SSTI Digest

New Jersey's Economic Development Authority announced the Edison Innovation Green Growth Fund (EIGGF), a new loan program with a performance grant component to grow the state's energy efficiency and Class 1 renewable energy technology companies. The fund offers five-year fixed term loans of up to $1 million to eligible companies that have begun generating commercial revenues and are seeking matching funds (1:1 by the time of loan closing). If the company achieves certain milestones, up to 50 percent of the loan will convert to a performance grant at the end of year five. The program is supported by funding through the state Board of Public Utilities. Eligible technologies include: Energy Efficiency Products — Energy efficiency equipment and technologies that reduce electric or natural gas consumption (e.g., furnaces, boilers, air conditioning systems and lighting systems); and, Class I Renewable Energy —Technologies or equipment that can demonstrate their integral nature to the development of Class I renewable energy technologies (e.g., Photovoltaic, solar, wind, fuel cells, wave, tidal, biomass and methane gas from landfills). Read more about the…

Gov John Hickenlooper recently signed legislation expanding eligibility for Colorado's Innovation Investment Tax Credit (CIITC). The program provides angel investors with an income tax credit equal to 15 percent of their investment in Colorado small businesses that are less than five years old and are involved in research and development. Originally, the program allowed investors to claim the credits for investments made during the 2010 tax year. Under the new legislation, investments made after 2010 will be eligible until the remaining funds are exhausted. In addition, the rules regarding qualified businesses have been loosened. The CIITC program was introduced in 2009 as a pilot program administered by the Colorado Office of Economic Development. The state Economic Development Commission provided $750,000 to cover the tax credits, of which $550,000 was allocated to investors. As per the original legislation, the remaining $200,000 could not be used for additional credits. The new bill authorizes $100,000 in both FY11 and FY12 to provide the entire planned amount of tax credits. Credits are currently available to investors making investments of at least $25,…

Editor's Note: Last week, the Digest erroneously reported that Congress had approved the extension of SBIR/STTR. This mistake was due to the substitution described in the article below. The actual SBIR extension was approved on May 31, 2011. We regret the error. On Tuesday, the House and Senate approved an extension of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program through September 30, 2011. The passage came a week after the original bill was replaced with legislation to extend the USA PATRIOT Act under the SBIR bill's number and title. As a result, the SBIR/STTR extension was delayed another week, and approved under a separate bill number (S. 1082) on the day that the programs were set to expire. The Small Business Administration (SBA) programs that were also set to expire were extended through July 31. Read the bill...

From 2000 to 2008, the U.S. ranked 18th out of 30 countries in the growth of government-funded university research, according to a new report by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF). In University Research Funding: the United States is Behind and Falling, Robert Atkinson and Luke Stewart compared the U.S. government and business funding for public university research against 29 other developed countries. The results indicate that both government-funded and business-funded have fallen dramatically behind and will continue to slip further behind several nations including China, Korea, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. U.S. public universities, once the "envy of the world," have become woefully underfunded due to severe budget cuts aimed at higher education. In 2008, the U.S. only committed 0.24 percent of total GDP to university research. This only constituted a 17 percent change in government-funded research since 2000. In contrast, six countries, including Sweden (0.61 percent), Switzerland (0.58 percent), the Netherlands (0.53 percent), Iceland (0.52 percent), Finland (0.52 percent) and Austria (0.51 percent) committed over a half a…

Compiling SBIR Phase I awards and proposal statistics by state for FY10, SSTI finds the 10 states with the most awards in FY10 were California (851), Massachusetts (517), Virginia (250), Colorado (218), New York (212), Maryland (196), Texas (185), Pennsylvania (184), Ohio (179), and Michigan (125). Colorado moved up two positions to fourth place, dropping New York to fifth place while Maryland fell to sixth place from fifth last year. Pennsylvania edged out Ohio to move up one spot into eighth position, pushing Ohio down one spot from last year to ninth place. Michigan moved into the top 10, climbing from 15th place last year, dropping Florida out of the top 10. Using figures provided by the individual federal agencies, SSTI has prepared a table showing FY10 Phase I SBIR data for all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. Statistics include awards, proposals and award-to-proposal conversion rates for 10 of the 12 participating agencies (the Department of Education and the Commerce Department"s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declined to provide proposal statistics). The table is available at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/060111t.…

