SSTI Digest

Pennsylvania is losing ground in expanding manufacturing opportunities in the state, according to the Pennsylvania Manufacturing Advisory Council, which has issued a playbook to help build the sector’s competitiveness and highlights recommendations for the state to increase its manufacturing opportunities.  Calling the manufacturing sector “critical to Pennsylvania’s economic growth and essential to the economic success of its citizens,” the playbook offers three “game changers” along with additional recommendations including aggressively pursuing manufacturing growth sectors to drive prosperity and investing in the factory of the future.   The Pennsylvania Manufacturing Advisory Council was launched in July 2021 with support from Pennsylvania’s Department of Community and Economic Development to facilitate and energize the attention for manufacturing. The Council seeks to provide a stronger, more unified state-level voice for manufacturers – to tell the story of what Pennsylvania manufacturing is and what it can be. The playbook draws on input from more than 500 manufacturers and is available for download here. 

A recent announcement from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) included major updates requiring open access to federally funded research. The new guidance will require federal agencies to ensure that all taxpayer-funded research is immediately available to the public, disallowing the previous optional 12-month embargos. According to a memo released to federal departments and agencies, these agencies have until December 21, 2025, to implement the new open access guidelines completely. In the short term, OSTP intends to help agencies update public access and data sharing plans by mid- 2023. This extended timeline allows relevant stakeholders time to develop and implement these new open access policies effectively. This policy update marks a big win for supporters of open access policies, who were not satisfied with the previous open access policies announced by the Obama administration in 2013. The 2013 memorandum only required open access for federal agencies that received over $100 million in extramural research. The recent updates remove the funding cap and ensure that nearly all agencies conducting federally funded research are…

The recently-passed CHIPS and Science Act included $54.2 billion in appropriations, largely for semiconductor manufacturing incentives ($39 billion) and R&D ($11 billion). The administration is releasing information about its planned distribution of funds. Recent resources include: a strategic plan from the U.S. Department of Commerce, the agency administering the bulk of the funding; a research recommendations report from the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST); and, a new CHIPS.gov website from Commerce. Commerce’s strategic plan for CHIPS – Semiconductor manufacturing incentives A Strategy for the CHIPS for American Fund largely serves as a clear-language guide to the statutory authorities and requirements that will guide Commerce’s distribution of the manufacturing and R&D funds, as well as some additional information about implementation plans. This includes mandates found not only in the CHIPS and Science Act but also in the FY 2021 defense authorization act that originally approved many of the CHIPS programs. As such, the plan is a useful document for any entity interested in seeking funds from any of the…

The recently approved Inflation Reduction Act with new incentives for electric vehicle ownership and energy efficiency is likely to continue a trend among states for the location of major economic development projects, a trend toward everything mega—megasites, megadeals, mega factories, and mega projects. These large-scale manufacturing projects typically feature incentives from state and local governments, such as access to shovel-ready megasites or large tax incentive packages. These new "mega" trends have raised the stakes and increased competition between states as they advocate for the bid of electric vehicle and battery companies looking to expand. The most recent announcement came as Panasonic Corporation committed to building a new $4 billion factory for electric vehicle batteries in Kansas, planning to create over 4,000 jobs. The Panasonic deal featured an $892 million incentive package with payroll rebates, investment tax credits, funds to cover training and education costs, and sales tax exemptions for construction. Kansas was not the only state vying for the Panasonic plant — Oklahoma was planning to offer a $698 million incentive package to draw the company…

Five additional state plans for the State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) have received approval from the U.S. Department of Treasury, bringing the current total of announced states to 19. Over the past month, Treasury announcedthat plans in Colorado, Montana, New York, North Carolina and Oregon were approved. Some details on the plans are outlined below. Colorado has been approved for $104.7 million, which will fund three state programs. The Colorado Venture Capital Authority has been allocated almost $60 million to invest in two venture capital funds per year for three years in order to assist small businesses in need of investment capital. Separately, $35 million will fund Cash Collateral Support, a collateral support program that will assist small businesses and non-profit organizations in securing credit. Finally, $10 million will fund CLIMBER Loan Fund, which will provide working capital loans to help small businesses recover from the pandemic.  Montana has been approved for $61.3 million to fund the MT SSBCI 2.0 Loan Participation Program, which aims to increase the number of eligible CDFI and non…

A group of seven researchers analyzed upwards of one million National Science Foundation (NSF) proposals over a 23-year period (1996-2019) and found patterns of racialized disparities where white principal investigators (PIs) were consistently funded at higher rates (8+ percent) than most non-white PIs. The preprint study (not peer reviewed) states that similar patterns can be observed in other agencies and are consistent with other past studies as well. The question of whether systemic racism is at play in the NSF peer review and award selection process is even more pronounced when one considers more specific demographics such as Black and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander PIs. The study found that the relative funding rates for white scientists from 1999 to 2019 were greater than 8 percent higher than the average, while those for Black, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islanders, or Asian scientists could be found approximately 8, 11, and 21 percent below the average respectively. Over the 21-year period, white PIs experienced a substantial downward trend in their proportional share of all proposals (approximately 78 percent to 50 percent) and awards (…

