SSTI Digest

On the heels of their big win last week in Portland, OR, SSTI’s 2013 Excellence in TBED award winners have announced more exciting news surrounding their programs’ impact and new initiatives to support regional growth strategies. This year’s winner for Most Promising TBED Initiative, ASU Entrepreneurship & Innovation Group (EIG), has attracted a new partner to expand on their model for entrepreneurial support by repurposing existing library space. The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center announced nearly $200,000 in grants for STEM education as they continue to improve the competitiveness of the life sciences sector, and in Utah, two impact reports have been released by partners of USTAR detailing progress made to expand research capacity. Gordon McConnell, Assistant Vice President for Innovationand Entrepreneurship at ASU The city of Phoenix soon may partner with the Alexandria Co-working Network, a program of ASU EIG, to turn another library into space for entrepreneurs. Called EUREKA spaces, these areas provide access to experienced mentors from ASU’s network alongside physical and digital access from the libraries. Classes taught…

The agenda for the upcoming legislative session unveiled by Gov. Scott Walker promotes investment in technical schools to provide skill development and quickly fill critical needs of employers. The governor outlined a package of eight workforce development bills, which include funding for youth apprenticeships, tuition reimbursement for apprentices and employers, technical education incentive grants, and scholarships for students to attend technical schools. Much of the new investment would augment funding for existing programs. Gov. Walker’s plan invests $8.5 million in new state funds and would secure another $14 million in federal funds for vocational rehabilitation programs. Some of the bills are outlined below. LRB 2949 – Increases funding for youth apprenticeship by $500,000 annually to meet demand. Under the program, enrollees receive on the job training and technical, college-level instruction at local high schools. LRB 2976 – Provides funding to reimburse students or employers 25 percent of the apprenticeship tuition and fee cost of up to $1,000 per apprentice. The program provides on the job training with classroom instruction to meet…

Last week, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Production in an Innovation Economy (PIE) Commission released its findings from two years of research on how to remove the barriers that prevent the U.S. from turning its strengths in science and research into jobs, businesses and products. In order to ensure that American innovations reach the marketplace, the U.S. must rebuild its manufacturing sector, with particular focus on improving the support ecosystem for smaller advanced manufacturing firms, according to the commission. The commission’s recommendations include a variety of public-private partnerships and industry-university collaborations to drive innovation and commercialization across the country. The PIE study centers on two key questions: what are the production capabilities in the U.S. and abroad that are vital to sustaining and exploiting technological innovation; and, what are the resources and linkages required to deliver innovations to the market. This exploration, conducted with statistical data and firm-level interviews with senior managers at different sites around the country, examined the role of capital, labor, facilities…

Earlier this week, the Securities Exchange Commission’s (SEC) final rules allowing general solicitation went into effect. General solicitation broadly means the public advertisement that an entrepreneur or business is raising capital via the sale of securities (e.g., stock, loans, and bonds). The new rules are a major step toward a true U.S. investment crowdfunding market that should dramatically increase the availability of startup capital. However, entrepreneurs and members of the startup support community must be cautious since startups can only accept capital from accredited investors until other provisions of the JOBS Act are passed that allow the sale of securities to unaccredited investors (see the March 28 Digest). Under the new rules, entrepreneurs must take reasonable steps to verify that all of their investors are accredited or face the potential of losing their exemption from registering with the SEC – a costly, long process. To ensure that this does not happen, it is vital that members of the startup support community play an active role in helping startups confirm that all investors are accredited. Incubators, accelerators and business plan…

While the conditions of the U.S. economy continue to hinder growth, stability and efficiency in the financial markets and a positive assessment of public institutions have helped improve the nation’s competitiveness and reverse a four-year downward trend. In World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index 2013-14, the U.S. moved into the number five spot, up from seventh last year, overtaking the Netherlands and Sweden. For the second year in a row, Switzerland, Singapore and Finland held onto their first, second and third rankings, respectively. The report notes that the U.S. continues to be a world leader in bringing innovative products and services to market. An excellent university system that collaborates with the business sector in R&D also is recognized in the report as a key asset of the U.S. However, the business community’s distrust of politicians and perceived wasteful government spending, along with concerns over macroeconomic stability, are cited as weaknesses. Read the report: http://reports.weforum.org/the-global-competitiveness-report-2013-2014/.