The Obama administration announced a Federal Funding Opportunity (FFO) for a new $33 million public-private initiative focused on supporting and accelerating the growth of regional innovation clusters (RICs) that exhibit high-growth development potential — the Jobs and Innovation Accelerator Challenge. The Obama administration intends for these investments to serve as catalysts for leveraging private capital (e.g., foundations, financial institutions, corporations and other partners) in the selected regions. The Economic Development Administration (EDA) in partnership with Employment Training Administration (ETA) and the Small Business Administration (SBA) will provide the direct funding and technical assistance to support customized solutions for each awardee. Thirteen additional partner agencies and bureaus (e.g., Department of Agriculture, Department of Defense, Department of Energy) also intend to provide customized technical assistance. EDA anticipates 20 awards (individual awards range between $1.0 million to $2.2 million) will be made through a nationwide competitive process that includes all industry sectors. Applications are invited from clusters in…

Created as the successor to two longstanding and accomplished tech-based economic development organizations — the Washington Technology Center (WTC) and the Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute (SIRTI) — Innovate Washington will serve as the state's primary agency responding to tech transfer needs and strengthening university-industry partnerships. Innovate Washington also will coordinate the state's clean energy initiatives. Although both organizations have similar missions, WTC focuses on statewide efforts while SIRTI's mission is centered on growing the innovation-based economy in the Eastern Washington region. By combining the two through a public-private partnership model, the services will be expanded to include entrepreneurial support, access to capital, and sector/cluster initiatives and coordination for the entire state. Specifically, Innovate Washington will: Facilitate research supportive of state industries and provide mechanisms for collaboration between tech-based industries and higher education institutions; Help businesses secure research funds and develop and integrate technology into new products; Offer…

To more closely align Georgia's efforts to market and promote strategic industries to existing and potential companies, Georgia's Centers of Innovation (COI) program will be integrated with the programs of the Georgia Research Alliance (GRA). The move follows the legislature's decision to transfer funding for GRA's strategic economic development initiatives from the Board of Regents' Research Consortium program to the Department of Economic Development Innovation and Technology Division. The goal for integrating the programs is twofold: to develop strategies and tactics to maximize the potential for high-tech companies generated from university R&D to thrive in the state; and, to leverage the resources of Georgia's research universities to retain and recruit companies in industries considered crucial to the state's growth. The COI's provide technology-oriented support to businesses and startups in the areas of aerospace, agribusiness, energy, life sciences, logistics, and advanced manufacturing. GRA is slated to receive $7.5 million in FY12, which includes $3 million in bond funding to purchase equipment and fund R&D…

Gov. Pat Quinn and the Illinois Innovation Council launched a new initiative to facilitate business and research collaboration and to provide services to the state's high-tech entrepreneurs. The Illinois Innovation Network (IIN) will be connected to Startup Illinois, the first Startup Region to be introduced by the national Startup America Partnership. Read the announcement...

For the 11th time in the last 32-months, Congress approved a continuing resolution to extend authorization of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program and the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program. The House version of the Small Business Additional Temporary Extension Act of 2011 (S.990) would extend small business programs "as is" through the end of Fiscal Year 2011. The Senate version would extend the program through May 31, 2012. Both the Senate and House versions passed by unanimous consent. The bill will now proceed to conference committee before reaching the president. Read the bill...

The budget approved by lawmakers for FY12 includes $15 million in research grant money for three Kansas universities to expand programs in emerging industry sectors as proposed by Gov. Sam Brownback and allocates $10.5 million annually for an initiative to enhance engineering education and increase the number of qualified engineers in the state. Announced by Gov. Brownback earlier this year, the University Economic Growth Initiative will provide $15 million for research in areas seen as critical to growing the state's economy (see the Jan. 26, 2011 issue of the Digest). This includes $5 million each for animal health research at Kansas State University (KSU), cancer research at the University of Kansas (KU) Medical Center, and aviation research at Wichita State University. The universities must provide a dollar-for-dollar match. Lawmakers also approved a bill allocating $10.5 million per year to expand engineering programs and create a steady stream of graduates for businesses. Specifically, the University Engineering Initiative Act aims to increase the number of graduates to 1,365 per year by 2021. The money, which comes from lottery revenues, will be split…

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program and the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program reauthorizations may face a bleak future due to a recent vote on the Senate floor. Senator Mary L. Landrieu (D-LA) said, "Today was our last chance to reauthorize these important programs and provide some continuity to the small businesses that depend on them. This bill, the federal government's largest research and development programs for small businesses, passed out of our Committee with nearly unanimous support, but wound up hitting a brick wall when it reached the Senate floor." The Senate SBIR/STTR Reauthorization Act of 2011 (S. 493) failed to receive the votes necessary to invoke a cloture vote — a procedure that allows the Senate to place a time limit on consideration of a bill to overcome a filibuster. A cloture vote was proposed after the Senate managed to debate only 11 of the 137 amendments. Proponents of the bill argue that the 137 amendments, most of which are not germane to the SBIR/STTR programs, eroded bipartisan support for the program. If passed, the Senate SBIR/STTR Reauthorization Act of 2011 would:…