SSTI Digest

Pennsylvania’s largest universities by student population, Penn State and Temple University, both announced plans this week to make a concerted investment in their respective innovation ecosystems. Pennsylvania State University (PSU) President Eric Barron announced $30 million in new investments for economic development and student career students, while Temple University and Ben Franklin Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania established a new startup accelerator to assist university ventures.

As governors around the country begin their newest terms, their proposed budgets are beginning to take shape. Although few governors specifically target technology based economic development, after the first wave of budgets a variety of initiatives related to workforce development and higher education have garnered support. 

California

Gov. Jerry Brown released his proposal for a $164.7 billion budget for FY 2015-16 with a $113.3 billion general fund. As budget deliberations continue until June 15th, it is expected that resistance will come from both the University of California (UC) system and Democratic policymakers hoping to restore the health and social services programs that were reduced during the most recent recession. 

President Obama recently announced that the University of Tennessee was awarded the $259 million Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI). The U.S. Department of Energy will commit $70 million to support the project with the remaining $189 million coming from IACMI partners including $15 million from the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development. The University of Tennessee will lead the 122-member consortium in its effort to connect the world's leading manufacturers with universities and national laboratories pioneering advanced composites technology development and research. IACMI will focus on advanced fiber-reinforced polymer composites that combine strong fibers with tough plastics. For more information, read the announcement about the IACMI, the White House’s IACMI fact sheet, or visit the IACMI website…

Now in its 15th year, SSTI's Tech Talkin' Govs series has returned as governors across the country formally convene the 2014 legislative sessions. The series highlights new and expanded TBED proposals from governors' State of the State, Budget and Inaugural addresses. The first edition includes excerpts from speeches delivered in California, Kentucky, and Vermont. 

This year, several governors have combined their inaugural addresses with the traditional address to the state legislature. Remarks from these speeches related to technology, innovation and economic development will be included in the roundups.

CaliforniaGov. Jerry Brown, Inaugural Address, Jan. 5, 2015

“… I propose three ambitious goals to be accomplished within the next 15 years: increase from one-third to 50 percent our electricity derived from renewable sources; reduce today's petroleum use in cars and trucks by up to 50 percent; and, double the efficiency of existing buildings and make heating fuels cleaner.

Under the assumption that regulations place an unnecessary strain on the innovative free-market companies that create the jobs and industries needed to drive the economy, liberalization is oftentimes the go-to policy prescription for states or countries hoping to spur innovation. Although proponents of deregulation cite incidents of government overreach and inefficiency as evidence of the state suppressing the market’s innovativeness, the government does not always hinder innovation, according to articles featured in the January 2015 issue of Foreign Affairs. By making the strategic investments the private sector is often unwilling to make, the state can play a major role in providing the necessary infrastructure needed for prosperity generating innovation.

Global patent applications jumped by 11 percent in 2013, while patents granted rose by a more modest 4 percent in the top five worldwide patent offices. The 2013 data was recently released by IP5, a cooperative effort of the European, Japanese, South Korean, Chinese and U.S. patent organizations, which together represent about 80 percent of the world’s patent activity. China has now solidly emerged as the top nation for patent applications and first filings after first taking the lead in 2011. China has also become the top country of origin for global patent filings, with the U.S. ranking third behind China and Japan. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office reported that it had reduced its backlog of applications by 31 percent from the peak level in 2009, and finalized the first-to-file provision of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act.  Download the report…

Massachusetts remains the most tech-oriented state economy in the country, according to the latest edition of the annual Massachusetts Innovation Index. Nearly 38 percent of the state’s workforce is employed in tech industries, the highest share in the country, and Massachusetts generally outperforms other leading tech states in tech industry output, research and licensing. The MassTech Collaborative warns, however, that the state’s innovation economy is experiencing some of the same negative trends present in its peer tech states. Tech employment has rebounded at a slower rate than other types of employment and high school graduation rates have fallen. Download the report…

U.S. companies performed over $294 billion in research and development (R&D) in 2011, according to the Business R&D and Innovation Survey (BRDIS) – a business survey conducted annually by the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Science Foundation. Companies funded an overwhelming majority of the industrial R&D conducted in the U.S. (81.2 percent, approximately $238.8 billion). Approximately $55.3 million of industrial R&D (18.8 percent) was funded by other sources, predominately from the federal government ($31.3 billion). U.S. industrial R&D spending accounted for approximately 81 percent of worldwide R&D performance – $363.3 billion in total industrial R&D in 2011. 

The top industries for domestic industrial R&D spending in 2011 were manufacturing and information technology (IT) with R&D manufacturing accounting for 68.4 percent ($201.3 billion) of all industrial R&D. The top manufacturing sectors for industrial R&D include:

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear announced the creation a new public-private partnership to support the development of a statewide, fiber broadband infrastructure with a focus on supporting economic and social prosperity across the commonwealth. The ambitious initiative would provide the entire state with high-speed internet – with the first components scheduled to be operational in less than two years. When completed, the more than 3,000 miles of fiber will be in place across the state. Overall, the project is estimated to cost between $250 million to $350 million over the next 30 years, and will be supported by approximately $30 million in state bonds and $15 million to $20 million in federal grants.

Gov. Terry Branstad announced the release of the findings from the Iowa’s Re-envisioned Economic Development Roadmap  – a year-long effort to set a future strategic direction for economic development in Iowa. During the year-long study, the authors from Battelle examined the current position of Iowa’s economy as compared to the nation and benchmarked states. The authors concluded that Iowa has made substantial economic progress over the last decade, resulting in positive trends in Iowa’s top-line measures including increased productivity, job growth, wages, and per capita income.

In fall 2013, 21 federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) in the U.S. employed 2,613 postdoctoral researchers in 2012, down 6.4 percent from the previous year, according to a recently released InfoBrief from the National Science Foundation. Postdocs, who help government agencies meet their research and analytic needs and in turn receive relevant training and experience, are more than 75 percent male and more than 50 percent international, according to the brief. Nearly all (95 percent) of the research performed by FFRDC postdocs is related to science and engineering. For FFRDCs with postdoc programs, most of their funding comes from the Department of Energy, while most of the funding for FFRDCs without postdoc programs comes from the Department of Defense.

Funding for public colleges decreased by 12 percent overall from FY03 to FY12, while tuition rates for all public colleges rose by 55 percent during the same time, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).  Driven in part by the impact of the recent recession on state budgets, the decline in state funding has had a significant impact on college affordability for students and their family. The GAO found that a larger portion of family budgets are going towards helping offset the cost of their children’s college education. In the report, GAO also identified several potential approaches that the federal government could use to expand incentives to states to improve affordability such as creating new grants, providing more consumer information on affordability, or changing federal student aid programs.