SSTI Digest

To encourage communities to strengthen their industrial ecosystems, the U.S. Department of Commerce has announced it will make awards to up to 25 communities to launch implementation strategies. The solicitation for the awards will be released in May, and awards of up to $200,000 each will be issued by the end of September. The awards are one part of a four–phase plan announced by Deputy Secretary of Commerce Rebecca Blank last week that also includes listening sessions and a proposal to award five to six communities $25 million each. Details for the cross-agency initiative, the Investing in Manufacturing Communities Partnership (IMCP) that will provide coordinated assistance to manufacturing communities, were outlined by the deputy secretary. The first of four phases will be listening sessions coordinated by federal agencies throughout 2013 to seek input on a 2014 competition. In the partnership's second phase, the grants of up to $200,000 will be awarded to 25 communities to create strategic plans that strengthen their industrial economies. The third phase will be contingent on a proposal made in the president's budget to award $25 million to five…

Maryland often has been at the forefront of innovation with a longstanding reputation for investing in science and technology to capture new opportunities for economic growth. This year's legislative session was no different. Lawmakers backed Gov. Martin O'Malley's proposals to support the state's bioscience sector, expand the R&D tax credit, enhance workforce training, and promote measures to establish the state as a leader in cybersecurity. While level funding was approved for many of the state's current technology-based economic development initiatives, lawmakers dedicated additional money to establish or expand tax incentives focused on the governor's Jobs and Opportunity agenda. Maryland is one of several states hoping to attract private funding for early stage companies focused on cybersecurity technology. To this end, lawmakers passed HB 803, which establishes the Maryland Cybersecurity Investment Tax Credit Reserve Fund and provides a 33 percent refundable tax credit for qualified investors in seed and early stage cybersecurity companies. The approved FY14 budget includes $3 million for the tax credit program. Lawmakers also…

U.S. innovation policy, which in the latter half of the twentieth century became focused on massive federal investment in basic research, is no longer tenable, according to a new report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF). In the post-World War II era, the federal government funded a wide variety of costly basic research projects at U.S. universities and federal laboratories without a guiding economic strategy for these investments. This approach has ceased to yield the kind of economic growth it once did, due to the globalization of the economy and knowledge diffusion. ITIF proposes 25 recommendations that could be adopted by the federal government along with the reauthorization of the America COMPETES Act in order to modernize the country's innovation policy and improve U.S. competitiveness. The COMPETES Act, passed in 2007 and first reauthorized in 2011, did much to increase research funding, improve coordination of federal science and technology (S&T) activities and boost support for manufacturing and STEM education, but stopped short of a wholesale revamp of the federal innovation enterprise. ITIF suggests that the 2013…

SSTI is excited to launch a new service to permit our members to better connect with each other. The new Member Listserv is already proving to be a valuable resource to better facilitate the exchange of ideas and expertise among SSTI members. You can join the discussion right now by becoming an SSTI Member. Contact Noelle Sheets sheets@ssti.org or visit http://www.ssti.org/benefits.htm to join today.

Two universities, the University of New Mexico (Albuquerque, NM) and the University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ), are expanding or restructuring their economic development operations to improve commercialization of technology stemming from faculty research and the coordination and business development in their communities. The University of New Mexico's Science and Technology Corporation (STC) will assume economic development responsibilities for the university. The STC is a nonprofit organization that has managed the university's technology commercialization since 1994. In its new role, the STC will coordinate all university-related economic development operations. The STC will function as the innovation door between the academic community and the general public, including businesses, national laboratories like the Sandia National Laboratory and the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and public entities. The new scope of the STC is modeled on the Innovation Square in Gainesville, FL, which includes the Florida Innovation Hub, and will bring together university research and technology with private business. STC will interact with local businesses to determine the…

While New Mexico continues to lead the country in R&D intensity, California remains at the top in R&D expenditures, according to new National Science Foundation (NSF) data from 2009 and 2010. The new report provides updated, detailed statistical tables on current and historical patterns (1953 to 2010) of U.S. research and development (R&D) expenditures by performing sector, source of funds, character of work and state. NSF's National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) released the data to provide a statistical supplement to their January 2013 InfoBrief on the National Patterns findings for 2010–11. The report provides updated, yearly data from 1953 to 2010 due to new NSF methodologies for obtaining and compiling R&D statistics and includes 2011 estimated data. SSTI has prepared tables showing the overall R&D expenditures (in millions of dollars) by state in 2009-10 and by the three primary performers of R&D in the U.S. (federal, business and university) for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The table also provides R&D intensity, an index for R&D spending that takes total R&D spending as a…

