SSTI Digest

The economies, the wellbeing, and the stories of the U.S. and China have become so intertwined and so interdependent that individuals not following global political-military-ideological studies might be excused for getting lost in the narrative, let alone following such a complex plot. There won’t be a simplifying explanation offered here, but there are a few new twists in the storyline SSTI wanted to share that may relate to the innovation investment, product development, and exit strategies for some parties within the TBED community.  For instance, the CHIPS and Science Act tightens research security by requiring U.S. institutions to report gifts of $50,000 or more from a foreign government, whereas the previous reporting limit was $250,000. Tighter scrutiny and reporting may discourage even innocuous international research partnerships from continuing or being developed in the future. Additionally, on August 9, Biden issued an executive order that limits investments in companies in China, specifically restricted are investments in technologies affecting military, intelligence, surveillance, and cyber security. The executive order allows investment in…

The closely watched regional competition to identify the final two hubs of the ARPANET-H, a $2.5 Billion health innovation initiative of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, has come to a close with the selection of two firms to operate the Customer Experience and Investor Catalyst elements of the national network. ARPA-H has selected VentureWell to manage the Investor Catalyst hub and Advanced Technology International to manage the Customer Experience hub. ARPA-H will operate the Stakeholder and Operations hub directly. Each awardee, labeled Consortium Management Firms (CMF) by ARPA-H, will provide all necessary expertise to run its respective hub and significantly speed up research and development timelines. Hubs will include CMF teaming partners and spokes from a number of health science communities to ensure ARPA-H advancements are transitioned to those that stand to benefit the most. Each hub's performance period is five years, consisting of a one-year base and four one-year options. The Investor Catalyst hub will focus on quickly transforming innovative ideas into practical, accessible solutions by…

Created in 1987, the NSF Science & Technology Centers (STCs) program has supported exceptionally innovative, complex research and education projects that have opened up new areas of science and engineering and developed breakthrough technologies through integrative partnerships. The recent announcement of $120 Million in NSF funding for four new centers will bring the current active center portfolio to 17. STCs conduct world-class research through partnerships among institutions of higher education, national laboratories, industrial organizations and other public or private entities, and via international collaborations, as appropriate. Each new awardee will receive approximately $6 million per year over five years, with the possibility of continual funding for up to five additional years. A number of SSTI members are integral members of the teams for each of the four new centers, highlighted in bold in the descriptions below:  NSF Science and Technology Center for Quantitative Cell Biology (QCB), led by researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Harvard Medical School; and the J. Craig Venter Institute. The center aims to…

Families and young professionals from New York and New Orleans, San Francisco and San Antonio, Omaha, and expat communities abroad are homing in on one unassuming Midwest city as the ideal place to relocate and put down roots. If you tried to guess the destination, you probably wouldn’t guess Tulsa, Oklahoma. But this city is, in fact, one of the nation's hottest relocation destinations. Tulsa is one of many communities across the U.S. that has attempted to bolster economic development by launching programs to attract new talent. When it first launched in 2018, Tulsa Remote, a program that pays remote workers from out of state $10,000 to move to the city for one year, was subject to ridicule, particularly on social media. But nearly five years into the program, the county and state have generated millions of dollars. Program participants made $2.5 million for Tulsa County and $3.1 million for the state of Oklahoma in tax revenue, according to a recent economic impact report.  The program offered more than just an economic incentive. It also offered a place where participants, which numbered 2,400, could find relatively affordable housing, access…

SBA recently announced its 2023 Growth Accelerator Fund Competition Stage Two prize winners. The 35 award-winning accelerator partnerships will receive $150,000 each in unrestricted funds. In 2023, the SBA introduced a two-stage format for the Growth Accelerator Fund Competition. In May, Stage One Catalyze winners received $50,000 to build capacity and connections across the U.S. innovation ecosystem, focused on the national priorities mentioned above. The SBA awarded 40 Stage One prizes to organizations from 30 states and territories, including D.C. and Puerto Rico, and invited them to apply for Stage Two of the Growth Accelerator Fund Competition.  Growth Accelerator Fund Competition Stage Two winners in national security and global competitiveness are: DE: Delaware Technology Park  KY: - XLerateHealth (dba XLerator Network)  MS: Mississippi State University  NH:  Hannah Grimes Center  NM: University of New Mexico (dba New Mexico Bioscience Authority)   ND: University of North Dakota UND Center for Innovation Foundation  TX: BioMedSA  VA: Virginia Small Business Development Center at George Mason University  WA: - Greater Seattle Partners…

As of this writing, Congress has yet to agree to fund the federal government beyond this Saturday, Sept. 30. Major media outlets are covering the play-by-play of these developments—i.e., the Senate’s slow progress toward a weekend vote on a continuing resolution and uncertainty about the House—and providing some information about broad effects, but how would a shutdown affect tech-based economic development (TBED) programs? The answer varies by agency and program, with many details remaining unclear, even at this late hour. General approach to shutdown activities According to guidance provided by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on agency contingency plans for a government shutdown, activities funded by a lapsed appropriation generally must stop unless the activity is necessary to protect life or property (or implied to be necessary for the continuation of such activities). Most TBED activities do not meet this standard, which is reflected in agency plans. For example, the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) 2023 plan is to continue with 22% of their staff, who are primarily working with patients and securing/maintaining important…

