SSTI Digest

While progress has been made, challenges remain in the goal to advance cancer research, according to the Cancer Moonshot report Vice President Joe Biden delivered to the White House on Monday. The “Cancer Moonshot” is the current administration’s effort to accelerate 10 years’ worth of progress in cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment into just five. The Washington Post detailed remaining challenges, including a lack of coordination among researchers, outdated funding cultures and slow dissemination of information regarding new treatments. The White House has urged Congress to approve $1 billion in funding for the effort, along with money for other health initiatives and the National Institutes of Health. Biden, who lost his son Beau to brain cancer in 2015 and who heads the moonshot initiative, said he will dedicate the rest of his life to the effort. He will, however, be appealing to a lame-duck Congress and while Hillary Clinton has indicated she would continue the effort if elected, Donald Trump has not addressed the issue. But Biden, in his address at the White House, called cancer research “the last bastion of genuine, true…

With the visionary language of large federal initiatives like the “Cancer Moonshot” or provocative branding such as “NIH…Turning Discovery into Health®” and the National Institute of Health website further touting “revolutionary ideas often come from unexpected directions,” one might assume an equally ambitious approach is being taken to ensure federal life sciences research is going toward research with the most promise for positive impact and scientific advancement.  One of the calls of Vice President Joe Biden’s recent Cancer Moonshot report was urging not to accept a “business as usual” approach. A recent report underscores why that may be a problem at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). What is the most significant factor associated with whether or not a R01 research proposal receives funding after going through NIH’s vaulted peer review system?  Would you guess the significance of the research? The innovation incorporated in the study? The experience and educational credentials of the researchers? Perhaps, the environment and or facilities in which the research will be undertaken…

Despite Brexit and political uncertainty in the U.S., stability is returning to the global VC market as investors shift from new unicorn chasing and a renewed interest in global initial private offerings (IPOs) by late-stage startups, according to a new report from CB Insights – Venture Pulse Q3 2016. CB Insights’ analysts contend that investor caution is the dominant VC market global trend driven by more realistic valuations of early stage companies, deals with a significant degree of scrutiny or investor protections, and some investors deciding to shelve their investments. Although U.S. VC deals declined for the fifth straight quarter, the global market actually saw an increase in the number of deals finalized in Q3 2016. However, due to low unicorn birth rates and more realistic valuations, there also was a sharp decline in VC funding during Q3 2016 – the worst since Q3  2014. While quarterly funding to VC-backed companies has hovered around $27 billion to $28 billion since crashing in Q4 2015, the $24.1 billion invested in Q3 2016 is the lowest quarterly funding total since Q3 2014. For early stage companies in the U.S. looking for Seed…

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced the launch of the McLarty Capital Partners’ Rural Business Investment Company (RBIC) – a new private investment fund with the potential to inject $100 million into growth-oriented, small businesses across rural America. As the fifth RBIC to launch since 2014, McLarty Capital Partners’ RBIC is part of the Made in Rural America initiative, an ongoing effort by the Obama administration to attract private sector capital to investment opportunities in rural America and drive more economic growth in rural communities. Join us at SSTI’s 2016 Annual Conference to learn more about proven strategies that have helped rural regions and small metros build strong capital-investment networks and how they connect with larger pools of capital outside their region. During the session, Building Bridges: Connecting Small & Mid-Sized Communities, our panel of experts will draw upon their own experiences as well as discuss other models from across the country to help attendees develop better strategies for cultivating and growing their region’s investor network and connecting it to other…

The majority of Americans say new skills and training are critical to their future job success and to remain competitive in changing workplaces, according to a new report issued by the Pew Research Center in association with the Markle Foundation. This was particularly true for individuals working in STEM occupations, where roughly two-thirds of employed adults responded that ongoing training and skills development would be essential to their development. The State of American Jobs combines an analysis of government economic data with a survey of more than 5,000 adults conducted during the summer of 2016. The report includes: analysis on trends in job and wage growth by occupations; public assessments of the job situation and worker readiness; views on job satisfaction; the types of skills required for work; and, public views about the value of college education. When asked about skills, more than one-third of workers (35 percent) stated they did not have the education and training they needed to advance in the workplace, though 45 percent said they received extra training in the past year to improve their job skills. Workers with higher levels of education are more…

Practitioners in the technology-based economic development field often face questions about what they do, or what the field entails. The answer can be a challenge. Is it attracting high-quality jobs and businesses to an area, finding capital to finance science and tech startups, STEM education support, educating a new workforce, bringing research ideas to the marketplace, partnering with other organizations to achieve all those goals? It can be a mouthful, and it can be difficult to convey all those ideas in simple terms. In an effort to give the community a framework to talk about their work with external stakeholders, the upcoming annual SSTI conference will feature a session designed to frame the message in an understandable and memorable way. “Trying to explain what we do is one of the biggest challenges in the industry,” said SSTI President and CEO Dan Berglund. “At this stage, there is not a common language that organizations are using. Fifteen to 20 years ago, people latched on to ‘technology-based economic development’ because it made sense and resonated. I’m not sure that’s still the case.” With special…

