SSTI Digest

Over the last few weeks, Indiana and Michigan have announced the launch of manufacturing-focused innovation centers to help transform manufacturing sectors that are long-standing drivers of economic prosperity in their respective state into 21st century global hubs for manufacturing innovation. In partnership with key local industry partners, these centers are intended to help spur job creation while reimaging the role of manufacturing in their state through innovation. Purdue University in Indiana and its public/private-sector partners want to capitalize on the strength of the state’s composites manufacturing sector by launching a new manufacturing innovation institute focused on the advanced manufacturing of composite materials. In Michigan, automakers have partnered with the state and other groups to support the future of transportation through two automotive-focused innovation centers.

On August 10, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker signed an extensive economic development bill (HB 4569) into law. The new economic development law, An Act Relative to Job Creation and Workforce Development, will provide up to $1 billion with the intent of “building a skilled workforce, connecting residents to economic opportunities, strengthening community and housing development efforts, and investing in the emerging technologies that will drive Massachusetts’ economic prosperity in the future.” Among the items included in the bill are $71 million for the Massachusetts Manufacturing Innovation Initiative, $15 million for the Scientific and Technology Research Development Matching Grant Fund, $15 million for the Community Innovation Infrastructure Fund, and an angel investor tax credit.

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the National Economic Council (NEC) published a call to action concerning the upcoming National Manufacturing Day (October 7, 2016) – an annual celebration of the strength of American manufacturing and an opportunity to educate and motivate the next generation of manufacturers. To celebrate this year’s theme – “the vitality and reality of American manufacturing to youth and workers across the country” – the administration is launching an effort to inspire the next generation of manufacturers and support entrepreneurs manufacturing their first product in the United States. The effort invites U.S.

The European Union (EU) will commit €240 million (approximately 265 million USD) to create a nonprofit Research and Innovation Institute in Greece that will fund research and innovation to support the country’s efforts to pull it out of prolonged recession and create new high-paying jobs, according to the University World News. In addition to broadly supporting research and innovation, the Research and Innovation Institute is intended to spur private sector investment in participating academic institutions, research centers, companies, and scientists by reducing the risk that currently exist due to the Greek debt crisis. Through the European Investment Bank, the EU will make an investment of €180 million (approximately 201.2 million USD) at an interest rate which could be 0.7 percent to 0.8 percent. The Greek government will be responsible for contributing the remaining 25 percent (€60 million, approximately $67.1 million USD). Read the article…

The Department of Defense’s Army Contracting Command released a new federal funding opportunity (FFO) to establish and sustain a Robots in Manufacturing Environments Manufacturing Innovation Institute (RIME-MII) to increase U.S. competitiveness in robotics applied primarily in manufacturing environments. The intent of the new $80 million RIME-MII is to:

A recently released report finds evidence that Canada’s tech sector – when properly defined – plays an important role in the nation’s economy. In The State of Canada’s Tech Sector, authors Creig Lamb and Matthew Seddon develop a definition of the tech sector based on those industries employing an oversized share of technology occupations. Ultimately, they suggest that the sector is responsible for $117 billion (88.9 billion USD) in economic output, roughly on par with finance and insurance and construction as a percent of total GDP (7.1 percent).

Sixty percent of students drop out or transfer from science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, and more than 50 percent of students pursuing STEM in community colleges never graduate, according to new research from researchers at the University of Missouri (UM) and other partner institutions. The five-year National Science Foundation-backed (NSF) study is collecting data from 12 engineering colleges in the U.S. and recently reached the conclusion of its second year. The researchers report that the preliminary data also indicates that there may be a statistically significant difference in STEM retention at institutions of higher education between male and female students.

A new report from the White House Council of Economic Advisers provides a broad overview of student loan-debt in the United States and yields some potentially surprising conclusions: while the $1.3 trillion in total student-loan debt in the U.S. may seem like a staggering amount, the authors of Investing in Higher Education: Benefits, Challenges, and the State of Student Loan Debt contend that this is helping, not hurting the nation’s economy. The authors posit that college is best viewed as an investment that typically yields a high return, even with the high upfront costs.

In an effort to advance entrepreneurship among their student bodies and grow their regional entrepreneurship ecosystems, six historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) will receive up to $24,000 in support services as part of a new program from the Delta Regional Authority. Funds from the HBCU Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Initiative will primarily be used for universities to work with partners to identify entrepreneurial resources within the regional system, categorize strengths and weaknesses, and to strategically build around opportunities. Additionally, the selected schools will each host a two-day technical assistance and rapid acceleration workshop that seeks to teach student entrepreneurs about the types of skills and resources needed to launch and scale businesses. Student entrepreneurs will then pitch their ideas for a chance to be selected to present at Founders Weekend, where finalists will receive mentorship with successful minority entrepreneurs, business model development, and other services.

When the U.S. government made their R&D tax credit permanent in December 2015, it made a long-term commitment to using incentives to entice private firms to invest in research and development, joining many countries around the world. Although most studies find that R&D tax incentives promote R&D, there is little consensus on the extent of this effect. A recent firm-level analysis from the United Kingdom finds some of the strongest evidence to date on the effectiveness of R&D tax credits in incentivizing innovation. At the same time, however, other studies suggest other elements of a national economy such as education and infrastructure may be more important.

For the 10th consecutive quarter, the venture capital (VC) industry invested $10 billion in a single quarter after investing $15.3 billion in Q2 2016, according to the MoneyTree™ Report from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). Based on data provided by Thomson Reuters, the report highlights that “total venture dollars deployed to startup companies for the quarter increased 20 percent ($15.3 billion invested) and total deal count was down 5 percent (961 deals completed), compared with Q1 of 2016 when $12.7 billion was invested in 1,011 deals.” In comparison to this time last year, Q2 2015, dollars and deals are down 12 and 22 percent, respectively.

Over the last several months, there has been a flurry of activity in government-supported efforts focused on addressing the skills gap faced by manufacturing firms and other key S&T industries. The intent of these programs is to develop industry-led partnership that align workforce development efforts with the needs of specific local industries to unlock a region’s economic prosperity.  In July, two new initiatives were announced that may help provide a data-driven guide for these efforts in the future. By mapping job skills around the nexus of manufacturing and design, the Chicago-based Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute (DMDII) hopes to better develop a workforce for the 21_st century manufacturing workplace. At the Center for Data Science and Public Policy (DSaPP) at the University of Chicago, a team of researchers hopes to develop a public database that will contain the “DNA” of every job in America that is akin to the output of the Human Genome Project.