SSTI Digest

Toyota Motor Corporation recently announced a five-year, $1 billion investment in robotics and artificial intelligence R&D in the U.S. Under the plan, a headquarters for the effort will be located near Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA with a second location near the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA. Dr. Gill Pratt, former program director at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will lead the effort. As reported in The New York Times, the investment is seen as Toyota’s effort to compete with other companies that are embracing intelligent and self-driving automotive technology. Ford, Uber, Google and others have all recently announced investments in the future of the automobile industry that reflect particular visions of how innovative technologies emerge.

In his 1962 State of the Union address, John F. Kennedy said, "The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining."  Despite its foggy reputation, perhaps no region has had the sun shine on them more economically since that speech than California’s Bay Area. Currently, in spite of its strengths as a hub for talent, research, and innovation, the Bay Area lacks a cohesive and comprehensive regional economic strategy for sustaining economic growth, weathering business cycles and supporting shared prosperity. To combat this, A Roadmap for Economic Resilience: The Bay Area Regional Economic Strategy serves as a roof-repair-guide of sorts, offering viable solutions to support regionalism,  facilitate infrastructure investment, address housing affordability, encourage adaptive workforce development, and improve access to transportation options.

The development of common metrics is increasingly used at the state and regional level as a method to ensure the coordination of likeminded stakeholders. While choosing which metrics to use is at the root of this process, identifying ways in which to communicate this information to interested parties is also important. With an emphasis on innovation and entrepreneurship, this article highlights the ways in which governments and nonprofits are using dashboards to highlight their successes, identify their shortcomings, and gather data to inform next steps.

Findings suggest that – in certain market segments – investors might not need to expect lower returns as a tradeoff for impact, according to a new study from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania – Great Expectations: Mission Preservation and Financial Performance in Impact Investments. In the study, researchers look at two of the most important aspects of impact investing: financial returns and long-term impact. The study explores the widespread assumption that impact investment private equity funds cannot achieve market-rate financial performance.

California-based companies performed about $81.7 billion in research and development (R&D) in 2012, according to the latest data available from the National Science Foundation (NSF). That figure represents about 27 percent of all private R&D funding in the U.S. Not all of that funding, however, derived from the companies themselves. The federal government provided about 9.3 percent of the funds for California-based company R&D in 2012. Companies in New Hampshire and Virginia received the highest percentage of total private R&D funds from the federal government, with 47 percent and 44 percent respectively.

Most U.S. R&D is performed and funded by private companies. The academic sector is the second largest performer of R&D, and the federal government is the second largest funder.

As a part of the Obama administration’s Big Data Research and Development Initiative, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced four awards this week, totaling more than $5 million, to establish four Big Data Regional Innovation Hubs (BD Hubs). The four BD Hubs divide the U.S. into regional collaborations, each focused on different Big Data challenges:

On April 5, 2012, President Obama signed Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS Act) into law with the intent of helping small businesses and startups raise capital through several changes to long-standing securities regulations, including a change that would allow companies to raise equity from both accredited and non-accredited investors through a publicly solicited crowdfunding campaign (Title III of the Jobs Act). However, it took over three years for the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) to finally adopt the rules that will permit companies to offer and sell securities through crowdfunding. The new rules also include amendments to existing Securities Act rules to facilitate intrastate and regional securities offerings. Final rules include:

In an effort to increase the proliferation and participation of venture capital firms across the 28-nation European Union, changes are needed at the institutional level, according to the capital markets union plan unveiled last month. The plan, which was presented by EU Financial Services Commissioner Jonathan Hill, seeks to standardize rules across the EU, create tax incentives for venture capital investment, and create a pan-European fund-of-funds to invest public money in EU venture capital projects.              

Despite the important role that small- and medium-sized businesses play in job creation and economic growth, economic development incentives are consistently awarded to large companies, according to a report by Good Jobs First with support from both the Surdna Foundation and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. In an analysis of more than 4,200 economic development incentive awards from 16 programs across 14 states, large companies received anywhere between 80 percent and 96 percent of total dollar values.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper released his administration’s $27 billion budget request for fiscal year 2017, which includes significant refunds for taxpayers and reductions for higher education, hospitals and state buildings. Reductions for Colorado’s colleges are estimated to be $20 million, with the governor’s office proposing to lift the cap on tuition increases, according to The Denver Post. Though Colorado has long boasted a dynamic and talented workforce for high-tech jobs, tuition hikes could complicate the state’s efforts to build on that advantage. Two recent Colorado studies recommended expansions of programs and partnerships that forge stronger talent pipelines in high-tech industries.

The Research Foundation for State University of New York (SUNY) is seeking feedback regarding the translation of SUNY research and innovation into meaningful startup company formation, acceleration and growth through targeted venture investing. In particular, the foundation seeks ideas on how SUNY could connect research experts to entrepreneurial leaders, advisors, or mentors in order to build upon emerging industry sector strengths. The group plans to use this information to open a dialogue to better understand the breadth of strategies for university-related venture investing that can be designed and implemented. Once completed, this request for information (RFI) RFI may lead to further partnership discussions including, but not limited to, the development of a venture fund committed to developing SUNY technology for both strategic impact and financial return.  Read the RFI...

On Friday, November 6, at 10:00 A.M. ET, the Economic Development Administration will host a conference call for economic development organizations that are interested in participating in Hannover Messe 2016 – the world’s largest trade show for industrial goods, technology, and R&D. The conference call agenda includes information on U.S. Industry Pavilions for SMES/Export Services; the show’s Research & Technology Pavilion; and, a Q&A with SelectUSA, U.S. Export Assistance Centers, Deutsche Messe AG, and Hannover Fairs USA. To register, please e-mail Micah Escobedo (micah.escobedo@trade.gov).