SSTI Digest

The White House announced on February 9 that the administration expects to invest over $5 billion in semiconductor-related research, development, and workforce needs. The $5 billion will flow through the National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC), a public-private entity created to handle the funds. Friday’s announcement established the NSTC as a public-private consortium of the Secretaries of Commerce, Defense, and Energy, the Director of the National Science Foundation, and Natcast. Natcast will operate the NSTC consortium. A White House fact sheet describes NSTC as the “centerpiece” of the CHIPS R&D program. It also stated that the NSTC will support the “design, prototyping, and piloting of the latest semiconductor technologies, leveraging shared facilities and expertise to ensure innovators have access to critical capabilities, and building and sustaining a skilled and diverse semiconductor workforce.” An article in the American Institute of Physics (AIP's) Science Policy News reported that Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said “an early priority for NSTC will be to establish a workforce center of excellence.” Raimondo described the center as “the national…

In this week’s continuing coverage of gubernatorial addresses as they impact the innovation economy, governors from Connecticut, Maryland, and Wyoming discussed their state’s past economic and educational achievements and laid out their vision for this year as the states return to revenue and funding normalcy after years of federal pandemic aid ends. Connecticut’s governor announced that UConn and Yale are collaborating on quantum computing research, and he called for the funding of a biotech hub in New Haven. Maryland’s governor called for investments in the industries of the future (with proposed funding for life sciences, biotech, data centers, and cybersecurity). Wyoming’s governor discussed the state’s position in an “all of the above American energy policy.” The following highlights have been excerpted from State of the States or budget addresses given between Feb. 7, 2024, and Feb. 13, 2024. Additional addresses and states will be covered in future Digest issues. With the start of the new year, governors have begun to deliver their State of the State addresses, laying out proposals for new programs and discussing the conditions of their states. As states…

Editor’s note: SSTI is committed to helping its members create economies that are equitable and inclusive. The following article is part of a series highlighting how different organizations ensure all people within their communities can benefit from today’s economy and lessons learned in their work. There is a thriving biosciences industry in the St. Louis area: Pfizer produces its Covid-19 vaccine here; Bayer Cropscience, one of the world’s largest seed companies, has a research center here; and the McDonnell Genome Institute, where the largest share of the human genome project took place, is located here. Despite these assets, St. Louis is an older industrial economy that, noted Justin Raymundo, director of regional workforce strategy at BioSTL “has a really dark and difficult history around racial segregation and racial inequity and also a huge de-population of our urban core.” Early in the 21st Century, when economic development planners were considering ways to rebuild the city’s economy, they wanted to ensure that everyone would be included in enjoying the benefits that would follow. They generated a 2030 jobs plan that placed inclusiveness front and…

Last week, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer presented her Fiscal Year 2025 Executive Budget recommendations to a joint session of the House and Senate Appropriations committees. As part of the $80.7 billion proposal, Whitmer outlined a number of priorities that seek to enhance Michigan’s economic competitiveness, and builds upon the “Make It in Michigan” strategy—her plan for investing in the state’s people, places and projects. The strategy focuses on cultivating good-paying jobs, a skilled, talented workforce, and making Michigan an affordable, equitable, and vibrant place to live. Among the proposed budget items is a new $60 million Innovation Fund. Overall, the governor’s recommendations are focused on lowering the costs for Michiganders, providing high-quality education, and boosting the state’s economic growth through targeted investments to economic and workforce development initiatives. These initiatives include  growing the state’s cost-free preschool program as an affordable and accessible option for working parents and expanding educational affordability and opportunities with tuition-free community college programs as part of what the governor has…

Graduate student enrollment and postdoctoral appointments have shifted in fields of study over the past decades, with many fields exploding in graduate enrollment and postdoctoral appointments. Computer and information sciences graduate students jumped from just 4% of all science enrollments in 1975 to nearly a quarter of the total by 2021, while engineering postdocs in biological, biomedical, and biosystems engineering jumped 5,671%– increasing from 3% in 1975 to 19% of all engineering postdocs by 2021. This edition of Useful Stats uses the full range of NSF GSS data to explore trends in graduate students (1975-2021) and postdoctoral appointees (1979-2021; postdocs) in science and engineering. Methodological nuances and year-by-year changes can be found on the GSS survey page.   Trends in graduate student enrollment by field of study Graduate student enrollment in science, engineering, and health has steadily increased since the 1980s, led by increases in science field enrollment (+275,000, or +117%, from 1975-2021). Engineering enrollment followed, increasing by approximately 100,000 (+146%), while health saw the smallest increase (57,000) but…

Last week, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and the Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development (DCED) released what they are describing as the Commonwealth’s first comprehensive Statewide Economic Development Strategy in nearly 20 Years. Seeking to build a more competitive, inclusive, and innovative economy that positions Pennsylvania for the technologies of the future, the administration identified five sectors (Agriculture, Energy, Life Sciences, Manufacturing, and Robotics and Technology) for focus and resource investment. While some of those sectors already are foundational to the state, taken all together, the administration believes they will make Pennsylvania competitive in research and development, entrepreneurship, attraction and retention of businesses and workforce, and economic growth. The identified five goals of the plan are: Invest in economic growth to compete and prioritize economic development investments that capitalize on Pennsylvania’s strengths. Continue to make government work at the speed of business and ensure all companies find an attractive business environment. Open doors of opportunity for all Pennsylvanians…

