SSTI Digest

The White House Fiscal Year 2026 discretionary budget proposal outlines a significant shift in federal spending priorities, proposing substantial reductions in innovation and non-defense discretionary funding, which, if enacted by Congress, would impact scientific research and regional economic development support across numerous federal agencies.  The initial release of the White House's FY2026 budget proposal is characterized as a "skinny budget," indicating that it provides a high-level overview of the administration's discretionary spending priorities without the detailed line-item specifics contained in a full budget request. The proposal aims for a $163 billion cut in non-defense discretionary funding, a 22.6% reduction from the previous fiscal year.  Regional Innovation supportWithin the Department of Commerce (DOC), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) would see a reduction of $325 million. The administration has already signaled its intention to eliminate the Manufacturing Extension Partnership program, which has provided technical…

The United States faces intense competition in global markets for advanced technology industries. The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) article, "The State Hamilton Index: Most states underperform in advanced industries" by Meghan Ostertag reveals a concerning trend regarding the geographic distribution and overall strength of advanced industries within the U.S. The 2025 State Hamilton Index indicates that most U.S. states lag behind both the global average and China in their concentration of employment in advanced industries deemed crucial for economic growth and national security. Only four states don’t lag across multiple sectors, and only one beats China.  ITIF warns of the systematic challenge with the U.S. underperforming the world average in employment concentration in the Hamilton Index industries. The industries are  information technology (IT) and information services, including software and internet services; computer, electronic, and optical products…

The SSTI Board of Trustees has appointed Kristy Campbell, president & chief operations officer at Rev1 Ventures, and John Fernandez, chief executive officer at The Mill, as members of the board.  “I look forward to working with Kristy and John as new board members,” Dan Berglund, SSTI’s president, said with their appointments. “Both are proven, inspiring leaders, have been long time friends of SSTI, and demonstrated strong commitments to advancing the TBED community.”

SSTI has recently expanded its staff to include Aaron Hagar as their vice president for innovation finance. Hagar brings over twenty years of experience spanning biomedical research, heath care, public policy, and technology-based economic development to share with SSTI's members. He has significant experience building partnerships, creating innovative solutions, shaping public policy, and developing data-driven strategies. “I’m excited to have Aaron join the SSTI team,” CEO Mark Skinner said. “SSTI will be in a much stronger position to serve the needs of the nation’s community of non-profit venture development organizations, SSBCI venture programs, and innovation finance initiatives. Aaron brings a rich depth of knowledge of publicly supported finance programs, fresh energy and creativity, and a tremendous understanding the public-private collaboration required to achieve financial and economic development returns simultaneously. For the past thirteen years, Hagar has worked at the state level to support entrepreneurs and startups in Wisconsin. Most recently, he served for over eight years as vice president of…

America's Seed Fund returns to the J.W. Marriott in Austin, Texas, for the SBIR/STTR Spring Innovation Conference from June 9 -11.  SSTI Weekly Digest readers may use these discount codes to reduce their cost for attending: Full SBIR/STTR Program | Register Now Use code 25SBIR20 for a 20% discount when you select the "SBIR/STTR Program Only" registration option. This includes the Keynote Session, SBIR/STTR panel sessions, and access to the SBIR Pavilion in the Expo Hall. Free Access to the Expo Hall Only | Register Now Use code 25SBIREXPO at checkout when you select the "TechConnect Expo Floor Only" registration option. This includes the Keynote Session and access to the SBIR Pavilion in the Expo Hall. Registrants will directly access SBIR agency representatives in the SBIR Pavilion and Expo Hall. The Expo Hall also features over 100 organizations and companies, providing a space to connect with innovators, technology scouts, investors, and federal agency representatives.

The AI market is projected to reach $4.8 trillion by 2023—a 25x increase in just 10 years, according to the UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) 2025 Technology and Innovation report. The technology will be leap-frogging other “frontier tech markets,” including the Internet of Things, which currently dominates 36% of the market for emerging platform technologies. The super-charged AI market will impact up to 40% of global jobs, both positively and negatively. How this growth will affect jobs in different countries and how the effects could be directed to increase fairness globally is of great concern to UNCTAD and the focus of the new report. UNCTAD asserts that up to one-third of jobs in nations with advanced economies are at risk because of efficiency gains resulting from AI automation. "Workforces in advanced economies are at greater risk since more of their jobs involve cognitive tasks,” said the report authors, but added, “However, these economies are also better positioned than emerging and low-income economies to capitalize on the benefits of AI.” In contrast, 24% of jobs in nations with emerging economies and 18% of jobs in low-income economies are at risk as…