A new $73.5 million grant opportunity using funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is aimed at growing and supporting the development of new economic opportunities across multiple states in Appalachia. The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) launched the Appalachian Regional Initiative for Stronger Economies (ARISE) on Aug. 23 to drive large-scale, regional economic transformation through multi-state collaborative projects across the region. ARC has published a request for proposals, which makes available at least $10 million in FY 2022 funding for planning grants with a maximum award size of $500,000, and up to $63.5 million for implementation grants with a $10 million maximum award size. ARC has released a toolkit to help guide potential applicants in considering their multistate proposals and will hold a pre-application workshop on Sept. 12. In addition to being multi-state collaborations, proposals must address at least one of ARC’s five strategic investment priorities outlined in its strategic plan, which are: Building Appalachian businesses, diversifying the region’s economy through inclusive economic development strategies and investments in…

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced four new Engineering Research Centers (ERCs) that will focus on agriculture, health, manufacturing and smart cities. The research centers will receive $104 million over five years and will be aimed at finding more sustainable solutions to food production, autonomous manufacturing systems, human health and the built environment, and hyperlocal street technology. The four research centers are:  NSF Engineering Research Center for Advancing Sustainable and Distributed Fertilizer Production, which involves five partners: Texas Tech University (lead), Case Western Reserve University, Florida A&M University, Georgia Tech and MIT.  NSF Engineering Research Center for Hybrid Autonomous Manufacturing Moving, which involves four partners: The Ohio State University (lead), Case Western Reserve University, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Northwestern University and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.  NSF Engineering Research Center for Precision Microbiome Engineering, which involves five partners: Duke University (lead), North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State…

Jurisdictions that were early EPSCoR participants benefitted more from the program with higher project approval rates, but whether program goals are being met is unclear, according to a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report examining National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). The GAO report and another from the subcommittee on the Future of EPSCoR looked at the effectiveness of the program and made recommendations for improvement. NSF established the EPSCoR program in 1979 to help states and territories compete for federal research funding. A jurisdiction is eligible to participate if their most recent five-year level of total NSF funding is equal to or less than 0.75 percent of the total NSF budget (excluding EPSCoR funding and NSF funding to other federal agencies). Currently 28 states and territories participate. In addition to improving the research capability, the program aims toestablish professional development pathways in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM); broaden participation of diverse groups and institutions in STEM; and impact …

The federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs, providing nearly $4 billion in technology research and development funding, expire — in just six weeks — on Sept. 30. Unlike many federal programs that regularly operate beyond the end of their authorization, there is no direct SBIR appropriation that will ensure the program continues as-is without congressional action. Instead, SBIR would be on an agency-by-agency basis. The Department of Defense already announced it “cannot continue funding new or ongoing” projects without reauthorization, and the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC) has warned that even the agencies that carry on may have challenges with SBIR data rights (a non-disclosure obligation on the federal government for certain information developed under an SBIR/STTR award) and post-award (i.e., Phase III) purchases of SBIR-developed technologies by federal agencies. To date, the House has included SBIR/STTR reauthorization in two bills: the COMPETES Act and its annual defense authorization. Unfortunately, the COMPETES bill is not likely to advance, as it largely overlapped…

President Joe Biden has signed the Inflation Reduction Act, a $740-billion bill that largely focuses on clean energy and climate resiliency, deficit reduction and health care, funded through tax changes. Unlike the initial proposals for a reconciliation spending package, this legislation provides little spending that will directly affect tech-based economic development strategies, although its climate provisions will spur significant growth opportunities for cleantech. There are multiple provisions and opportunities included in the act that are important for regions to understand. 1. Doubling small business R&D credit against payroll tax For tax years 2023 and beyond, qualified small businesses are now allowed to apply up to $500,000 of their credit for qualifying research expenses to their payroll tax liability. This doubles the current limit of $250,000. 2. Inducing clean and efficient tech demand and production The majority of the bill’s energy- and climate-related funding, which totals approximately $369 billion, is focused on encouraging adoption of more efficient technologies across residential, transportation, manufacturing and other…

A new open topic approach used by the U.S. Air Force in issuing Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) awards coincided with an overall increase in the agency’s SBIR/STTR participation figures and proposal processing times, according to a recent federal analysis. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that using open topics for soliciting Phase I proposals, which the Air Force implemented in 2018, has largely displaced the agency’s conventional process of offering very specific research topics. The open approach was found to be more effective in attracting new companies to federal contracting and issuing awards quickly. GAO found nearly 43 percent of the 1,001 open topics awardees had no prior federal contract experience compared to only 14 percent of the 771 conventional awardees being new to federal procurement. Additionally, GAO reports that an April 2021 study found that after receiving an open topic award these awardees were more likely to obtain further funding from other sources.  Accompanying the open topic approach was a move to halving the Phase I award research period to three…