In this week’s continuing coverage of gubernatorial addresses as they impact the innovation economy, the common themes from Oklahoma and Tennessee were focused on economic and educational opportunities through tax cuts and education reforms. In contrast, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey focused her address on furthering her state’s recent successes and competitiveness in workforce development and announced that her top priority this legislative session was focused on continued educational reforms, including the implementation of an education savings account program. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro laid out his economic and educational plans for making Pennsylvania competitive in the technologies and industries of the future.  The following highlights have been excerpted from State of the States or budget addresses given between Jan. 31, 2024, and Feb. 6, 2024. Additional addresses and states will be covered in future Digest issues. With the start of the new year, governors have begun to deliver their State of the State addresses, laying out proposals for new programs and discussing the conditions of their states. As states’ revenue levels return to more typical levels…

Editor’s note: SSTI is committed to helping its members create economies that are equitable and inclusive. The following article is part of a series highlighting how different organizations ensure all people within their communities can benefit from today’s economy and lessons learned in their work. When the City of Brunswick and Glynn County, Georgia needed to improve water quality and address environmental disparities, they joined forces with Georgia Tech, Rebuilding Together Glynn County, the Glynn County School System, Georgia Southern University to co-develop solutions through the Partnership for Inclusive Innovation’s (PIN’s) community research project, “Safe Water Together for Brunswick Initiative.” The collaborators used advanced water quality technology to target microbial and chemical contamination that had been made worse by sea-level rise. PIN took a community-based approach to this project, focusing on identifying community needs by inclusively obtaining the community’s input. The collaboration of local government, higher education, and community is a hallmark of PIN’s approach to its many community research projects. The purpose of their projects,…

The National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship voted today to accept proposed recommendations for a national competitiveness strategy. One recommendation is establishing a National Innovation Council to coordinate entrepreneurship-related federal government activities nationwide. This council would prioritize efforts related to critical technologies through various actions, including “requiring mandatory reporting of demographics of venture capital (VC) investments” and “supporting the development of best practices and standards for evaluating the effectiveness of entrepreneur support programs.” Another recommendation is to make national investments to make “innovation moonshots” possible. Recommended actions toward this end include increasing federal R&D funding as a percentage of U.S. GDP to 2% by 2030. They suggest immediate appropriations to start addressing the current shortfall. In addition, they recommend that Congress fully fund the EDA Tech Hubs Program at $9.5 billion. A third recommendation is to launch a National Innovation Accelerator Network (NIAN). NIAN would be "a virtual ‘network of networks’ of accelerator, mentoring, and…

This month, 65 Fellows will begin their two-and-a-half-year field placements with host organizations nationwide as part of the Economic Recovery Corps (ERC) funded by the Economic Development Administration. Fellows will spearhead projects that, according to according to an International Economic Development Council (IEDC) press release, "advance new ways of doing economic development to build more resilient, inclusive, and equitable economies." The 65 selected projects are located across 44 states and territories. Of the 65 host sites, 62% are rural, 23% are mixed (urban, suburban, and rural), and 15% are urban. Nine of the 65 projects are led by tribes or involve a tribal organization as a primary partner. Each project receives a dedicated, fully funded Fellow for 2.5 years. IEDC received over 500 applications from potential host organizations and over 1,400 Fellow applications from June through August. Sixty-nine percent of the selected Fellows are women, and 54% identify as people of color. Fellows come with professional experience (6-15+ years) in planning, entrepreneurship, community and economic development, public administration, marketing, rural development,…

The number of graduate students in science, engineering, and health has grown from approximately 328,000 to 760,000 from 1975 to 2021, a 132% increase, according to the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering (GSS). When compared to a 60% increase (from 9.7 to 15.4 million) in total undergraduate enrollment across all fields of study over the same time period, the scale of growth can be better seen. However, while the number of graduate students in science has seen an upward trend over the 46-year period, the number of graduate students in engineering has stagnated since 2014. This edition of Useful Stats uses the full range of NSF GSS data to explore trends in graduate students and postdoctoral appointees (postdocs) in science, engineering, and health. Some notes about the data: 2007, 2010, 2014, and 2017 data include re-imputations, expansions, or other changes to the data collection process of the survey; other years, such as 1978, include estimated data. The specific level of graduate study (Masters, PhD) was not made available until 2017. Other methodological nuances and changes can be found on…

NSF has announced 10 projects as the first cohort of Regional Innovation Engines. The 10 project teams span 18 states. Each of the 10 teams will receive $15 million for the first two years of the awards and could receive $160 million over the full ten years dependent on availability of funding and successful performance. The 10 inaugural NSF Engines are: Central Florida Semiconductor Innovation Engine Colorado–Wyoming Climate Resilience Engine Great Lakes Water Innovation Engine Louisiana Energy Transition Engine North Carolina Textile Innovation and Sustainability Engine North Dakota Advanced Agriculture Technology Engine Paso del Norte Defense and Aerospace Innovation Engine Piedmont Triad Regenerative Medicine Engine Southwest Sustainability Innovation Engine Upstate New York Energy Storage Engine The White House statement on the awards states, “In addition to investing in the 10 NSF Regional Innovation Engines, NSF is also inviting 15 other teams to pursue NSF Regional Innovation Engine Development Awards…” From NSF’s awardee dashboard and previous announcements, six of the 15 groups were Engines finalists, six were semifinalists, and three were…