The United States boasts the world’s largest economy and is home to many of the most prestigious, highly ranked universities across the globe, leading to a highly educated population. Overall, advanced education pays off in terms of personal earnings and national innovation. Factors like field of study, skills, and job demand can greatly affect earning potential. For example, many engineering jobs require a bachelor’s degree, not a master's or doctorate, yet have the highest average starting salaries of any field. The divide becomes even larger when looking at specialized fields of study. This divergence is particularly true for jobs in medicine and law, which have high entry requirements. In the United States, average earnings increase alongside both age and educational attainment. Workers with advanced degrees earn the most, while those with the  least amount of education earn the least. This difference in mean earnings widens with age and experience. For example, those aged 25 to 34 earn an average of $73,700 with a bachelor’s degree and $121,400 with a professional degree, while those aged 45 to 54 average $100,900 with a bachelor’s and $213,…

The Department of Defense announced yesterday that it issued $238 million from "Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) and Science Act" funding for the establishment of eight Microelectronics Commons (Commons) regional innovation hubs. With $2 billion in funding for Fiscal Years 2023 through 2027, the Microelectronics Commons program aims to leverage these hubs to accelerate domestic hardware prototyping and "lab-to-fab" transition of semiconductor technologies. The hope is this will help mitigate supply chain risks and ultimately expedite access to the most cutting-edge microchips for U.S. troops. The eight awardees are:   1. Northeast Microelectronics Coalition (NEMC) Hub Awardee (Hub Lead): The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MassTech) Hub Lead State: Massachusetts FY23 Award:  $19.7 M 90 Hub Members   2. Silicon Crossroads Microelectronics Commons (SCMC) Hub Awardee: The Applied Research Institute (ARI) Hub Lead State: Indiana FY23 Award:  $32.9 M 130 Hub Members   3. California Defense Ready…

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) recently announced the 11 recipients of the 2023 STEM Talent Challenge. The challenge supports programs to train science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) talent and fuel regional innovation economies across the nation. The $4.5 million competition provides up to $500,000 in funding for programs that complement their region’s innovation economy, create pathways to good-paying STEM careers, and build talent pipelines for businesses to fill in-demand jobs in emerging and transformative sectors. The 11 awardees, selected from a pool of 90 applicants, will leverage an additional $4.7 million in matching funds from a variety of private and public sector sources. The grantees’ projects support work-and-learn programs to increase America’s STEM-capable workforce in sectors such as aerospace, biomanufacturing, cybersecurity, data science, geospatial, artificial intelligence, information technology, and advanced manufacturing. The STEM Talent Challenge grant recipients are: Austin Community College District (Austin, Texas Project: STARS Training Program (Semiconductor…

Those who gather data know that the results collected in 2020 during pandemic shutdowns do not reveal actual trends. This phenomenon was the case for a recent survey by Babson College researchers for the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Adult Population Survey (GEM APS). They found that rates of entrepreneurship, which had been on the rise since 2015, dropped in 2020. However, their newest research shows an upward trend in 2021 and 2022, when the U.S. had the highest levels of entrepreneurial activity since their first survey in 1999. In 2022, 19% of working-age adults were in the process of running a business or were running a company less than 42 months old. The current U.S. survey found such trends a rise in manufacturing and logistics companies since the pandemic, an increasing focus among entrepreneurs on their businesses' social and environmental impacts, and a rising rate of companies bringing innovative new products to market. The rise of manufacturing and logistics since the pandemic A supply chain survey from Capgemini published in 2020 found that 65% of companies in the U.S. saw a need to shift their supply chain strategies after the pandemic…

Commerce Secretary Gina M. Raimondo testified Tuesday to the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology on the implementation of the CHIPS and Science Act. During the hearing, Raimondo spoke about the importance of the Regional Innovation and Technology Hubs and CHIPS manufacturing programs for national and economic security and emphasized the need for additional funding to make Congress’s vision for these programs successful. The focus of the hearing was the Department of Commerce’s implementation of incentives for semiconductor and related manufacturing, but a wide range of topics was covered. Committee members asked Secretary Raimondo to comment on skilled workforce, national security, reliance on other nations, and guardrails on funding, among other issues. The Tech Hubs program, mentioned by over a half-dozen committee members, also received significant attention. Some questions, like those of committee members Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) and Claudia Tenney (R-NY), prompted Raimondo to mention the need to appropriate more money for the program. Raimondo stated, “The reality is, we just need more money for these Tech Hubs” and that “all of the ones that are…

Less than half of one percent of Americans attend Ivy-Plus colleges, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). Yet these twelve colleges account for more than 10% of Fortune 500 CEOs, a quarter of U.S. Senators, half of all Rhodes scholars, and three-fourths of Supreme Court justices appointed in the last half-century. With the above information in mind, Raj Chetty, David J. Deming, and John N. Friedman concluded from their research for NBER that the eight Ivy League colleges plus Chicago, Duke, MIT, and Stanford could diversify the socioeconomic backgrounds of America’s leaders by changing pieces of their admissions practices. They shared their conclusions in a July 2023 study that found that highly selective private colleges currently amplify the persistence of privilege across generations. The authors strove to answer these main questions throughout their study: Do highly selective private colleges amplify the persistence of privilege across generations by taking students from high-income families and helping them obtain high-status, high-paying leadership positions? Conversely, to what extent could such colleges diversify the…