SSTI Digest

As of Thursday morning, party control of both chambers of Congress is undetermined, as final outcomes remain unknown for 44 House seats and three Senate seats (per the AP). Chamber control may drive the size of the next few federal budgets — affecting opportunities for additional science and innovation funding — and determines who will be chair versus ranking member of committees. Regardless of the electoral outcomes, however, many of the relevant leaders will be unknown until committee assignments occur next year. At a minimum: the Senate appropriations committee will replace the Democratic and Republican leaders; the Senate commerce and small business committees will see new Republican leaders; the House science committee will have a new Democratic leader; and, the House small business committee will have a new Republican leader. SSTI will post updates as those results are available.

Voters across the country faced a number of ballot measures in Tuesday’s election that could in turn affect the innovation economy in their states. Bond issues affecting higher education were approved in New Mexico and Rhode Island, while the vote is still being counted in Arizona, which considered a measure that would allow more aid for non-citizens of the state pursuing higher education. Massachusetts voters narrowly passed the millionaires tax on the ballot there, with education and transportation reaping the increase in revenues, while California voters turned down a similar tax that would have benefitted zero-emission vehicle subsidies and wildfire suppression. The environment was a winner in a New York $4.2 billion bond proposal as was broadband expansion in Alabama. Several states considered changes to the rules affecting their legislators, elections and ballot initiatives with mixed results.   Read more below for a breakdown of results on ballot initiatives that could affect states’ innovation economies. With 70% of the vote counted in Arizona as of this writing, Proposition 308, relating to the classification of students for tuition purposes and…

Thirty-six states held gubernatorial contests in Tuesday’s (Nov. 8) mid-term elections. By the end of the night and as of this writing Thursday morning, winners in 32 states had been chosen, with votes still being tallied in Alaska, Arizona, Nevada, and Oregon. Voters in 27 states re-elected the incumbent; while in eight states (Arizona, Arkansas, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, and Oregon), voters chose a new governor to replace a term-limited incumbent. In two states, Connecticut and Georgia, the incumbent governor successfully faced a re-match with their 2018 opponents; while in Alaska and Maine, the incumbent faced and defeated his/her predecessor. Meanwhile, until this election, voters in Michigan and Wisconsin have not elected a governor of the same party as the sitting president since 1990; and in Kansas and New Mexico, voters have not done so since 1968 and 1986, respectively. In five states — Alabama, Arizona, Iowa, Michigan, and Oregon ­— women incumbent governors and/or opposing candidates competed to either retain or gain the executive seat. Three states (Arkansas, Massachusetts, and New York) have elected their first female…

In an effort to alleviate the nationwide shortage of semiconductors, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) announced two cross-sector partnerships, one with Intel Corp. and the other partnership with Micron Technology, Inc. NSF plans to invest $10 million in combination with the companies from each partnership in support of research, education, infrastructure building, and workforce development for semiconductor design and manufacturing. The Intel announcement is one part of a previously announced 10-year collaboration between NSF and Intel that will, over time, invest $100 million to address semiconductor design and manufacturing challenges and workforce shortages around the country. NSF and Micron will each invest $5 million to fund rigorous and engaging instructional material, teacher professional development, and experiential opportunities for students to improve education at higher education institutions, whether it be a two-year college or four-year university, including minority serving institutions. Awards made through this partnership are meant to expand the US’s production capacity in semiconductors, which has been complicated by the…

With 133 ballot measures before voters on Nov. 8, a gamut of topics will be decided. Those outlined below are the measure that could affect the innovation economy, ranging from initiatives that would affect higher education, to broadband expansion and measures intended to boost state economies. Arizona Proposition 308 is asking voters if non-citizens, including Arizona Dreamers, should receive in-state college tuition. The state used to offer undocumented students in-state tuition, but in 2006 voters passed an initiative that prohibited it. Currently, at least 19 states have provisions allowing in-state tuition rates for undocumented students. Bond Question 3 in New Mexico would issue $215,986,000 in bonds for public higher education institutions, special public schools and tribal schools. And Question 1, a bond issue in Rhode Island, would issue $100 million in bonds for the University of Rhode Island Narragansett Bay Campus marine discipline educations and research needs. Two states are considering what has been dubbed a millionaires tax, but for different purposes. Massachusetts’ Question 1 would create a 4% tax on incomes that exceed $1 million with…

The National Science Foundation recently announced the four 2022 NSF INCLUDES awardees. These new alliances will each receive $10 million over five years to contribute to building an inclusive STEM workforce. The awardees will tackle issues like increasing data science capacity at minority-serving institutions (MSIs), increasing the representation of Native American and Alaska Native students in STEM fields, and supporting equitable pathways to postdoctoral fellowship positions. The 2022 NSF INCLUDES Alliances are: NSF INCLUDES National Data Science Alliance - Clark Atlanta University NSF INCLUDES Alliance Supporting Pacific Impact through Computational Excellence - Chaminade University of Honolulu and the University of Texas at Austin NSF INCLUDES Re-Imagining STEM Equity Utilizing Postdoctoral Pathways Alliance - University of Maryland, Baltimore County NSF INCLUDES Cultivating Indigenous Research Communities for Leadership in Education and STEM Alliance - University of Montana The NSF INCLUDES Alliance awards are part of NSF’s commitment to building a more equitable, diverse, and inclusive STEM workforce in the U.S. Learn more about the…