This week, the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF) hosted a debate between ITIF’s President Robert Atkinson and Andrew McAfee, principal research scientist at the Center for Digital Business in the MIT Sloan School of Management and co-author of Race Against the Machine. The lively debate revolved around the impact of technology innovation on the U.S. labor market in an attempt to answer a complex question — is technology innovation a job creator or job killer? Andrew McAfee argued technology innovation is leading to job loss and the pace will only speed up due to the rapid rate of technology innovation. In their recent book, Dr. McAfee and co-author Dr. Erik Brynjolfsson claim technology-driven productivity, specifically in the information technology and robotic fields, has reduced the need for middle-class workers in the well-paying manufacturing sector and is rapidly spilling over to knowledge-based fields (e.g., law, medicine). According to Dr. McAfee, his data shows that the issue started during the industrial revolution, but has been rapidly increasing over the past decades due to rapid advances in information technology (e.…

The European Commission is offering a €500,000 (US$655,700) prize to accompany designation of an "iCapital" — the single city in the Union, which is building the best "innovation ecosystem", connecting citizens, public organizations, academia, and business. Should the U.S. federal government follow suit? Probably not without modifications. Inherent in the competition's design is the belief that all successful geographically based innovation systems have an array of local, publicly backed initiatives and programs that support the creation of an environment allowing others to innovate and public-private interconnections. Whether accurate or not, there is considerable disagreement in the United States as to how active a role the public sector should play in supporting innovation, commercialization and technology-based entrepreneurship. Congressional appropriations for regional innovation initiatives are insignificant when compared to the federal investments made in other forms of development. States and municipalities, however, have led the creation and support of technology-based economic development in America. Over the past few…

The Obama administration is seeking closer economic cooperation with Latin America to enhance opportunities for startups and SMEs in the U.S. and across the hemisphere. This week, the U.S. State Department is launching the Small Business Network of the Americas to promote international cooperation between TBED institutions in the Americas. The State Department will launch the Small Business Network of the Americas (SBNA) International Sister Center Program on September 11th in Orlando, Florida. The SBNA was established in partnership with the U.S. Association of Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) and organized by the Department of State to convene representatives from SBDCs, startup incubators and accelerators, universities, and other organizations from across the Western Hemisphere that promote entrepreneurship and innovation. The program aims to build lasting international Sister Center partnerships that can assist startups and SMEs with access to a network of business services including counseling, training, and financing. To date, over 80 organizations are participating from countries including Mexico, Canada, and Brazil. These organizations serve 250,…

The U.S. Department of Defense Office of Naval Research has announced a $30 million investment in Energy Excelerator, an accelerator for cleantech companies within the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research (PICHTR). Energy Excelerator originally launched three years ago with $10 million in seed funding from the Department of Energy. The new funding will be used to expand the accelerator’s capital and entrepreneurial support programs for clean energy startups in Hawaii and the Asia Pacific region. Read the announcement...

The field of technology-based economic development strives to provide opportunities and support for budding entrepreneurs and technology-based startups in hopes of strengthening our economies. But, policymakers and governments have much to gain directly from the pool of talented tech entrepreneurs. Technology startups are tapping into the $142 billion public sector market and are helping governments reduce costs and improve their services through innovative web applications and, in some cases, total system overhauls.  Late last week, the city of San Francisco launched an Entrepreneurship-In-Residence program for the city in partnership with the White House, the first of its kind. The San Francisco Entrepreneurship in Residence program will select three to five teams of civically focused tech entrepreneurs and provide them mentorship from leaders in both the public sector and the private sector over a six-week period to aid teams in their ventures. Teams’ innovations will focus on challenges in areas ranging from big government data, mobile services, healthcare, transportation, energy to infrastructure. “Products and services that successfully solve…

Under a new set of proposed rules issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, companies will be able to claim the federal research and experimentation (R&E) tax credit on eligible expenditures regardless of any subsequent actions taken by businesses with the purchases. The change would allow businesses to claim the credit on research expenses used to create prototypes, pilot models and process improvements. Previously, there was some debate about whether or not the sale or a prototype or product resulting for qualifying research expenditures would preclude deductions or amortization of those expenses. The proposed rules clarify that if the expenditure would otherwise qualify for the R&E credits, then businesses may claim them for any kind of tangible property, regardless of the success, failure, sale or use of the product. The regulations also clarify the Treasury definition of a pilot model, one of the acceptable uses of R&E eligible expenditures. A pilot model is described as “any representation or model of a product that is produced to evaluate and resolve uncertainty concerning the product during the development or improvement of the…

Georgia Tech has launched a crowdfunding resource for university-based students and faculty. Originally announced in the spring, Georgia Tech joins several other universities that are using crowdfunding to finance commercialization and the development of startups based on university research. The field has become common and relevant enough that an online community has started tracking this growth. Georgia Tech’s new crowdfunding site, Georgia Tech Starter, launched last week will allow science and engineering researchers an alternative source of funding in a time of restricted government grants. Unlike other crowdfunding services, online investors in the research will not receive any tangible rewards, although they may receive a tax deduction. In addition, the university will provide project review, administration and facility upkeep, which makes the fee paid to Georgia Tech significantly higher at 35 percent than other crowdfunding sites. Currently, only members of the Georgia Tech community can utilize Georgia Tech Starter, although this may expand in the future. Georgia Tech is not the first university to embark on an experiment in hosting and utilizing a…