executive vice president, said. “Regions cannot ignore the urgent need for greater involvement in innovation among more of their population to achieve long-term competitiveness and sustained economic growth.” Skinner added, “How one accomplishes that is an integral focus of our conference agenda in December.” More on SSTI’s annual conference, to be held Dec 10-12 in Metro Phoenix, is available here. NGIN…

Even though women make up nearly half of the U.S. workforce, their involvement in critical occupations going forward does not reflect that. For instance, in 2021, they only constituted 35% of environmental engineers, 17% of civil engineers, and 9% of mechanical engineers, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau analyzed by the Society of Women Engineers. Additionally, the Pew Research Center reported in 2021 that “Women account for 25% of those working in computer occupations. The share of women in this fast-growing occupation cluster declined from 2000 to 2016 and has remained stable” through at least through 2021, the end date of their study.  Furthermore, according to Women in STEM, 2023, “At the current pace, we will not see equal representation in STEM until the year 2070.” The Girls' Index™: Girls & STEM Impact Report, conducted by Ruling Our eXperiences (ROX) and supported by Battelle, aims to provide insight into the root causes of women’s lagging numbers in pursuing STEM occupations. The study, which surveyed 17,502 girls in 5th through 12th grade, is the largest national survey to do so. The Index suggests that girls' lag in pursuing…

Innovation spreads, but how far can it reach? A new study finds that firms operating in multiple tech clusters act as conduits, transmitting knowledge and boosting productivity across distant locations. However, certain types of firms are better at it—and benefit more readily—than others. This insight, from a recent National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) working paper, “Innovation Spillovers across U.S. Tech Clusters,” challenges our understanding of how innovation benefits spread geographically. Combining patent data from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office with confidential plant-level data from U.S. Census Bureau surveys from 1976 to 2018, the NBER researchers investigated the extent and impact of innovation spillovers between tech clusters. They focused on manufacturing firms with inventors producing patents in the same technological field across multiple plants. The analysis revealed substantial variation in the degree of interconnectedness: the most connected plants had links to an average of 11.3 clusters, exposing them to the knowledge of more than 8,000 inventors. In contrast, the least connected plants were tied to just one cluster, with only 32 outside…

As a part of the State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI)’s Technical Assistance (TA) Program, the Treasury Department has announced 14 Small Business Opportunity Program (SBOP) awards to 12 states and two Tribal governments, each ranging from $1.6 to $10 million, totaling $75 million. SSBCI’s TA program is divided into two major programs: the TA Grant program and SBOP. The TA Grant program is an allocation formula-based grant program for which all eligible jurisdictions having submitted complete and approvable applications are generally recommended for funding. SBOP, however, is a competitive grant program for which only certain applications are selected for approval based on evaluation criteria specified in the NOFO. This information and more can be found in the SBOP FAQs. Note: The nationwide injection of nearly $10 billion from SSBCI has fundamentally transformed finance in most of the country outside the usual regional suspects for tech, innovation and entrepreneurship. Interested Digest readers are invited to join Treasury officials and SSBCI program participants gathering at SSTI’s annual conference Dec. 10-12 to discuss TA, program updates and…

As business R&D expenditures continue to increase nationwide, disparities between states deepen, an SSTI analysis of new Business Enterprise Research and Development (BERD) survey data reveals. States with the largest BERD values, including California, Washington, and Massachusetts, have all increased their share of overall domestically performed BERD values almost every year since 2013. Nearly 50% of the nation’s domestic business R&D expenditures occurred within the borders of these three states in 2022, up from 39% just a decade prior in 2013. California contained over a third of the nation's total value in 2022, totaling more than the bottom 43 states and Washington, D.C. combined. Figure 1 illustrates this trend, showing the five states with the largest values in 2013 and 2022, alongside the summative value of the remaining BERD dollars. Note that undistributed funds are included in the “All Others” slice of the charts; in 2013 undistributed funds accounted for approximately $12.7 billion, which decreased to $765 million in 2022. Undistributed funds include reported data not allocated to a specific state by multi-establishment companies. Figure 1…

Forty-one states and Puerto Rico will vote on 151 statewide ballot measures this fall.    Many of this year’s measures focus on abortion; citizenship or electoral system reforms (such as Arizona’s Proposition (Prop) 133 and Missouri’s Amendment 7, which would prohibit ranked-choice voting, while Idaho’s Prop 1, Nevada’s Question 3, and Oregon’s Measure 117 would establish ranked-choice voting); criminal justice or drug use policies (including the legalization of recreational (Florida, North Dakota, and South Dakota) or medical (Nebraska) marijuana, as well as certain psychedelic substances (Massachusetts could be the third state to legalize psilocybin); and minimum wage increases. Voters in Alaska, California, Massachusetts, and Missouri will decide on minimum wage increases, with Nebraska voters deciding on an initiative requiring paid sick leave for employees. In Arizona, voters will decide whether tipped workers should be paid 25% less per hour than minimum wage. A dozen initiatives would impact tech-based economic development—providing funding for initiatives, changing the electoral or redistricting system, altering taxes, or modifying the governance of higher education.