The 2022 National Defense Strategy, released last week, emphasizes the need to accelerate the Pentagon’s capacity for buying and deploying emerging technologies. Technology sectors called out as targets include advanced materials, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, clean energy, directed energy, hypersonics, microelectronics, quantum science and space. The report indicates that the Department of Defense (DOD) is considering R&D funding, ecosystem support and adapting civilian technologies among the tools it will use to pursue emerging tech. Other technology-related priorities discussed in the report include: Bolstering support for research institutions, including those based at universities and federally-funded R&D centers; Expanding DOD’s tech workforce (particularly in cybersecurity, data science and AI), including by working with universities and community colleges to address hiring and education gaps; and, The National Nuclear Security Administration will establish a new science and technology innovation initiative to incorporate innovations into weapon design and processing more rapidly. Unfortunately, the report does not include many…

Thirty-six states are holding gubernatorial elections this November, with voters in eight of those states (Arizona, Arkansas, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, and Oregon), choosing a new governor to replace a term-limited incumbent. In two states, Connecticut and Georgia, the incumbent is facing a re-match with their 2018 opponent, while in Alaska and Maine, the incumbent is being challenged by his/her predecessor, whom they defeated in 2018. Florida Gov. Ron De Santis is being challenged by former Gov. Charlie Crist, who previously switched his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat. In five states — Alabama, Arizona, Iowa, Michigan, and Oregon ­— women incumbent governors and opposing candidates are competing to either retain or gain the executive seat. Many of the candidates have announced their innovation and economic development initiatives, and as we enter the final stretch of these gubernatorial races, the following are some of the candidates’ innovation-, economic- or workforce-related policies, positions and prior accomplishments. Alaska Bill Walker (I) Bill Walker served as Alaska’s 11th governor (2014-…

The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently announced a new initiative — the Experiential Learning for Emerging and Novel Technologies (ExLENT) initiative and seeks proposals to address barriers in the STEM workforce by encouraging partnerships among industry, educational, and government organizations. The program estimates giving out 25 to 35 ExLENT awards that will last up to three years with a total budget of up to $1,000,000, with a total anticipated funding amount of $30 million. This initiative is part of a larger effort to expand the STEM workforce needed to solve significant societal challenges like climate change and clean energy and address rapidly evolving emerging technologies. ExLENT will allow the Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR) and the newly established Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP) to support experiential learning opportunities for individuals from diverse professional and educational backgrounds to increase access to careers in emerging technology fields (e.g., advanced manufacturing, advanced wireless, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, quantum information science, semiconductors, and…

In a recent study titled Does NIH select the right healthcare ventures through the SBIR grant program?, researchers from Rutgers University and the University of Connecticut took advantage of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to conduct a natural experiment. The opportunity was available due to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) decision to use ARRA dollars to fund additional Phase I SBIR awards from general SBIR competitions, and the researchers compared these 19 ARRA-funded awards to the other 479 Phase I awards that were first funded in the same competitions with regular appropriations.

Higher education enrollment dropped 1.1% between fall 2021 and 2022, a slight reprieve from historic COVID-induced drop-offs, as revealed by new preliminary data from the National Student Clearinghouse. Since fall 2020, enrollment has decreased by a combined 3.2% for graduate and undergraduate enrollment, representing a drop of approximately 1.5 million students since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Between fall 2021 and 2022, undergraduate enrollment declined in 27 of the 42 states where sufficient data are available, with Alaska (-5.2%), Kansas (-4.6%), and Michigan (-4.6%) losing the most undergraduate students while New Hampshire (+6.8%), New Mexico (+4.3%), and South Carolina (+3.7%) gained the most. Between fall 2020 and fall 2022, undergraduate enrollment fell by over 5% in 14 of the 42 states with sufficient data (Alaska, Arkansas, California, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Wisconsin), with Alaska losing the most (-15%) followed by Missouri (-9%). New Hampshire’s undergraduate enrollment rose the most with the state showing 12.6% increase over the two-year period,…

Despite COVID-induced setbacks continuing to keep some people out of offices and laboratories, new Business Enterprise Research and Development Survey (BERD) data reveals that domestic research and development (R&D) spending, although slowing, is still on an uptrend. From 2018 to 2019, business R&D spending increased by 11.8% (from approximately $441 billion to $492 billion), with new data showing a further increase of 9.1% from 2019 to 2020 ($492 billion to $538 billion). The $538 billion in total R&D expenditures for 2020 can be broken down into two main categories: company funded R&D (approximately $466 billion) and R&D funded via other sources (approximately $71 billion). Company funded R&D saw an increase of 8.7% over the prior year, while funding from other sources leapt 11.7%. The nearly 12% leap in non-company funded R&D can be explained in part through governmental responses to COVID-19, with a nearly 400% increase in “Pharmaceuticals and medicines” R&D activity paid for by the federal government ($269 million to over $1 billion), with its share of total R&D paid for by the federal government increasing from…