SSTI Digest

Enacted FY16 funding is used for comparisons unless otherwise noted.The Department of Justice (DOJ) would receive $29 billion in FY17 discretionary funding under the president’s budget request, a 1 percent increase. For the Office of Justice Programs (OJP), the budget request for FY17 totals $4.2 billion (14.7 percent decreases with $154 million for Research, Evaluation, and Statistics activities. The appropriation for Research, Evaluation, and Statistics activities includes programs that provide grants, contracts and cooperative agreements for research, development and evaluation; development and dissemination of quality statistical and scientific information; and, nationwide support for law enforcement agencies. Of this amount, $48 million (33.3 percent increase) is requested for research, development and evaluation efforts under the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), which serves as the R&D agency of DOJ.  Key funding areas included in the FY17 budget proposal for NIJ: $5 million for development of an improved means to conduct Digital Forensics of Large-Scale Computer Systems and Network; $3 million for Social Science Research on Indigent…

Enacted FY16 funding is used for comparisons unless otherwise noted.The administration’s FY17 budget request for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is $40.6 billion (0.9 percent decrease) in non-disaster, net discretionary funding, excluding disaster-relief funding. The proposed budget would include $471.1 million to support the National Cybersecurity Protection System (NCPS), commonly referred to as EINSTEIN, to continue to combat intrusions, enhance information sharing, and deploy analytical capabilities to secure the Federal civilian information technology enterprise. DHS also would commit $274.8 million for the Continuous Diagnostic and Mitigation program to provide hardware, software, and services design to support activities that strengthen the operation security of federal networks. In the president’s budget, funding for the DHS Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) would receive $758.7 million (3.6 percent decrease) for research and development activities and would target opportunities in cybersecurity and the detection of nuclear, chemical, biological, and explosive threats. The S&T Directorate works with state and…

Enacted FY16 funding is used for comparisons unless otherwise noted.In FY17, the president is $32.5 billion (9.8 percent increase) for the Department of Energy (DOE), with $12.9 billion (27.7 percent increase) to be used to support science, energy and related programming. Of the $7.7 billion in FY17 proposed across 12 government agencies for Mission Innovation investments, $5.9 billion, or 76 percent, would go to DOE. Examples of DOE Mission Innovation projects that would receive funding under the proposed budget include: $215 million for crosscutting innovation initiatives, including $110 million for Regional Energy Innovation Partnerships that support regionally focused clean energy R&D initiatives, and activities that develop energy innovation ecosystems; $261 million for advanced clean energy manufacturing R&D projects and facilities, including funding for two new National Network for Manufacturing Innovation Institutes (NNMI); $880 million to support sustainable transportation technologies that increase the affordability and convenience of advanced vehicles and domestic renewable fuels; $500 million to increase the use and reduce the costs of clean…

Enacted FY16 funding is used for comparisons unless otherwise noted.The FY17 budget request for the Department of Defense (DOD) would provide $523.9 billion (0.4 percent increase) in discretionary base funding. The budget is intended to make strategic investments in areas identified as priorities, such as developing new operational concepts, adjusting to strategic changes, pioneering and dominating technology frontiers, reforming the defense enterprise, building the force of the future, and providing resources to the U.S. military force and their families. The FY17 budget request would provide $6.7 billion to support defensive and offensive cyberspace  operations, capabilities, and cyber strategy that will strengthen national cyber defenses and increase options available in case of a cyber-attack. The budget also includes $1.8 million for space launch and would allocate $108 million to implement the Joint Interagency Combined Space Operations Center, which is intended to better align joint operations in space across the U.S. government. In the FY17 budget proposal, the DOD is pursuing new technology development, operational concepts,…

Enacted FY16 funding levels are used for comparisons unless otherwise noted.The president’s FY17 budget request for the Department of Commerce (DOC) totals $12.1 billion (18.4 percent increase over FY16 enacted), with $9.7 billion in discretionary (5.2 percent increase) and $2.3 billion mandatory funds (150.5 percent increase). Much of the increase in discretionary funding would be allocated for preparations for the 2020 Decennial Census at the Bureau of the Census and for new weather satellites at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. However, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) would also receive a boost, with $1 billion in discretionary funding (5 percent increase), and $2 billion in additional mandatory funding for the National Network of Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI) and for the construction of research facilities. Economic Development Administration (EDA) discretionary funding would fall to $258.5 million (0.1 percent decrease), but would receive an extra $50 million in mandatory funding for a new Lab-to-Market competitive grant program. EDA’s Regional Innovation Strategies program would see its funding increased to…

Estimated FY16 funding levels are used for comparisons unless otherwise noted.The president’s FY17 budget proposal would provide $24.6 billion (4.1 percent decrease) in discretionary funds for the Department of Agriculture (USDA). The administration is proposing a $700 million investment in the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI), USDA’s competitive, peer-reviewed research program for fundamental and applied sciences in agriculture. USDA will also contribute to the cross-agency Mission Innovation clean energy initiative and the administration’s clean water innovation strategy. Research, Education and EconomicsUSDA’s Research, Education and Economics (REE) agencies would receive $2.9 billion in discretionary funding (1.3 percent decrease). Overall funding however, would increase with several major investments through mandatory funding, totaling $535 million. USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) funds projects conducted in partnership with state agricultural experiment stations, the state cooperative extension system, land grant universities, colleges and other research and education…