The Small Business Administration’s (SBA’s) has announced the Regional Innovation Clusters initiative awards winners. There are 14 winners from a pool of 79 applicants. There are two categories for these awards: emerging and mature clusters. According to the SBA press release, emerging clusters develop and deploy small business support services in their designated regions and industries, and mature clusters have experience building and implementing programming to support small businesses. Learn more about the Regional Innovation Clusters program at SSTI’s 2024 Annual Conference. SBA is partnering with SSTI for the event and will be participate in the Federal Funding Forum and sessions on the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) programs. See the full agenda for the conference and register today. The fourteen awardees are listed below with the amounts of first year funding (new cluster awards can be optioned by SBA for up to four additional years), technology focus, and region: AgTech Innovation Alliance received $250,000 to support AgriFoodTech small businesses in California’s Central Valley. Applied…

Domestic business R&D expenditures have jumped 15% ($89 billion) from 2021 to 2022. This jump continues a decade-long trend of year-over-year increases, as a new 2022 Business Enterprise R&D (BERD) survey shows. Despite concerns over high inflation, with annual rates of 7% in 2021 and 6.5% in 2022, domestic BERD expenditures have also increased in constant USD each year. Adjusted to 2013 USD, expenditures increased 6% ($32.5 billion) from 2021 to 2022 and 71% ($228 billion) over the past 10 years since 2013. SSTI sourced data for this article from the BERD survey’s 2013 to 2022 data releases. Inflation adjustments were performed by SSTI using the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis’ Inflation Calculator.   National overview of business R&D Over the past 10 years, from 2013 to 2022, domestic business R&D expenditures have more than doubled, jumping 114% or $369 billion, with an average gain of 9% per year. Adjusted for inflation, values have increased 71%, or $228 billion in 2013 USD, over the same period, with an average annual increase of 6%. Refer to Figure 1 for more detail on these trends. Figure 1: Current and…

Doing this work in our separate regions and states, we can feel at times like we're the only ones doing what we do. SSTI recognizes it is even hard to explain your work to friends and family. What is a tech-based economic development practitioner? An ecosystem builder? A commercialization professional?   A famous guy once wrote, "We few, we happy few..."  The Bard might have been talking about TBED and regional innovation. SSTI gets it. So, we've created a place to fix that. We're bringing our band together in December. At SSTI's Annual Conference, you'll be among people who understand what it means to be working toward creating a better future through science, technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship. People who know your jargon (mostly). People who have experienced the same challenges in their own regions that you face. It's a safe place for people like you, like us. We're focused on our shared field and on our shared future. During the conference, you can skip that awkward part of many conversations when you have to explain why your job even exists and instead just dive into sharing your work, your challenges, your…

Listen, refine, apply: Lorain County Community College’s approach to TBED talent development demonstrates a responsive, industry-aligned education strategy. A recent TBED Community of Practice webinar highlighted how this process keeps their semiconductor and microelectronics program in sync with ever-evolving student and industry needs. Michael Morgenstern, Courtney Tenhover, and Johnny Vanderford from LCCC shared insights on their program’s growth and success. What began with just five employer partners has expanded to 91 partners across Ohio and beyond. Key to their success has been a commitment to industry engagement, with a curriculum constantly refined based on regular employer feedback. The college offers a range of programs for students, from one-year certificates to associate and bachelor’s degrees, all designed with hands-on, industry-relevant experience at their core. Understanding the choice students often face between pursuing education or earning a living, LCCC follows an “earn and learn” model. This approach integrates paid internships into the core curriculum, allowing students to gain practical experience and earn income while completing their…

Since the inception of I-Corps, only 20% of participants have been women, according to the 2023 National Science Foundation I-Corps biennial program report. A recent paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, titled Gender Diversity in Academic Entrepreneurship: Social Impact Motives and the NSF I-Corps Program examined this gender gap by investigating how social impact and commercial motives influence engagement in the NSF I-Corps program. The researchers used a multi-pronged approach to gather data on entrepreneurial motivations and behaviors. First, they surveyed participants at a local I-Corps site between Fall 2018 and Spring 2022 to assess their entrepreneurial intentions. To incorporate a bigger-picture perspective, the team then analyzed 1,267 national I-Corps project abstracts from 2012-2019. Their analysis of the project abstracts revealed that women principal investigators (PIs) tended to emphasize social impact more in their project descriptions compared to men. Notably, the study found no significant difference in how men and women described the commercial potential of their projects, suggesting that emphasizing social impact does not…