With more than 200 mentoring-intensive accelerators launching, convening, or closing down sometime in the past two years, it has become clear that announcing an accelerator's creation and sustaining one for multiple years are proving to be two very different matters. So it was a welcome change during a recent RIAN webinar to step away from the swagger-filled hyperbole of the bubble-watching blogosphere to hear well-grounded perspective and sage advice from two experts involved in the day-to-day operations of long-running and nationally recognized accelerators. Is the accelerator model overplayed at this point as a regional economic development tool? AlphaLab director Jim Jen and Betaspring chief of staff Melissa Withers have the years of collective entrepreneurial experience, impressive track records, and battle scars required to emerge as leaders in this rapidly evolving field. Based in Pittsburgh, Alphalab is one of the nation's oldest accelerators, founded in 2008. And Providence-based Betaspring, established in 2009 and already launching 57 startups, is no pup anymore in the increasingly crowded community of accelerators, many still hoping to make it…

Chris Coburn, the founding executive director of Cleveland Clinic Innovations, is leaving at the end of May to join Boston-based Partners Healthcare, the largest healthcare system in Massachusetts. Mary Jo White has been confirmed by the Senate as the new head of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Marcel Valois has been nominated for executive director of the Rhode Island Economic Develop Corporation by Gov. Lincoln Chafee. Erik Mitisek has been named the CEO of the Colorado Technology Association, effective April 29. Richard Sutton has been named executive director of the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education. Anthony Dennis CEO of BioOhio announced his retirement. John Lewis Jr., vice president and chief operating officer, will serve as interim president.

As the 2013 legislative session draws to a close for several states, lawmakers approved measures to create new opportunities for economic growth or expand investments in programs demonstrating positive outcomes. Lawmakers in Georgia increased funding for established university-based research initiatives and set up a state-run venture capital fund to invest in innovative companies. In Virginia, a new cybersecurity accelerator will help propel technology and companies in an emerging sector. GeorgiaDuring this year's legislative session, lawmakers boosted funding for university-based research initiatives, set up a venture capital fund to invest in startups, and passed a bill enabling more students to gain eligibility for scholarships at technical colleges. Funding for the Georgia Research Alliance (GRA), a nonprofit organization that receives state funding to build university research, development and commercialization capacity, is increased by $7.7 million over last year for a total $21.5 million. Of this amount, $12.5 million is appropriated in the capital budget as bond funding to purchase equipment and fund R&D infrastructure. In the coming year,…

Each year, SSTI provides Digest readers with a comprehensive review of technology-based economic development spending in the the president's federal budget request. The year's edition includes proposed FY14 spending on R&D, STEM education, manufacturing, broadband, small business support, technology transfer, entrepreneurship, innovation workforce initiatives and more. The full report is available for download in pdf format (626 kb). President Obama's FY14 budget request would offer increased funding for many programs of note to the technology-based economic development community. Manufacturing-related initiatives, in particular, have been prioritized by the administration, with increased funding for existing programs and the launch of several new manufacturing initiatives in several agencies. The budget also would provide increased funding for clean energy research and implementation, and a major reorganization of the federal government's science, technology, engineering and mathematics education programs. Each year, SSTI's analysis of the president's budget request includes comparisons between the proposed level of funding for…

Last week the Obama administration launched a new Clean Energy Manufacturing Initiative housed within the Department of Energy. The initiative will use public-private partnerships to drive an open-source, "smart" manufacturing network that will help U.S. clean energy manufacturing firms reduce costs, increase competitiveness, and boost productivity. The initiative will be housed within the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and will address the need for improved manufacturing competitiveness in the U.S. renewable energy sector by funding and facilitating public-private partnerships that cover the range of the clean energy innovation life cycle. Some highlights of the program include $23 million for clean energy manufacturing R&D and $15 million to fund public-private partnerships that can demonstrate cost-competitive renewable energy technologies. The Clean Energy Manufacturing Initiative also focuses new administrative policies for the DOE, including using enhanced analysis of the U.S. clean energy manufacturing supply chain to guide the department's future funding decisions. The announcement came last week at the Oak Ridge…

With a continued push toward regionalism to better support the state's high-tech platform, lawmakers approved in the FY14 budget startup funding for a new statewide incubator program that provides grants for the incubators and tax incentives for client companies. The initiative is part of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's planned expansion for the state's 10 regional councils. Other innovation-focused initiatives approved in the recently enacted budget include a $50 million innovation venture capital fund, a third round of funding for the SUNY 2020 program, and $55 million to launch the CUNY 2020 challenge. The budget signed into law this week includes $1.25 million in initial funding to launch the Innovation Hot Spots program that will create or designate 10 high-tech innovation incubators at locations affiliated with higher education institutes. Created with broad industry support, the new program is a combination of Gov. Cuomo's "hot spots" proposal (see the Jan. 9, 2013 issue of the Digest) and legislation introduced by Sen. Martin Golden (R, C, I-Brooklyn). Under the program, entities that meet best practice criteria are designated as New York…