SSTI Digest

In the last five years, federal agencies have undertaken 116 price competitions and challenges that have helped the agencies “spur innovation, engage citizen solvers, address tough problems, and advance their core missions” as well as provide a cost savings for the agencies, according to a new report the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) released on August 10. The report highlights several trends that have emerged over the last five years, including: More ambitious and sophisticated competitions; Inter-agency competitions as well as public-private partnerships; New models of public engagement to increase awareness of competitions; Multi-competition challenges focused around a specific issue; and, Commercialization of technologies developed by prize seekers.  OSTP also highlights the potential cost-savings that prize competitions and challenges offer to federal agencies when compared with traditional federal contracting and grant-making mechanisms. The report provides several examples, including a challenge that saved NASA almost $112,000 (in comparison to the potential in-house cost) to help improve the ability of the International Space…

Since the beginning of July, the Economic Development Administration (EDA) has announced almost $7.3 million in grants to support advanced manufacturing and support workforce development efforts in communities impacted by the decline coal industry. In Florida and Washington, the EDA announced funding to support the facilities that can house local manufacturing firms and provide the space and equipment necessary for them to create jobs. In New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, the EDA accessed funding made available through EDA's Investing in Manufacturing Communities Partnership (IMCP) and Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization (POWER) initiative to support workforce development efforts that address job losses due to the decline of coal industries in those states. Florida On August 9, EDA announced that it will commit $2.2 million in grant funding to the Osceola County Board of County Commissioners to help build the Florida Advanced Manufacturing Research Center. In partnership with Osceola County, the University of Central Florida and the Florida High Tech Corridor Council also have committed to support building…

The Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled against the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) plan that would allow municipalities to build their own broadband network – superseding state laws in Tennessee and North Carolina that explicitly prohibit such projects. The FCC claimed that the Telecommunications Act of 1996 granted it implicit power to preempt state laws that are intended to support open markets for private-sector utility companies. In Wilson, NC, and Chattanooga, TN, the municipalities intended to “use the FCC’s now-overturned power to build or extend their networks in direct competition with existing broadband providers,” according to GovTech. The FCC “claimed similar authority under Section 706 for its Open Internet Order, which a federal court in Washington upheld in June,” according to Forbes. The panel of judges, however, ruled that in this case the FCC was attempting to regulate the political subdivisions within state borders thus intruding the power of state governments. The three-judge panel also concluded that for the FCC to have such power, it must be explicitly granted to be…

To help the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) prepares its next five-year research strategic plan, FTA invites stakeholders from across the country to participate in the crafting of the plan by providing ideas and other comments to establish a framework to guide how the federal entity prioritizes and invests in research activities over the next several years. Stakeholders are encouraged to visit FTA’s online dialogue to post an idea; review, comment, and vote on others’ input; and, provide specific feedback to FTA’s questions.   For the past three years, FTA’s research program has focused on mobility, asset management/asset innovation, and safety. Potential areas of interest for the next five years include projects on new tools like smart phones and other advanced technologies that are making it easier to schedule and deliver rides; shared mobility options increasingly complement and expand transportation options that often improving connections to public transportation systems; and, challenges to achieve maintenance and safety targets and service levels. Comments are due September 8. Submit an idea…

On July 25, the Small Business Administration (SBA) released a framework that allows qualifying small and disadvantaged businesses to obtain developmental assistance from mentor companies (both large and small businesses) and form joint ventures with those mentors to pursue government contracts. The new small business mentor-protégé program allows mentors to provide technical/management assistance, financial assistance, trade education and/or assistance in performing prime contracts with federal agencies through joint venture arrangements for up to three years. Under the rules of the program, mentors may own up to 40 percent of the protégé. Mentors may have up to three protégés under the new program. Read the final rules…

A recent National Institutes of Health-funded study by the National Academy of Sciences identifies how “science literacy” has been defined in research and the role this construct plays in attitudes about scientific research and funding. The 138-page report finds that science literacy has been measured many different ways but that the concept does not seem to directly affect attitudes toward science generally or in specific subjects. Science Literacy: Concepts, Contexts, and Consequences investigates 20 definitions of science literacy used in various studies, as well as numerous definitions of potentially-related constructs, and determines that the term is not well-defined in the literature. Despite noting that the “predominant conception” of science literacy has been individual knowledge, the authors want the term to include appreciation for a broader set of process-related concepts, such as peer review. The lack of a consistent definition of “science literacy” does not itself spell trouble for science and research. The report notes that global attitudes toward science and research funding are generally positive, a finding that…

