SSTI Digest

States are beginning their next round of budget proposals, following last year’s cautious approach to budgeting. SSTI begins its review of the proposals this week, presenting findings on how states are funding elements of the innovation economy with a review of Alaska, Colorado, Florida and Wyoming state budgets. While Alaska and Wyoming continue to recover from budget shortfalls exacerbated by their dependence on the energy industry, Colorado and Florida both include initiatives to increase funding to higher education and Mississippi looks to join those state offering free tuition with a proposal for free community college through the creation of a Mississippi Works Scholars Program.

The American Institute of Physics reports that National Institute of Standards and Technology Director Walter Copan expressed interest in reviewing the Bayh-Dole and Stevenson-Wydler acts for possible revisions. Both pieces of legislation were passed in 1980 to facilitate the transfer of discoveries from the public to the private sector. Copan did not indicate specific changes but mentioned conflicts between federal and state law as a problem.

Last week, the Department of Defense (DoD) released a public announcement on the launch of a new pilot program that supports university-industry basic research collaborations focused on the discovery of novel solutions to challenging defense and national security problems. SSTI members, however, were alerted to the release of the Federal Funding Opportunity (FFO) for the pilot program in a December edition of the SSTI Funding Supplement. Each week, the Funding Supplement provides SSTI members with an expansive list of FFOs and other founding opportunities for their client companies, researchers, and own organizations! Learn more about the SSTI Funding Supplement and the other benefits that SSTI members receive by visting: https://ssti.org/membership-benefits.

Mentoring programs may be celebrated across the nation as January marks National Mentoring Month, a movement started in 2002 to raise awareness of mentoring in all its forms. But more could be done to make programs more effective in both university and non-university settings, according to a recent working paper from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. Mentoring in Startup Ecosystems, by Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks, et al, found that mentoring is fundamental to founder education, but that such programs could be improved, especially at universities.

The growth and intensity of higher education R&D (HERD) expenditures varies considerably across metropolitan areas, a recent SSTI analysis of National Science Foundation data finds. New York ($4.3 billion), Boston ($3.2 billion), and Baltimore ($2.9 billion) had the highest overall levels of HERD expenditures in 2016. In that same year, Ithaca, New York (19.1 percent), State College, Pennsylvania (9.5 percent), and College Station, Texas (9.4 percent) had the highest levels of HERD intensity – measured as the share of HERD expenditures to gross metropolitan product. While overall HERD expenditures increased by nearly $7.5 billion nationwide from 2011 to 2016, more than half of this total (50.6 percent) went to the 10 metro areas with the most HERD expenditures in 2016. 

In 2016, a study – Skill Demands and Mismatch in U.S. Manufacturing – found that approximately 75 percent of manufacturers showed no signs of hiring difficulties.  This study and others (including a 2015 study from Iowa State University) are reigniting a long held economic development debate over the ‘skills gap’ – a contention that there is a mismatch between the abilities employers seek in candidates and the capabilities of workers developed by the educational/workforce development systems. Challenging the conventional wisdom put forth by employers, pundits, and policymakers, these studies seem to indicate that the problem does not lie with the U.S. workforce development and educational system. Instead, the problem stems from two primary issues at the firm level:

A lack of employer-sponsored training; and, A lack of competitive wages.

One year from now, at least one-third of the states will have a new person sitting in the governor’s chair due to the retirement or term-limit of 17 current governors. The number of new governors could be higher than the guaranteed 17 new governors because there are 36 gubernatorial seats up for grabs. For those questioning the import of a large new class of governors, one does not need to look beyond the last two major waves of new governors — 2010 when 26 new governors came into office and 2002 when 20 new governors did — to see the impact that large classes of governors can have not just on their individual states, but the field as a whole.

Most of the baker’s dozen of fourth quarter exits SSTI reviewed for publicly-sponsored venture investments reveal local employment likely to remain in place after the deals close, regardless of the deal structure. During the past three months, companies that 20 venture development organizations (VDOs) had invested in participated in at least 10 acquisitions, with seven resulting in operating subsidiaries under the new parent firm. Also in the mix for the quarter are one initial public offering (IPO), one sale of intellectual property and one leveraged buyout. Several of the deal structures suggest that regionally-based funds might have made the difference for those startups making it all the way to exit. Reaching that coveted milestone can be a tricky path, as we discover in some of the stories below. SSTI gleaned the information from Crunchbase, Pitchbook and company websites.

A range of equity-based strategies to support scale-up programming for small-scale manufacturers are among the findings of a recent report from the Urban Manufacturing Alliance (UMA). In Making, Scaling and Inclusion, UMA found that the economic development field is hungry for strategies that remove employment barriers and build the talent of low-income and economically disadvantaged communities to drive economic growth in their cities and the report offers guidance for building equitable innovation economies.

Eligible small businesses who have not previously won an SBIR/STTR award from the NIH are able to apply for help through a pilot initiative, the Applicant Assistance Program (AAP). The primary goal of the AAP is to increase participation in the SBIR program by businesses that are owned or controlled by individuals who are traditionally underrepresented in the biomedical sciences. The pilot is aimed at helping small R&D businesses and individuals successfully apply for Phase I SBIR/STTR funding from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI).

The executive council of ENDOW, an economic development initiative started by Wyoming governor Matt Mead, has announced its preliminary recommendations to diversify and grow the state’s economy, including statewide programs to support tech-based economic development that total more than $36 million. Notable among the recommendations are $6 million for a proposed Wyoming Research and Innovation Fund that provides matching funds as a way to leverage federal R&D opportunities and $5 million to develop a new organization called Startup:Wyoming, which would administer the Fund and provide support to entrepreneurs throughout the state.

The Republican tax plan passed Congress this week. The legislation, which is part tax cut — $1.5 trillion over 10 years — and part reform — replacing multiple deductions and credits with overall lower rates — will affect the U.S. economy for years to come. Education, employment, capital access and business investment are likely to be directly affected as soon as next year, and, if state budgets hold any value as predictors, regional innovation economies will be particularly affected through future reductions in federal spending.

What the bill does for innovation

The bill’s final, direct impacts on education, science, tech and innovation are more limited than those presented in earlier drafts. Deductions related to higher education affordability remain intact, as do the R&D tax credit, along with most economic development credits, and the ability of startup employees to defer taxes on equity grants. There are several changes likely to affect universities and new businesses:[*]