SSTI Digest

A new report from the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) proposes new categories for IT research investment in the coming years. Federally-funded IT research is currently grouped in eight categories introduced in 1995 for the purposes of budgeting and tracking. PCAST is recommending an overhaul of these categories to reflect the contemporary IT landscape. Other recommendations focus on continued investment in cybersecurity, Big Data, health IT and other hot topics. However, PCAST also advocates stronger federal support for education and workforce training with on-ramps for underserved communities. The PCAST report is the Congressionally-mandated periodic update on the progress of the Federal Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Program, the cross-agency coordination body for IT research. The last such update was issued in 2013. As the coordinator of research, NITRD plays a key role in developing, implementing and tracking federal investments in IT R&D. For this reasons, the structure of its “Program Component Areas (PCAs),” the research categories used by NITRD, have an impact on…

For many states, broadband connectivity is becoming an increasingly important tool used to improve the economic well-being of residents, especially in rural areas. While some have paved the way for publicly funded municipal broadband providers, others, such as North Carolina and Tennessee, have filed suit with the Federal Communications Commission and joined the telecommunications industry in their opposition. Over the course of the summer, several states announced their own measures to improve broadband adoption as a means to support economic development and improve the quality of life in rural areas. Recent research has explored the economic value of rural broadband adoption. Sponsored by the National Agricultural and Rural Development Policy Center (NARDeP), a study released last year found that, between 2001 and 2010,  rural counties where more than 60 percent of households adopted broadband experienced higher income growth and smaller unemployment growth than those counties that did not. The study, Broadband׳s contribution to economic growth in rural areas: Moving towards a causal relationship, also finds that rural counties where fewer than 40 percent of…

Recently announced programs in the St. Louis and Minneapolis-St. Paul regions offer startups and major corporations new chances to connect and work together. Pioneered by Illinois’ Corporate Startup Challenge, these types of programs seek to build bridges between important components of the innovation ecosystem: revolutionary new products and services and established market leaders. ITEN, founded in 2008 as an initiative dedicated to servicing entrepreneurs in the St. Louis region’s IT ecosystem, announced its Corporate Engagement Program (CEP) earlier this summer with the intention of creating a closer relationship between corporations and startups in the region. Once startups apply to the CEP, ITEN works with their corporate partners to identify the ventures with the technologies, market focus, or solutions that are of the most interest to them or their customers. Once connections are made through events such as speed dating, individual matchmaking, or reverse pitch competitions, ITEN largely removes themself from the conversations. The founding corporate partners to be paired with startups are Daugherty Business Solutions,…

Research performed by U.S. businesses grew by 6.7 percent in 2013, reaching $322.5 billion, according to the National Science Foundation’s Business R&D and Innovation Survey (BRDIS). The increase was the largest since the survey began in 2008. As businesses recovered from the economic crisis in 2009-2010, U.S. business R&D fell by 4.1 percent, but then began to recover. Most of the increase in 2013 was due to research funded by the companies themselves, with information technology companies posting the largest growth (22.2 percent). Read the NSF InfoBrief…

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the next steps of his administration’s Nano Utica initiative, an effort to revitalize the Mohawk Valley regional economy through nanotechnology innovation. Originally announced in October 2013, Nano Utica is a public-private partnership spearheaded by the SUNY College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (SUNY CNSE) and the SUNY Institute of Technology (SUNYIT), along with more than $1.5 billion in investment from global technology companies. The most recent Nano Utica announcement includes additional commitments from major corporations. Multinational sensor technology company ams AG announced an investment of more than $2 billion to support a 360,000-square-foot water fabrication facility at the 450-acre Marcy Nanocenter complex. GE Global Research also will be expanding its global operations in Utica, serving as the anchor tenant of the Computer Chip Commercialization Center (QUAD C) on the campus of SUNY Polytechnic Institute’s Colleges of Nanoscale Science and Engineering. Seeking to revitalize New York’s Mohawk Valley by working to establish a dynamic nanotechnology-driven ecosystem, Nano Utica is an…

Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy recently announced the launch of a manufacturing apprenticeship program that will provide wage subsidies and tuition reimbursement to participating students. The effort will begin as a two-year, $7.8 million initiative, focused on advanced manufacturing industries, including aerospace, medical devices, composite materials, digital manufacturing and others. Funding will derive from the state’s Manufacturing Innovation Fund. A recent report from The New England Council, Advanced to Advantageous: The Case for New England’s Manufacturing Revolution, notes that the region is in need of new models of apprenticeship to help smaller manufacturers find qualified workers while defraying the time and financial cost of training new hires. Read the announcement…

