SSTI Digest

Over the last week, several states have announced/passed new programs focused on increasing the capital available to spur small business growth and innovation. Officials from New Jersey announced the state's new angel tax credit will take effect July 1. In Arizona and Wisconsin two bills await gubernatorial approval that would rework the Arizona R&D tax credit program and establish a $75 million venture capital fund in Wisconsin. Meanwhile, the Minnesota state legislature did not approve an additional $5 million for its popular Small Business Investment Tax Credit.

For several states, this year's legislative session resulted in continued austerity toward new investments and level funding for established tech-based initiatives producing good results. Workforce initiatives seemed to be the exception, garnering greater attention from state leaders eager to boost employment numbers — especially in high-tech fields. While the existence of a STEM worker shortage has been a hotly debated topic among policy groups (see the May 22, 2013 issue of the Digest), some state leaders, including lawmakers in California, Indiana and Michigan, have prioritized high-tech job training to produce more skilled workers through increased funding for new or established programs in the recently enacted budgets.

SSTI is honored to welcome advertising legend Dan Wieden, co-founder+global executive director of Wieden+Kennedy and the man behind the "Just Do It" slogan as the keynote speaker for SSTI's 2013 Annual Conference being held in Portland, OR, September 15-17.

Dan Wieden grew up in Portland, graduated from the University of Oregon and worked briefly in public relations before trying his hand at copywriting. In retrospect, it wasn't such a bad career move.

Dan quickly found himself at a local agency working with his creative partner, David Kennedy, on a regional sneaker account. When the agency—client relationship began to sour, Dan and David seized the moment, scraping together $500 apiece to open their own shop, (fittingly) on April Fools' Day, 1982. They took the upstart sneaker company, called Nike, with them.

Earlier this month, President Obama announced plans to expand broadband and wireless Internet access to every school and library in the U.S. The new initiative, ConnectEd, has a goal of connecting 99 percent of students to the Internet within five years by having the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) modernize and leverage its existing E-Rate program. The president claimed that millions of students lack access to high-speed broadband and fewer than 20 percent of educators say that their school's internet connection meets their needs, particularly those in rural America. The ConnectEd program will direct federal funds to support the use of new digital education tools in the classroom and provide support and training for teachers to better implement and utilize these tools. With the global education marketplace surpassing $1 trillion in value, the initiative hopes to encourage private sector innovation to produce educational devices and software that can unlock the value of the federal government's investment. Read more about the ConnectEd initiative...

Business, civic, and political leaders in St. Louis are coming together to raise $100 million in private funds over the next five years to support the Regional Entrepreneurial Initiative, a new effort aimed at helping emerging regional businesses grow and thrive. The project was launched with funding from the federal government and will draw on several ongoing fundraising initiatives in the community. About 80 percent of the funds will be used to provide capital support for startup businesses, with the remaining 20 percent directed toward entrepreneurial support and mentoring, according to the St. Louis Beacon.

State economies appear to be re-energizing after several years of slow recovery from recession, according to the Spring 2013 Fiscal Survey of States by the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO) and the National Governors Association (NGA). As a result, state government revenues also are improving with 42 governors recommending higher spending levels in FY14. Total FY13 spending, however, remains below the pre-recession 2008 peak, and much of the increased spending will be dedicated to areas where spending was reduced over the past five years. Read the report...

The Manufacturing Institute, in partnership with the National Science Foundation, has released an inaugural roster for the “M-List,” which includes academic institutions training workers up to industry standards in advanced manufacturing. M-List schools have designed their curriculums to compliment industry standards and provide their students with credentials through the NAM-Endorsed Manufacturing Skills Certification System. The M-List will help connect workers and employers by identifying schools that prepare their students for the globally competitive standards of U.S. advanced manufacturing. In support of the program, the NSF's Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program provides grants to M-List schools to support the connection between workers and employers. Read the press release...

Two projects, one in the United Kingdom and another in Africa, are working to improve the information economy, university training and research in their respective regions. A new United Kingdom strategy includes a partnership between the national government, industry, and academia in support of the information technology sector. In Africa, the World Bank will engage in an international effort to promote education and research, supporting regional economic development across the continent.

In 2010, almost one-quarter of every dollar spent on R&D by U.S. businesses was spent in the state of California, according to data from the National Science Foundation. Together, the top seven states for business R&D spending (California, New Jersey, Texas, Massachusetts, Washington, Illinois and Michigan) were host to almost 53 percent of private research investment. While California leads in total business R&D, the state of Washington has the greatest concentration of private research spending in the state economy, with $3.92 spent on business R&D for every $100 in state gross domestic product (GDP).

SSTI has prepared a table of funds spent by businesses on R&D by state in 2010. The table also includes the percent of total U.S. business R&D spending represented by each state. In order to gauge the volume of business R&D spending with respect to total economic activity, the table provides 2010 state GDP levels and a ratio of business R&D spending to state GDP. View the table...

SSTI Online Events: Every Third Thursday at 3:00 PM ET

Major research universities are an invaluable asset in building thriving high-tech regions, but institutions of all sizes can play a key role in local innovation economies. Our July webinar will feature two successful regional networks connecting smaller colleges and universities to maximize their contribution to the high-tech economy. These networks are promoting inter-institutional collaboration, while also providing entrepreneurs with easy access to research services and commercializable technologies.

Presenters:

Barb Eccles, Manager, Technology Transfer at Lakehead University Jill Edwards, Executive Director, Innovation Transfer Network

Date: Thursday, July 18Time: 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM ETLocation: Online — Gather your colleagues around the conference table or log on from your comfy couch at homeCost: $49 member, $69 non-membersRegistration Deadline: Thursday, July 18 12:00 PM ET

Nevada legislators recently approved $10 million in funding for the state's Knowledge Fund, a technology development and commercialization support program first introduced in 2011. The fund, modeled on Utah's USTAR program, received no allocation for its first two years due to a lack of state funds, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal (also see the July 20, 2011 and January 23, 2013 issues of the Digest). Knowledge Fund dollars may be used to support research teams at Nevada state universities and the Desert Research Institute, to launch a technology outreach program to connect researchers with entrepreneurs, to build new research facilities and to fund technology commercialization activities. Read the bill...

Since 2011, three states (Kansas, Georgia and North Carolina) have enacted securities exemptions that allow their state's entrepreneurs and small businesses to raise up to $1 million dollars via the sale of securities to residents of the state — Washington lawmakers introduced similar legislation in 2013 session where it is still pending. These exemptions, commonly referred to as crowdfunding exemptions, are intended to increase the pool of investors for small businesses by allowing them to publicly offer securities without having to spend the significant time and cost associated with registering a sale of securities with the state

The enacted exemptions from Kansas, Georgia and North Carolina as well as the proposed legislation in Washington share several similarities including: