SSTI Digest

Governors are continuing their annual address to legislators and constituents and workforce development continues to take center stage, with the governor of Oregon rolling out a new five-step plan she hopes will invigorate the economy and close the skills gap while Oklahoma acknowledged difficult times and Tennessee says it may achieve an education goal two years ahead of schedule.

Recognizing that the former steel city was at tipping point in its development, Pittsburgh’s city leaders decided to tip the scale toward continued growth. Whether the city is able to rise to the level of a serious global competitor may hinge on the implementation of initiatives that will guide the city in capitalizing on their innovation, research and business assets, according to a new report from the Brookings Institution. Pittsburgh leaders received a call to action as a result of a collaborative effort initiated by two city foundations and the Brookings Institution. At the prompting of Brookings and the Heinz Endowments and the Hillman Family Foundations, city leaders studied whether the city’s assets were being fully utilized and how best to pursue growth for the city, says Rebecca Bagley, vice chancellor for economic partnerships at the University of Pittsburgh. Bagley was part of the effort that went into the creation of the Brookings report, Capturing the next economy: Pittsburgh’s rise as a global innovation city, and also serves as an SSTI board member. What made the effort in Pittsburgh unique was its ability to convene a diverse set…

On July 11, without Gov. Tom Wolf’s signature, Pennsylvania’s budget (HB 218) for FY 2018 became law. State lawmakers, however, are still in the midst of a stalemate over how to pay for a nearly $32 billion budget. While Wolf and other Democratic leaders prefer increasing revenue through tax reform, Republican leaders are focusing on other alternatives including a bond effort and expansions of gambling to address the over $2 billion shortfall.

The Midwest and the Greater Philadelphia region have found pathways to build strong life sciences industries and create environments that provide the necessary risk capital for healthcare startups. These life sciences clusters are driven by leading healthcare companies, high quality health systems, and top notch research institutions as well as strong entrepreneurial support ecosystems. The region’s startup ecosystem saw 375 life startups attract over $1.7 billion in investments in 2016, according to the Midwest Healthcare Growth Capital Report from BioEnterprise, a Cleveland-based biomedical accelerator.  Indiana – home to several global healthcare corporations – has benefited greatly from its more than $63 billion life sciences industry. In 2016, the state’s life sciences cluster employed more than 56,000 people at 1,687 companies, according to the most recent data provided to BioCrossroads by the Indiana Business Research Center at Indiana University. The average wage for the life sciences sector was $98,934 per worker – up from $ 96,803 in 2014 (2.2 percent increase). The state’s life sciences industry…

In the latest round of state budget proposals, TBED initiatives receive mixed reviews. Some governors are boosting funding while others in cash-strapped states are proposing cuts. Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley’s FY 2018 budget would boost spending on education, provide government workers a cost of living adjusted raise, and remove the sales tax on groceries. Notable for technology-based economic development is $2.9 million for the Alabama Innovation Fund in FY 2018, an increase of 20.1 percent from FY 2017. The fund operates two programs: a renewal program, which helps support university high technology infrastructure, and a research program, which allocates funding for commercialization and university-industry partnerships.   Additionally, the Alabama Technology Network would receive $4.9 million in FY 2018, the same as it received in the previous fiscal year. Connecticut Faced with a $1.7 billion deficit, Gov. Dannel Malloy’s $20 billion FY 2018-2019 biennial budget includes little in the way of new funding. The state’s Department of Economic and Community Development would receive $29.9 million in FY 2018 and $29.3…

Tuesday’s ceremonial groundbreaking on a new building in Philadelphia marks the foundation of a new collaboration between a number of players that are hoping to accelerate the innovation community in the city. University City Science Center (UCSC), an SSTI member that has operated in Philadelphia for 54 years, is partnering with the Boston-area Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC) as well as Wexford Science and Technology on a new space that will create a stronger group of serial entrepreneurs and increase the level of investment in the community, said UCSC President and CEO Stephen Tang. The new building allows the Science Center to expand its headquarters and triple the size of its “entrepreneur’s clubhouse”, the Quorum. In an interview with SSTI, Tang said he is very excited about expanding the entrepreneurial space and called the new endeavor “a great mixing bowl.” It will put the serial entrepreneur in touch with people that are thinking about a startup, and expand meeting and programming space. CIC, which will occupy 127,000 square feet in the new building at 3675 Market Street in University City, brings its formula for proven…

Pittsburgh will be home to the Advanced Robotics Manufacturing (ARM) Innovation Hub, the newest member of the Manufacturing USA network. The U.S. Department of Defense announced that American Robotics, Inc., an independent nonprofit spun out of Carnegie Mellon University will receive roughly $80 million in federal funding to launch the institute, matched with $173 million in support from the university and a consortium representing approximately 120 industry partners, 40 academic institutions and 60 non-profit and government entities. The mission of ARM focuses on the creation and deployment of robotic technologies that integrate a variety of disciplines around manufacturing, including: sensor technologies, end-effector development, software and artificial intelligence, materials science, human and machine behavior modeling, and quality assurance. In order to achieve a high level of precision, the defense and manufacturing sectors are increasingly using robotics. At the same time, barriers exist for small and mid-size manufacturers to apply the technologies because of cost and complexity, DoD officials note. Over the next 10 years, the Innovation Hub…

Over the last several months, the Economic Development Administration (EDA) has announced millions of dollars in grants to support tech-based economic development efforts in communities across the country (see recent Digest articles from August 18 and September 8). The most recent announcements of grant funding will provide targeted funding to expand and build facilities that support entrepreneurial/business development in Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Wyoming as well as workforce efforts in South Carolina. Each of the grants also addresses a specific regional need or key industries including growth in advanced manufacturing sectors, attraction of foreign direct investment, and support for key regional tech-focused industries such as agriculture and healthcare. Oklahoma Two organizations located in Oklahoma City will receive $1.9 million in grants to provide business and technical support to manufacturing and service companies and to purchase critical equipment needed to boost workforce training opportunities in the medical sector. The Oklahoma Center for Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST) will receive $1 million to provide business and technical…

Opportunities for successful workforce development partnerships exist across a variety of industries and geographies, according to a recently released report from the Community Development Department at the Cleveland Fed.  The report, Addressing Employment Needs through Sector Partnerships, includes five case studies from throughout the Federal Reserve’s Fourth District, which contains Western Pennsylvania, Eastern Kentucky, the panhandle of West Virginia and all of Ohio. Although sector-based initiatives have been around for quite some time, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, whose final regulations became publicly available in June 2016, places a strong emphasis on aligning education and job training with employer needs, according to the report’s authors Kyle Fee, Matt Klesta, and Lisa Nelson. Using numerous interviews to conduct their research, each case study highlights how initiatives are structured and operated so that they identify and meet the needs of both employers and jobseekers. The case studies are: Addressing the Needs of Health Care Employers: Tri-County Health Care Industry Partnership; Building a Pipeline of IT Talent in…

Since the beginning of July, the Economic Development Administration (EDA) has announced almost $7.3 million in grants to support advanced manufacturing and support workforce development efforts in communities impacted by the decline coal industry. In Florida and Washington, the EDA announced funding to support the facilities that can house local manufacturing firms and provide the space and equipment necessary for them to create jobs. In New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, the EDA accessed funding made available through EDA's Investing in Manufacturing Communities Partnership (IMCP) and Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization (POWER) initiative to support workforce development efforts that address job losses due to the decline of coal industries in those states. Florida On August 9, EDA announced that it will commit $2.2 million in grant funding to the Osceola County Board of County Commissioners to help build the Florida Advanced Manufacturing Research Center. In partnership with Osceola County, the University of Central Florida and the Florida High Tech Corridor Council also have committed to support building…

In the last month, major new developments have occurred in TBED capital programs. Launch Tennessee and Pittsburgh-based Innovation Works both announced positive findings about the growth of their startup investment ecosystems with $1 billion being raised by Tennessee startups from 2012 to early 2016 and over $279 million invested in Pittsburgh startups in 2015. Meanwhile in Ohio, both Youngstown-based and Cincy-based startups will see an influx of capital, while a new $150 million fund focused on stem cell companies and regions has been launched. Tennessee Launch Tennessee (LaunchTN) announced that private investment in Tennessee-based, early stage companies surpassed $1 billion between 2012 and Q1 of 2016 – well ahead of its organizational goal of $1 billion invested by the end of 2017. LaunchTN attributes much of the local startup success to partnerships that have been cultivated with established organizations to offer mentorship at its accelerators. “Domain expertise from the music industry in Nashville and companies like FedEx in Memphis and Scripps in Knoxville gives our entrepreneurs real advantages in succeeding in those sectors,…

Many states across the country already have, or will soon have, signed budgets ready for the 2017 fiscal year.  Over the past few months, SSTI has examined gubernatorial addresses and proposed budgets for a preview of technology-based economic development spending in the coming year. This week, we take a look at what initiatives and spending levels survived spending negotiations in Alabama, Florida, Idaho and New Mexico, as well as an update on the budget situation in Pennsylvania. AlabamaIn February, SSTI reported that Gov. Robert Bentley’s $1.9 billion fiscal year 2017 budget proposal included $7.5 million in funds for the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA), with another $202.4 million in earmarked funds. The enrolled bill, delivered to the governor last week, includes these allocations. The governor has pledged to veto the general fund budget due to an “unacceptable” allocation for the state’s Medicaid program and other issues. The Republican leadership, which controls both houses of the legislature plan to override any such measure, according to AL.com. FloridaOn March 17, Gov. Rick Scott…