Earlier this week, President Obama released his final budget proposal, outlining $4.1 trillion in spending for federal agencies. Total spending would increase 4.9 percent over the current fiscal year, but with a less than 1 percent increase in discretionary spending in accordance with the spending caps set last year.  The fiscal year 2017 budget request includes funding and legislative proposals supporting the lineup of initiatives announced by the White House over the past few weeks including the Computer Science for All initiative, the National Cancer Moonshot, the 21st Century Clean Transportation System initiative, the Mission Innovation global climate initiative, a major investment in cybersecurity and a water innovation plan. Each year, SSTI reviews the president’s federal budget request for programs and spending related to entrepreneurship, regional innovation, economic development, manufacturing, research and development, technology commercialization, and STEM education and workforce training. This year’s Federal Budget Special Issue provides an overview of tech-based economic development spending, as well as an agency-by-agency analysis of…

This week, U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker announced the 25 recipients of the Economic Development Administration’s 2015 Regional Innovation Strategies grants. These awards support innovation and capacity-building in regions around the country through two grant programs: the i6 Challenge and the Seed Fund Support Grants competition. The Regional Innovation Program remains a key priority for SSTI.  Seventeen i6 Challenge recipients will receive a total of $8 million to create and expand proof-of-concept and commercialization centers, while eight Seed Fund Support Grant winners will share a total of $2 million to support cluster-based seed capital funds. The full list of awardees is available at: https://www.commerce.gov/news/press-releases/2016/02/us-secretary-commerce-penny-pritzker-announces-awardees-10-million.

Over the last few months, a number of universities across the country have launched pre-accelerator programs – a new trend that has emerged in university-led efforts to support entrepreneurial growth among faculty and students. This week, the Digest examines this growing trend and attempts to provide insight into two important questions about pre-accelerators: What are they? What are their goals? In January 2014, City University London, the Accelerator Academy, and their partners announced the launch of FastForward (FFWD) London  and they branded it as the world’s first pre-accelerator. The intent of FFWD London is to prepare its startups for successful application and entry to leading London accelerators, access to first funding, and non-equity finance. During the program’s six-week program, 25 potential startups would meet once a week to learn about topics such as tech, marketing, and finance via a mixture of expert speakers, industry mentoring, and hands-on experience. At the end of the six weeks, teams pitched their ideas to London-based accelerators, grant providers, and early stage investors. In September 015, FFWD London held its most…

Technology companies raised $225 million globally on rewards-based crowdfunding sites in 2015, according to a new report from the UK-based Crowdfunding Centre. In State of the Crowdfunding Nation, the Crowdfunding Centre reported that reward-based crowdfunding sites helped raise over $1.5 billion worldwide between the calendar years of 2014 and 2015. Global rewards-based crowdfunding campaigns raised $823.5 in 2015 million (a 20 percent increase over 2014) from nearly 10.2 million backers. In the United States, approximately 20,000 fully funded campaigns raised over $590 million in the United States in 2015. When broken down by category, tech companies attracted the most funding from backers and on average raised over $51,000 per campaign. In addition to tech companies, video games companies raised over $47 million in 2015 using reward-based crowdfunding sites. Download the report (purchase required)

Last year, the venture capital investment hit a 15-year high, with total dollars topping every year since 2000. A slow fourth quarter brought the remarkable trajectory of the year back down to earth, but with a total of $11.3 billion invested, 2015 became the second highest year on record since PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) began the Moneytree Report in 1995. Much of this growth was due to larger deals, and, in fact, the total number of deals was down from the previous year. California continues to dominate the market, with California firms receiving 57 percent of all investment. Washington surpassed Texas to join the top five states in terms of venture dollars, and Boston surpassed San Jose to join the top three metropolitan regions. Venture firms invested $58.8 billion in 4,380 deals last year, according to the PwC/NVCA Moneytree Report based on data from Thomson Reuters. Dollars were up about 15.7 percent over the previous year, while deals were slightly down (1.4 percent). While these figures represent only an incremental change from 2014, they are more impressive in light of the state of the venture market in the…

The White House recently released a preview of its plans to build a stronger pipeline between K-12 education and high-skill employment. The President’s Computer Science for All Initiative would boost investment in states, districts and teacher training to improve computer science (CS) education for K-12 students. The three-year, $4 billion plan would also call on multiple federal agencies to focus investments on improving CS skills. The president also proposed nearly $6 billion in new funding to help young people acquire skills and access to high-quality job opportunities. Much of this support would come through the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act youth formula program, with $2 billion in additional support though programs for at-risk students, $200 million for apprenticeship programs and $20 million for the Summer Jobs and Beyond program. Funding for both initiatives will be included in the president’s fiscal year 2017 budget request next week.