Startup failure is the rule, not the exception. However, much startup ”failure” includes businesses that made a workable product and grew — just not fast enough to attract venture capital. A hybrid venture capital-private equity approach is trying to identify these slower-growing businesses as part of an investment model that may provide an exit strategy for spurned startups throughout the country. As reported recently in the Wall Street Journal, at least three firms are taking this hybrid approach to venture capital: San Francisco-based Turn/River, Las Vegas-based Xenon Ventures and San Antonia-based Scaleworks. The strategy is to identify startups that looked promising through the seed stage of the funding cycle but were unable to realize the growth needed to attract venture capital, despite posting millions of dollars in revenue. Ed Byrne, General Partner of Scaleworks, calls the investment strategy, “venture equity.” The venture equity model is to buy businesses cheap (although sometimes by acquiring tremendous debt), provide some level of management and process changes (each fund is currently focusing on specific business types…

National business R&D intensity, as measured by business R&D expenditures as a share of gross product, increased by 6.6 percent from 2010 to 2013, according to SSTI’s analysis of recently released National Science Foundation (NSF) data. In total, business R&D intensity was nearly 1.9 percent in 2013, up from less than 1.8 percent in 2010. The states where business R&D expenditures were the largest share of gross state product were California, Massachusetts, and Delaware, while business R&D intensity grew the most from 2010 to 2013 in Washington, D.C., Maine, and Kentucky. Last week, SSTI highlighted recently released NSF data on private R&D expenditures in the United States for the year 2013. While this business R&D data is valuable from an absolute perspective, more comparisons can be made by viewing business R&D intensity – business R&D expenditures as a share of gross state product.  A high share suggests that firms in a state are investing more in research and development relative to the overall state economy, while a low share suggests that firms are not investing as much in R&D. To conduct this…

U.S. companies continue to emphasize innovation, as private performance of R&D increased for the fourth consecutive year, according to recently released data from the National Science Foundation. In total, U.S. businesses performed 6.7 percent more R&D in 2013 than in 2012, according to the data, and nearly 19 percent more R&D from 2010 to 2013.  Combined, the top 10 states performed approximately two-thirds (65.3 percent) of all private research and development in the United States, led by California, whose $89.4 billion in corporate R&D performance accounted for 27.7 percent of the national total. The update of the Business R&D and Innovation Survey (BRDIS) comes from the National Science Foundation's (NSF's) National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics. The data is a primary source of information on business domestic and global research and development expenditures. In 2013, the states where businesses performed the most R&D were California ($89.4 billion), Massachusetts ($17.4 billion), Michigan ($15.9 billion), Texas ($15.6 billion), and Washington ($14.8 billion). On the other end of the spectrum, businesses in…

Despite global headwinds, advanced industries expanded in the United States from 2013 to 2015, according to a recent report from the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution. Nearly two-thirds of this growth came from only seven sectors, led by tech services and automobile manufacturing, according to the report. Tennessee, Georgia, and Michigan saw advanced industry employment rise the most from 2013 to 2015. The report, America’s Advanced Industries: New Trends, by Brookings Fellow Mark Muro, former Research Analyst Siddharth Kulkarni, and Nonresident Senior Fellow David Hart, examines those industries where R&D spending exceeds $450 per worker and where at least 21 percent of workers have STEM-knowledge intensive occupations (the average across industries is 20 percent). As covered by the Digest last year when the concept was first unveiled, the advanced industry sector is comprised of 50 industries, as defined by four-digit NAICS codes, with 35 manufacturing sectors, 12 service sectors, and three energy sectors. The report notes the emergence of two, broad industries leading advanced industry growth: tech and automotive. Between 2013…

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. Located at the Purdue Research Park of West Lafayette, Purdue University opened the 62,000-square-foot, $50 million Indiana Manufacturing Institute on July 27, which will house several manufacturing-focused labs to support Purdue researchers and graduate students as they…

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. While the bill took until after midnight on the last day of the state’s legislative session to receive approval from state lawmakers, the final version of the bill received almost unanimous support with a 156-0 vote in the Massachusetts House and a 38-1 vote in the state’s Senate, according to Masslive. Among the $1 billion in proposed funding, the…