SSTI Digest

The White House published its FY 2025 budget this week. As Congress will ultimately produce its preferred budget, the president’s release like those of previous Administrations serves as more of a messaging document outlining a vision and priorities. For tech-based economic development (TBED), the message is that Congress has provided ample tools but needs to continue to fund them.

Among the federal TBED programs included in the (188-page) budget summary perhaps the biggest ask among these programs is EDA’s Tech Hubs, which the administration recommends at $4 billion in mandatory funding. The program was authorized at $10 billion, but Congress so far has appropriated just $500 million.

The real gross domestic product (GDP) of private industries has steadily increased nationwide from 2018-2022, with an average percentage increase of 2% each year, or 9% total, despite a drop from 2019-2020 due to the pandemic. However, the same cannot be said across all private industries; of the 14 broad industries captured by U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) data,[1] eight have grown while six decreased over the five-year period from 2018-2022.

While a prior SSTI Useful Stats article went in depth about overall state-level industry GDP profiles using BEA data, this edition of Useful Stats explores all U.S. counties, identifying trends and clustering across the nation’s private industries through a more granular lens.

By a bipartisan vote on Tuesday, the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works approved legislation that would reauthorize the Economic Development Administration for the first time since 2004. The bill amends the Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965 and does not affect the technology-based economic development programs authorized through separate legislation that are administered by EDA.

The National Science Board released the biennial Science and Engineering Indicators report on Wednesday. This report compiles data about the composition of the U.S. research enterprise and its trajectory relative to that of other nations. It covers data collected through 2021.

The 2024 Indicators report shows that the U.S. remains the most prominent performer of R&D, with $806 billion in gross domestic expenditures in 2021. China, at $668 billion, is the next largest performer. The U.S. spends 3.5% of U.S. GDP on R&D, the highest percentage the nation has ever spent. Most of the R&D spending increases have come from private businesses, particularly in the information technology and pharmaceutical industries, while federal spending has remained roughly flat. The report also shows that several high-tech business sectors fund almost as much basic research as the federal government.

On March 1, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey introduced and filed her administration’s anticipated economic development measure, AN Act Relative to Strengthening Massachusetts’ Economic Leadership, or the Mass Leads Act. The measure seeks to reauthorize the state’s life sciences investments at $1 billion for the next decade, launch a separate $1 billion, 10-year climatetech initiative, and build on the momentum of the state's CHIPS + Science wins by proposing targeted investments in advanced manufacturing and robotics. It also includes $100 million to create an Applied AI Hub in Massachusetts.

A federal judge in Texas has ruled that the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Minority Business Development Agency’s presumption that businesses owned by Blacks, Latinos and other minorities are disadvantaged violates the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection. Unless it appeals, the Department of Commerce, which oversees MBDA, will be forced to immediately cease using an applicant’s race or ethnicity in determining eligibility for the program. An appeal seems likely, but, according to an article in the Washington Post, it would go to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, which has a conservative majority.

Last August, SSTI released a data tool exhibiting investment activity across 18 key technology areas. The tool comprises two interactive visuals and a downloadable data file and uses Pitchbook technology verticals selected to align with many of the key technology focus areas defined in the CHIPS and Science Act. The tool breaks down the number of investment-backed companies, investment deals, and amount of capital invested by each state, year (January 1, 2013-December 31, 2023), and investment stage (e.g., seed, angel, venture). SSTI has updated the underlying data through December 31, 2023.

Americans have a strong level of confidence in scientists and scientific institutions overall, as SSTI reported in a Digest article in December 2023. A new NSF report reviews recent literature about public perceptions, awareness, and information sources for science, and reports strong support for science. However, in their extensive literature review, the authors found evidence of current uncertainty and varying levels of awareness and acceptance of newer technologies, such as AI, robotics, and automotive automation.

More than five months into fiscal year 2024, Congress has approved an agreement covering six of the twelve annual appropriations bills. Many tech-based economic development (TBED) programs received funding equal to the FY 2023 base appropriation—a strong sign of support for a year in which Congress agreed to return to FY 2022 overall spending levels and many programs across the federal government, therefore, saw cuts. However, because Congress has not agreed to provide again the supplemental funding that fueled robust spending last year, the FY 2024 budget actually provides hundreds of millions of dollars less in total TBED spending than was appropriated in FY 2023.

Congress adopted the SSTI Innovation Advocacy Council’s recommended Build to Scale funding level of $50 million, matching the FY 2023 level and above the White House’s request of $45 million. For Tech Hubs, Congress provided $41 million, matching the FY 2023 base appropriation but well below last year’s $500 million in total funding, the White House’s request of $4 billion (with $2.5 billion to be used in FY 2024), and the Innovation Advocacy Council’s recommendation of $2.5 billion.

In a webinar last week, staff from BioSTL and SSTI shared their organizations’ use of Salesforce for grant management and reporting. It facilitated a lively discussion among the more than 100 attendees about technical and practical challenges and solutions for the platform. The presentation and recording are now available here. In a poll last year, participants in the Tech-based Economic Development (TBED) Community of Practice identified Salesforce as the most commonly used customer management system (CMS) in the field (followed by Excel and with HubSpot and Microsoft Dynamics as other common solutions). SSTI previously shared a demonstration of AirTable’s use for managing TBED initiatives and seeks organizations willing to discuss other platforms.

Last week, the National Science Foundation announced it would provide $21.4 million to four projects at emerging research institutions (ERIs) to advance research administration infrastructure and support systems at non-R1 institutions.

The awards are from NSF’s Growing Research Access for Nationally Transformative Equity and Diversity (GRANTED) program, which, according to the NSF announcement, “aims to help R2, R3, undergraduate and community colleges become more competitive against more well-funded research institutions in national research funding opportunities.”

Why do some universities excel at translating their research into economic impact while others lag? A recent NBER working paper explores the factors influencing the variation in universities' commercialization activities. The authors follow the career movements of 31,000 academic researchers across 1,100 U.S. universities and analyze how the situations at the different host universities may have influenced an increase or decrease in these researchers’ subsequent patent filings and company formations.