Over the past few weeks, the State of Oregon has announced a number of new capital opportunities for small businesses. Business Oregon, the state’s economic development agency, will invest $250,000 to support a new Inclusive Startup Fund that will invest in Portland-area startups founded by women and people of color. Fund leaders hope to raise a total of $3 million and match portfolio businesses with mentoring and business advising services. The agency also announced a new $250,000 loan program to help small manufacturers expand. The Oregon Growth Board announced its own $250,000 investment in an angel fund launched by TiE Oregon. The TAP Fund will co-invest with TiE Angels Oregon to support early-stage startups.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) is conducting three regional forums on the proposed recompetition of MEP Centers in 11 states and Puerto Rico. The regional forums are intended to provide interested entities more information about the MEP program, the federal funding opportunity and answers to any questions regarding the funding announcement prior to its targeted release of January 2016. MEP centers up for recompetition under the 2016 announcement include Alabama, Arkansas, California, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico and Vermont. Dates and locations of upcoming forums include: Boston, MA – September 17, 2015; San Francisco, CA – October 16, 2015; and, Atlanta, GA – November 17, 2015. To register for one or more of the regional forums, please email mepffo@nist.gov. Individuals must register at least one week prior to each regional forum to ensure access through security and sign-up for a one-on-one session. More information is available at: http://nist.gov/mep/ffo-regional-forum-state-competitions-03.cfm.

Despite media reports that the most recent economic recovery has been largely driven by job growth in low-paying positions, a new report from the Georgetown Center for Workforce and Education finds that it is actually high-paying jobs that are leading this growth, and nearly all of them are going to individuals with at least a college degree. According to Good Jobs Are Back: College Graduates Are First in Line, during the economic recovery from 2010 to 2014, good jobs – those that pay more than $53,000 annually and are more likely to be full-time and offer benefits – represented 44 percent of all job gains, or 2.9 million jobs. Low-wage jobs paying $32,000 or less accounted for just 27 percent (1.8 million) of the jobs added in the recovery, while middle-wage jobs represented 29 percent (1.9 million jobs). Using a methodology that segments populations of workers by occupations rather than industries, the authors are able to compare individuals with similar sets of skills and who earn similar wages against each other, providing a more accurate picture of the economic recovery. Of the 2.9 million good jobs added during the recovery, 2.8 million (97 percent)…

Finding private-sector champions, building strong mentor networks, and creating organizational flexibility rank among the most critical elements of success, according to leaders of the 2014 Excellence in TBED award recipients. Expert insights on how these and other issues can be addressed are found in the latest SSTI Awards podcast series. The awards program and podcasts reveal best practices in supporting university startups, building meaningful relationships between leaders of industry and local startups, investing in early stage companies, launching an accelerator program that creates successful graduates, and bringing together regional assets to support the growth of an industry cluster. Each of these conversations with award-winning programs provides listeners with practical and proven strategies to improve their own organization's performance and regional impact. The current podcast series includes: Patti Breedlove of University of Florida’s Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator (Commercializing Research); Bob Coy of CincyTech (Increasing Access to Capital); Mark Harris of the Illinois Science & Technology Coalition (Most Promising TBED Initiative…

Due to a lack of activity by the state’s three privately-run regional EB-5 centers that serve the state of Maine, the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development (MECD) is considering launching its own EB-5 visa program to attract more direct foreign investment to the state, according to the Bangor Daily News. Under the proposed state-run EB-5 program, the state hopes to create economic prosperity and job creation by stimulating foreign direct investment into economic development projects across the state – in return the foreign investors gain a fast-track path to citizenship. To be eligible for the EB-5 program, foreign investors must invest $500,000 to $1 million in a project that helps create or retain at least 10 jobs in the United States. The recent announcement comes almost four years after the state legislature directed MECD to set up a state-run regional center. However, the state has not allocated funding for the program yet, according to the Sun Journal. If Maine proceeds with the proposal, it would be one of only a handful of states that has a state-run EB-5 program. In addition to targeting investment in traditional economic development…

This week, President Obama issued an executive order in an attempt to make the Presidential Innovation Fellows program a permanent part of the federal government. Administered as a partnership between the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the White House Office of Management and Budget, and the General Services Administration, the Presidential Innovation Fellows program is a 12-month, competitive initiative that pairs technologists and entrepreneurs with government agencies to collaborate on difficult problems and build a culture of innovation within the government. Since launching in 2012, nearly 100 innovators have been recruited into the program, working in projects around areas such as government IT, renewable energy affordability and veteran employment. Earlier in the month, the Obama Administration hosted the first-ever White House Demo Day, an event featuring numerous public- and private-sector commitments to advancing inclusive entrepreneurship. The U.S. Small Business Administration announced the 80 winners of the Growth Accelerator Fund Competition and the Startup in a Day initiative, a partnership…