SSTI’s recent webinar for its EDA-funded TBED Community of Practice work explored the emerging trend of creating centralized tech transfer offices (TTOs) serving multiple institutions. Centralized approaches are intended to more efficiently help develop and commercialize inventions from smaller or regional colleges and universities. Panelists Kayla Meisner of Kentucky Commercialization Ventures (KCV), Charles Layne of LaunchTN, and Carlos Baez from the Puerto Rico Science, Technology, and Research Trust highlighted the value centralized models bring to regions and the national landscape.  Panelists discussed the key advantages of centralized TTOs in their regions, including efficiency, economies of scale, cost-effectiveness, and enhanced service quality. They emphasized the ability to identify, evaluate, and support innovations, manage intellectual property, and negotiate licensing for institutions with limited research budgets and little experience in tech transfer. As with TTOs at the larger, better resourced R1 institutions, impacts are measured through key performance indicators such as invention disclosures, patents filed, licenses signed, and startups…

May 20, 2025, at 2:00 p.m. ET | Zoom  This webinar will explore how organizations can develop meaningful industry partnerships that drive tech-based economic development. The Central Indiana Corporate Partnership (CICP) will share its approach to creating compelling value propositions for potential partners and converting these initial connections into lasting, mutually beneficial collaborations. Their AI initiative, AnalytiXIN, will serve as a case study, demonstrating the methods and principles that have made their industry engagement efforts successful. Speakers: - Nathan Ringham, Vice President, Research and Insights (CICP) - Darshan Shah, Executive Vice President, Data and AnalytiXIN (CICP) Register for this webinar here.

Most countries have dramatically increased their investments in R&D over the past two decades, with OECD nation spending reaching a record high nearly $1,600 of gross domestic expenditure on R&D (GERD) per person in 2023 (PPP[1] converted), approximately triple the value recorded in 2000. Although the U.S. has an extremely strong R&D output, relatively smaller economies, like Israel and South Korea, lead when expenditures are standardized for better comparison across nations. This edition of Useful Stats uses internationally comparable figures from the OECD’s Main Science and Technology Indicator (MSTI) database to benchmark R&D performance across OECD nations in both per person PPP-adjusted dollars and as a share of gross domestic product (GDP). Examining the data in this manner provides potential context for understanding the priority countries set for becoming more research-intensive and, perhaps, more innovation-centered in future economic growth. Refer to the OECD’s website here for notes on the data and metric definitions. International overview of GERD In 2023, of the OECD nations with available data, Israel had the largest GERD value…

A recently published InfoChart from the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) presents an annotated walk through federal R&D obligations from FY 1951 through 2024, explaining key events influencing key moments in the surges and downswings along the nation’s path to supporting discovery, research, development and innovation. The data is presented in constant 2017 dollars.  Over SSTI’s 30-year history, it has seen federal R&D trends greatly influence state, university and regional innovation policy and investment priorities. Shifts in federal spending ripple through local economies, research‑intensive firms, workforce development, and public infrastructure investments. Understanding those factors influencing federal investment can be a useful guide for designing future regional innovation policy and financial commitments.  

One of the top perennial concerns of America’s manufacturing and business communities relates to the workforce. The main issues may vary year to year; examples include too few workers available, skill mismatch, poor work habits or preparedness because of non-work issues such as basic education attainment, drug use, prison records or lack of work ethic. Among factors complicating workforce development responses are the diverse and disparate skill needs across the spectrum of occupations and sectors, the rapid advancement of technological innovation, and the array of private and public skill development and training efforts.  As a result, federal involvement in workforce development has crept into many programs and funding priorities where, traditionally, skill development and training did not reside. That might all be changing with the executive order President Trump signed on Wednesday, April 23 2025. The president is requiring the secretaries of Labor, Commerce and Education to submit a report by the end of July that will identify:  Opportunities to integrate systems and realign resources to focus on “critical workforce needs and in-demand skills…

The U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) recently released a report on the State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) program with data through December 31, 2024. As of the end of 2024, Treasury has disbursed nearly $4 billion of the $10 billion set aside for the program in the 2021 American Rescue Plan of Act.  In terms of the three-tranche, formula-based allocation structure of the SSBCI program, the report documents the first disbursement to 130 jurisdictions, the second for 20, and the third, or final, tranche for six. Within this article, SSTI provides two data visualizations to graphically compare states and their progress with accessing SSBCI funds.  The graphics below include data for only the 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, and not Tribal governments. Figure 1 includes a stacked column for each state, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, showcasing a breakdown of each’s total allocation (deployed, disbursed but not deployed, and neither disbursed nor deployed). The data in this figure was calculated by SSTI using Figure 5 from Treasury’s new Quarterly Report.  Figure 1: SSBCI metrics (%) for…