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is seeking preliminary proposals for $18.5 million in funding to support the Smart & Connected Communities (S&CC) program. The NSF expects to make 18–29 awards in the following four categories: S&CC Integrative Research Grants (IRG) Track 1; S&CC Integrative Research Grants (IRG) Track 2; S&CC Research Coordination Networks (RCN); and, S&CC Planning Grants. The goal of this Smart & Connected Communities solicitation is to support interdisciplinary and integrative research and research capacity-building activities, while undertaking meaningful community engagement. The specific objectives of this solicitation are to: 1) enhance understanding and support the design of smart and connected communities, in ways that improve the quality of life within them; 2) foster the development of a robust, multidisciplinary and diverse research community that encompasses, integrates, and extends disciplinary perspectives in the social, behavioral, economic, and learning sciences and in computer and information sciences and engineering, and engineering research; and,3) support research capacity-building to address…

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a report calling for reforms aimed at patent “trolls” to help lower the number of frivolous lawsuits filed by shell companies, a move welcomed by the tech industry that has pushed for reform because of the cost of lawsuits that result from the activity and its negative effect on innovation, research and development. The report follows an investigation into the practices of patent assertion entities (PAEs) – firms that acquire patents from third parties and then try to make money by licensing or suing accused infringers. The report includes several recommendations for patent litigation reforms. The FTC was able to study the behavior of the PAEs because of their ability to collect confidential business information and conduct industry studies. They used that authority to study PAE acquisition, litigation, and licensing practices.  Previous research by the White House and the Congressional Research Service highlighted the increasing number of patent lawsuits and the detrimental effect on the innovation ecosystem. The FTC study acknowledged the role that litigation plays in protecting patent rights,…

While academics and policymakers have rushed to embrace venture capital (VC) investors, they have had a tendency to neglect other entrepreneurial financiers (specifically angel investors) who critically affect the success and growth of new ventures, according to a new study from Josh Lerner of the Harvard Business School and Antoinette Schoar of the MIT Sloan School of Management. The study, based on previously released academic research, highlights the importance of angel groups and angel investors in the startup investment system by providing startups/entrepreneurs not only with capital, but hands-on assistance and expert advice.  Based upon the success of high-performing angel groups, Lerner and Schoar contend that angel investors include “some of the most sophisticated and active investors in a given region, which might result in superior decision-making.” In the study, Lerner and Schoar explore the rise of angel investing and compare it to venture capital including highlighting data that show two large “angel groups (Tech Coast Angels and CommonAngels) outperformed the venture capital industry overall.” They also highlighted that angel…

While the number of companies receiving venture capital (VC) backing continues to decline, the amount of money invested remains near record levels. As of Q3, the annual investment total for 2016 is approximately $56 billion invested across 6,000 companies. However, with only 1,800 deals made in Q3, this marks the fifth straight quarterly decline in the number of companies receiving venture investment – a 32 percent quarter-over-quarter decline.  Yet, nearly 2,000 investors deployed close to $15 billion in VC financing during Q3 2016, according to the inaugural PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor – a quarterly report on U.S. venture capital activity. If this pace continues, the report finds that 2016 would be the second-highest amount of capital invested during a calendar year – last year’s $78.9 billion is the current highest year for capital invested. These findings indicate the continuation of a strong concentration of investments into older-stage unicorns (companies valued at $1 billion or more). Driven by a low interest-rate environment, investors continue to make large investments in VC firms seeking high returns on…

Between 2010 and 2015, the vast majority of metro areas experienced growth in gross metropolitan product (GMP), led by energy-intensive regions such as Odessa, TX, and Bismarck, ND, according to an SSTI analysis of recently released data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). The Elkhart, IN, and San Jose, CA, metropolitan areas experienced the largest increase in GMP per capita over the same period. Metro area gross domestic product (GDP), commonly referred to as gross metropolitan product (GMP), is derived as the sum of the GDP originating in all the industries in a metropolitan area, according to the BEA. Between 2010 and 2015, 369 of 382 metro areas analyzed, or 96.6 percent, experienced growth in gross domestic product. Gross metropolitan product increased the fastest in: Odessa, TX (52.1 percent increase); Bismarck, ND (49.7 percent increase); and, San Jose, CA (43.5 percent increase). The metropolitan areas experiencing the largest declines in gross metropolitan product between 2010 and 2015 were: Sierra Vista, AZ (8.0 percent decrease); Homosassa Springs, FL (8.4 percent decrease); and, Corvallis, OR (18.9 percent decrease). In 2015, the regions…

Although much has been written on the value of immigrant entrepreneurship, relatively little research to date focuses on strategies for supporting these individuals. Welcoming America, a national nonprofit and non-partisan organization focused on immigrant inclusion, has addressed this gap by releasing a how-to-guide for those interested in supporting immigrant entrepreneurship in their cities. Produced with Global Detroit, an initiative focused on southeast Michigan’s international community, Seeds of Growth describes practical ways for regions across the nation to leverage opportunities associated with including immigrant entrepreneurs in local economic development strategies and programs. Citing evidence of immigrant entrepreneurs fueling local economic growth, the report calls on civic leaders to connect immigrants with traditional economic development priorities as a way of identifying new opportunities. Overall, the report’s authors suggest four steps to supporting immigrant entrepreneurs: better understanding economic priorities and immigrant assets; inventorying and engaging existing programs and potential partners; talking with immigrant…