SSTI Digest

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced a round of funding for rural broadband experiments in price cap areas that will deploy new, robust broadband to consumers. The FCC intends for these grants to be the next step for the Connect American Fund program. Grants will be made to support rural broadband experiments to explore how to structure the Phase II of the Connect American Fund’s competitive bidding process in price cap areas and to gather information about interest in deploying next generation networks in high-cost areas.

Via the announcement, the FCC intends to commit $100 million in proposed funding to support projects across the country. Applicant eligibility is unrestricted domestically for projects that have the feasibility to meet the requirements outlined in the announcement. However, the proposed effort must be in a price capped rural area. Applications are due on or before November 4. Read the announcement…

As summer internships come to a close, dorm room furniture begins to go on sale, and the smell of football season permeates the air, one thing is for certain – a new college school year is fast approaching. Over 22 million students are expected to attend American colleges and universities this fall, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, which is sure to shake up many college towns throughout the country where summers fare on the quiet side. In honor of the upcoming semester, this Digest article examines the college town and its impact on regional economic development.

The Angel Resource Institute (ARI), Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and CB Insights released the Halo Report for the first quarter (Q1) of 2014. The national survey of angel group investment activity reported encouraging results as both investments and valuations climbed in Q1— median round sizes increased to $980K per deal up from 2013 averages, and pre-money valuations rose to $2.7 million from $2.5 million in Q4 of 2013. The climb was driven mostly by investments in Internet-related companies that jumped significantly. In Q1, angel groups in the Great Lakes invested more dollars than any other U.S. region, including California, and closed 17% of all the deals, tying California for the lead. Read the report…

The Manufacturing Institute announced that it is accepting applications for the 2015 STEP Awards program, a national awards program to honor women who have demonstrated excellence and leadership in manufacturing. Part of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Production (STEP) Ahead initiative, STEP Awards aim to recognize women at all levels of manufacturing. These awards illustrate the widespread impact women have on shaping the industry, whether they are running the company, designing the next big product, or testing innovations on the shop floor. In 2014, the STEP Awards program honored 160 women from over 110 companies for their achievements. To nominate a peer or colleague for this national honor, go to https://mi.onlineapplications.net/applications/.

On August 1, the Massachusetts lawmakers enacted a comprehensive economic development bill (H.4377). The bill currently awaits Gov. Deval Patrick’s approval. Per state law, Gov. Patrick has until August 14 to sign the bill, 10 days after he received it. The approved bill that received unanimous approval by the Massachusetts state Senate was passed as a comprise package between two bills proposed in the Senate and House. Through the bill, Massachusetts policymakers intend to invest more than $80 million to spur economic growth with a significant emphasis on strengthening Massachusetts’ innovation industries. Tech-based economic development efforts will focus on emerging industries, investments in workforce development and education, and promoting targeted regional growth. A major point of contention, language dealing with non-compete agreements, did not survive in the final bill.

In an SSTI Digest article last month, SSTI detailed the most recent MoneyTree reports from National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC). Halfway through FY 2014, U.S. venture capital investments reached $22.7 billion, the highest first-half total since 2001. Using halves of fiscal years as the unit of analysis, this Digest article examines each state’s share of venture capital dollars and deals since 2010. Since Q1 2010, nearly $109 billion has been allocated to companies across 17,292 deals.

More than 60 organizations have signed on to an SSTI-initiated letter urging Congressional leaders to fund the Regional Innovation program at $20 million for FY2015. The Regional Innovation Program was authorized under the American COMPETES Act and is designed to provide funding to support regional innovation activities. The program received its first funding of $10 million in FY2014, and the solicitation for that funding is expected to be issued any day. The Senate has approved $20 million for the program for FY2015, while the House did not provide any funding for the program. Organizations signing on to the letter include the Association of University Research Parks, the Angel Capital Association, the National Business Incubation Association, and more than 45 state, local, university and nonprofit organizations. The more organizations that sign increases our chances to secure funding. The deadline for signatures to this letter is Friday, August 15. To read the letter, learn how to sign on, and see those organizations that have already signed on Read more…

Between 2000 and 2010, about one-third of U.S. manufacturing employment – approximately five million jobs – were lost as a result of new technologies in the manufacturing process or competition from abroad, according to The Brookings Institution. “The decoupling of innovation from manufacturing,” as described by Harvard Professor Venky Narayanamurti, where “Americans brought great ideas to light, but then left the execution – manufacturing, and jobs – to others” has left the United States in a job crunch throughout the supply chain. In recent years, however, U.S. companies are increasingly moving their manufacturing stateside.

The Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) released federal funding opportunity award competitions for the operation of MEP state centers. States up for competition include Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Michigan, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. The objective of the MEP Center Program is to provide business and technical services to small- and medium-sized manufacturers within the state of operation. MEP anticipates funding 10 MEP Center awards, each with an initial five-year funding commitment. MEP will hold an information webinar on August 21 at 2:00 P.M. EDT for organizations that are considering applying for awards. Applications are due October 15. Visit the MEP State Competition website…

The Office of Science and Technology Policy announced a public comment period that will assist in the development of an upcoming update of the Strategy for American Innovation. Via a notice of Request for Information (RFI), individuals and organizations have the opportunity to provide input on one or more of nine topic areas:

Overarching questions; Innovation trends; Science, technology, and R&D priorities; Skilled workforce development; Manufacturing and entrepreneurship; Regional innovation ecosystems; Intellectual property/antitrust; Novel government tools for promoting innovation; and, National priorities.

Comments are due by September 23. Read the RFI….

Driven by large-scale efforts like the U.S. government-funded Human Genome Project, genomic medicine has gone from an aspirational term only 10 years ago to a rapidly growing, cutting-edge industry that is starting to produce economic benefits for regions, both domestically and abroad. To benefit from this rapidly growing trend, policymakers in New York and Canada recently announced significant funding to support genomic medicine initiatives.

New YorkNew York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced approximately $105 million in funding has been approved to establish the Genomic Medicine and Big Data Center (GMBDC), a public-private  partnership to support research collaboration between the University at Buffalo and the New York Genome Center. GMBDC will link supercomputing capacity at the University at Buffalo (UB) and medical researchers at Roswell Park Cancer Institute with the medical, academic and industry partners of the New York Genome Center (NYGC).

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced a new round of competition for the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Consortia (AMTech) program — a competition that will award two-year planning grants to establish new and strengthen existing industry-driven consortia to solve high-priority technology challenges and accelerate the growth of advanced manufacturing in the United States.

NIST anticipates awarding a total of $5.6 million to support multiple awards of up to $500,000 each. Program eligibility is restricted to U.S. states, local governments, institutions of higher education and nonprofit organizations. Applications are due October 31. For more information about the AMTech announcement, NIST will host webinars on August 7 and 14, beginning at 2pm EDT. Read the announcement…