SSTI Digest

Performance-based funding for higher education has emerged as a top policy recommendation for addressing concerns ranging from accountability and affordability to helping keep states economically competitive. In states that already have performance-based funding in place, such as Pennsylvania and Ohio, efforts to revise and expand the programs are underway. Ahead of the upcoming legislative sessions, governors in Texas and Wisconsin called for education reform tied to outcomes, including how well colleges and universities are meeting the states' workforce needs, especially for high-skilled, in-demand jobs.

While Washington remains in political gridlock and the national economy continues sluggish growth, one key trend for political and economic success is apparent: U.S. metro regions experiencing high economic growth have invested federal, state, and private funds in high-speed broadband access.

In a recent NY Times Op-Ed, Thomas Friedman illustrates the impact of local investment in high-speed infrastructure that has contributed to an economic resurgence in Chattanooga, TN. Since installing a city-wide fiber network and smart meters, major global companies including Amazon and Volkswagen have moved operations to the city. The result is that corporate relocations, along with community-based tech-startups, have created over 3,700 new jobs in the past 3 years.

Recently, the Maine Technology Institute (MTI) announced a new outreach effort to connect the state's community banks with promising technology and innovation-based businesses. These businesses often have capital needs that differ from other small firms and less collateral to secure loans. As a result, it can be difficult for high-tech firms to secure bank loans. The initiative will kick off with a series of workshops, held in partnership with community banks, on the funding options available to tech companies. Learn more...

Learn more about financing company growthAre you curious about how the capital needs of growing tech businesses and manufacturers differ from other firms? Interested in learning about the funding resources already available? Join us on Dec. 20 for an hour-long webinar on securing capital for expanding tech firms and manufacturers. Read more...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) intends to launch a $10 Million Strong Cities, Strong Communities National Resource Network (SC2 Network) — a pilot program to align federal resources and coordinate technical assistance programs to help distressed U.S. communities make more effective local investments. The focus of the SC2 Network will be to strengthen the foundation for economic growth and resiliency in these communities including local technical capacity, comprehensive planning and regional collaboration.

Nonprofit organizations, foundations, anchor institutions, for-profit companies, institutions of higher education or a consortium of these entities are eligible to apply for the cooperative agreement to establish and administer the SC2 Network's centralized portal to connect distressed communities with national and local experts with wide-ranging expertise and skills. Applications must be submitted by January 28, 2013. Read the funding announcement...

In FY11, the top 30 U.S. research universities accounted for over 40 percent (approximately $26.1 billion) of total academic R&D spending in 2011, according to survey data collected by the National Science Foundation. The other 882 universities surveyed accounted for approximately $39 billion of the total academic R&D spending for the 2011 fiscal year (approximately $65.1B billion). The Higher Education Research and Development Survey population also increased from 742 universities in 2010 to 912 in 2011. These universities added approximately $533 million in total R&D expenditures.

The federal government remained the primary funder of academic R&D spending and increased from FY 2010 total. Funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) was responsible for much of the increase, with ARRA-funded expenditures totaling $4.2 billion in FY11. Among the nonfederal sources of funding, only nonprofit organizations and academic institutions themselves contributed more in FY11 than in FY10. R&D expenditures by state and local government, business and other sources virtually were unchanged.

Two small grant programs and a minor reorganization of related functions within the U.S. Small Business Administration are the aims of a bill introduced Nov 26 by Democratic Sens. Mary Landrieu and John Kerry. "Today's Entrepreneurs are Advancing Mentorship Act of 2012," or the TEAM Act (S. 3638) for short, would create an Office of Entrepreneurial Support within SBA to administer the grant programs, oversee online entrepreneurship education and resources, coordinate programs targeting youth entrepreneurship, and host international groups interested in U.S. entrepreneurship. The proposed Entrepreneurial Support grant program would provide funding to develop entrepreneurship curricula and mentoring programs within SBA's network of resource partners, including SBDCs, SCORE, women business centers and other nonprofit organizations. The total authorized funding level would begin at $1 million in 2013 and build to $3 million by 2015. A new Emerging Leaders Program would support specialized training and executive-level mentoring for small business concerns with growth potential, at least one employee and that have been in business for two or more years.

In the aftermath of an election cycle in which manufacturing emerged as a key point of contention in many races, several groups are taking stock of the state of U.S. manufacturing competitiveness. The 2012 edition of the Global Manufacturing Competitiveness Index, based on a survey of senior manufacturing executives, projects that the U.S. will fall from third most competitive nation to fifth over the next five years. In order to stave off declining competitiveness, authors of a McKinsey Global Institute report suggest that manufacturing be viewed as a critical driver of U.S. innovation, requiring flexible federal intervention as the lines between manufacturing and services become blurred.

Based on scant column inches on the topic in blog posts and newsletters, few within the general economic development and innovation circles seem to have noted what expiration of the Farm Bill could mean for agricultural research, energy innovation and rural economic development. Programs supporting regional innovation strategies and R&D grants are caught in the debate over cuts to food stamps, crop subsidies and farmers' safety net after disasters like the nearly nationwide drought of this past summer. The result could mean greater competition for an ever shrinking pool of federal resources.

Programs typically authorized and reauthorized through the massive legislation every five years expired with the beginning of the current federal fiscal year, Oct 1. Titles VI and VII of the act are concerned with Rural Development and Research, respectively. Programs affected include:

Fostering regional innovation is imperative to strengthening our national economy and crafting public-private partnerships (PPPs) are a key strategy for catalyzing regional economic growth. While states should continue to lead regional innovation efforts, the federal government can play a critical supporting role. The Brookings Institution proposes the establishment of a PPP unit within the White House to coordinate Federal assistance. Examples of effective federal-regional PPP units already are active within the Department of Transportation and the White House Startup America Initiative.

Two recent academic research articles found that innovation at institutions of higher education and domestic firms are significantly impacted by an increase in the immigration of skilled and qualified immigrants. An article from Stuen et al. found the quality of immigrant students was the determining factor in their contribution to the production of knowledge at academic science and engineering laboratories. In an unpublished article from Kerr et al., the authors examined the impact of skilled immigrants on the employment structures and innovation rates of U.S. firms. The authors of these articles also provide several recommendations to increase the number skilled immigrants that include making student quality the key criterion for receiving a visa, repealing 2001 legislation that limited the number of student visas and business taking a more active role in advocating for immigrations polices (e.g., H-1B visa reform) that attracted skilled workers to the United States.

SSTI would like to visit your city and bring 350 of our closest friends! Bids for the 2013 conference are due January 14. To request a conference information packet and discuss this exciting opportunity contact Noelle at sheets@ssti.org or 614-901-1690.

With $130 million in funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), seven universities will establish development labs to address global development challenges through science and technology in partnership with agency experts and policymakers. A new discipline of development science that combines math, science and engineering at the University of California-Berkeley and a Social Entrepreneur Accelerator at Duke University focused on health care delivery are among the projects supported as part of USAID's Higher Education Solutions Network. The network has up to five years to achieve its goals, and for every $10 of USAID funding, the universities and their partners are contributing an additional $6.60 to the network.

Each of the seven lead universities will establish a development lab related to their available resources and expertise. They include: