SSTI Digest

With the end of the current fiscal year just three months away, the House Committee on Appropriations is set to finish marking up all of its FY 2023 funding bills by the end of this week. Similar to last year. the committee’s actions come before Congress has agreed to an overall spending level. Due to the potential for substantial changes when the final FY 2023 budget is passed, this article only covers specific funding levels that are a high priority for the tech-based economic development (TBED) field. Economic Development Administration (EDA) Build to Scale: $50 million (+$5 million from FY 2022) STEM Apprenticeship Program: $4.5 million (+$2.5 million) National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP): $221 million (+$54 million) Manufacturing USA Institutes: $18 million (+$1.5 million) Small Business Administration (SBA) Federal and State Technology Partnership (FAST): $8 million (+$2 million) Growth Accelerators Fund Competition: $5 million (+$2 million) Regional Innovation Clusters: $10 million (+$2 million) Department of Energy ARPA-E: $550 million (+$100 million)…

A new report from the U.S. Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund shares performance data from federally certified CDFIs for FY 2020. Just five of the CDFIs covered in the data are certified as venture funds — a sharp decline from the 14 that were included in the FY 2019 report. However, FY 2020 saw 119 transactions listed as equity investments, an increase from 90 in the prior year. The decline in certified venture capital CDFIs from the prior year likely indicates a drop-off in the number of venture fund CDFIs that received technical or financial assistance funding from the CDFI Fund. The CDFI Fund’s financial assistance awards are one of the federal government’s few sources of capital that can be used for equity investment, so this low participation may be a missed opportunity for regional tech-based economic development strategies. The CDFI Fund report poses a few challenges to fully understanding the role of equity investment activity among CDFIs. Most importantly, many more certified CDFIs are active in the field during any given year than the number that have active federal funding awards, as CDFIs are not required to compete for CDFI…

Total R&D in the U.S. grew from $666.9 billion in 2019 to an estimated $708 billion in 2020, according to recent data from the National Science Foundation’s National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) examination of R&D performance in the United States over the past two decades. These findings follow additional trends in the report demonstrating the expanding R&D occurring in the U.S. Additional metrics explored in the NCSES data are national R&D intensity, R&D to GDP ratio, and R&D by performer, source, and type. The report found that R&D intensity has been steadily growing by an average of 3.8 percent annually from 2010 to 2019, a significant increase from the previous decade, where the average annual growth rate was 2.1 percent. The R&D to GDP ratio was 3.12 percent in 2019 and is estimated to be about 3.39 percent in 2020. A ratio above 3.0 percent is recognized by R&D policy analysts as a high achievement. Analysis of R&D performers in the U.S. found that the business sector continues to be the most significant R&D performer in the nation. In 2019, industry accounted for 75 percent of domestic R…

Although Americans perceptions on the economy dipped late last year, their financial well-being increased and hit its highest level since 2013, when the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System survey began. The results of the latest wide-ranging survey, reported in the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2021, also revealed the share of prime-age adults not working because they could not find work had returned to pre-pandemic levels; more adults would be able to cover a $400 emergency expense should one arise than at any point in the survey history; and, 15 percent of workers said they switched jobs in the previous year, with 60 percent of those reporting that the new job was better overall. The number of student loan borrowers who are behind on their payments declined compared to prior to the pandemic and self-reported financial well-being rose strongly with education. The Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (SHED) was fielded from Oct. 29 through Nov. 22, 2021, and included new questions on consumer experiences with emerging products such as cryptocurrencies and “Buy Now Pay Later” products. It found that while most adults did not use…

Chicago has seen 18 percent growth in its technology ecosystem (i.e. technology occupations in technology industries, non-technology occupations in technology industries, and technology occupations in non-technology industries) in the last decade compared to a 1 percent growth in the overall economy, according to the Chicago Tech Effect report from Chicagoland Chamber of Congress and HR&A Advisors. The report might serve as a model for other areas examining the importance of technology in their region’s economy. Chicago’s tech ecosystem employs over 8 percent of the city’s workforce and accounted for 87 percent of new jobs in the area within the last decade, according to the report. “Chicago is fueling upward mobility and greater economic equality,” according to the report, with the median wage in the tech ecosystem 1.5 times higher than the median wage for the overall economy. Further, about 50 percent of tech jobs in Chicago are considered nontraditional (i.e. non-technology occupations in technology industries), which allows a greater number of individuals to participate in the field.   The city has also seen a higher percentage of Black and Latino…

President Biden announced his intent to nominate Arati Prabhakar to serve as the next director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and once confirmed she would also become his chief science advisor. The nomination earned praise from members of Congress, scientists, R&D advocates, and former OSTP directors of both Democratic and Republic administrations. The nomination is historic with Prabhakar being the first woman, immigrant, or person of color nominated to serve as Senate-confirmed director of OSTP. She previously led the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) from 1993 to 1997, starting when she was 34 years old and being the first woman to hold that position. She also served as director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) from 2012 to 2017. Prabhakar has worked with startups, large companies, universities, government labs, and nonprofits across a wide variety of sectors and is both an engineer and applied physicist.

The U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) last week announced a new funding opportunity that includes two programs designed to strengthen equitable economic development strategies across the country. One program will add staff resource to local organizations focused on improving economic resilience and competitiveness in distressed regions across the country, while the second will provide technical assistance to enable organizations serving underserved populations and communities to participate in economic development planning and projects. The Economic Recovery Corps program will award one, five-year grant between $20 million and $25 million to a network operator to build, launch and operate an economic development fellowship program in cooperation with EDA. The program would recruit and place at least 50-75 fellows in economic development organizations in underserved communities throughout the nation and will provide information and analysis from across the country to accelerate the adoption of equitable economic development principles. A webinar about the opportunity is being held June 23 at 1:30 p.m. EDT and the deadline to apply is Aug. 5, 2022. …

Manufacturing, healthcare services, information technology, building and construction, and transportation, distribution and logistics are the top five industries by number of applications submitted to the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s Good Jobs Challenge, according to EDA. Grantees for the $500 million program are expected to be announced this summer, with 509 proposals totaling $6.4 billion in requested funds submitted from every state and territory. The initiative is focused on removing barriers to training, particularly for those workers hit hardest by the pandemic, including women and people of color. As part of the American Rescue Plan, the Good Jobs Challenge was designed to expand pathways for more Americans to access good-paying jobs and help local economies recover from the pandemic. With a focus on equity, the challenge was launched to build and strengthen systems and partnerships, bringing together employers who have hiring needs with other key entities to train workers with in-demand skills. EDA reports that the proposals’ “commitment to equity is exemplified through applicants’ who provided clear strategies to recruit high proportions of…

Recently, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) announced its intention to release a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) in collaboration with the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s (EERE) Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office within the year. This FOA, titled “Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs” or “H2Hubs” will outline funding phases to promote the expansion of clean hydrogen energy and aid in the development of at least four clean hydrogen hubs throughout the U.S. Funding for these H2Hubs will primarily come from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, or Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), which was signed by President Biden in November 2021. In the BIL, over $62 billion was allocated to DOE for investments in clean energy innovation and expansion. Among this $62 billion, about $8 billion is specifically appropriated over five years to support expanding the hydrogen economy and building H2Hubs. These hubs are defined by the DOE as a network of clean energy producers, consumers, and relevant infrastructure in a region. The anticipated FOA will also include equity considerations such as environmental…

A recent paper published at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta (FRBA) highlighted that unlike prior recessions where men experienced unemployment at higher rates, COVID-19 had a much greater effect on women. Women constituted nearly 60 percent of net job loss despite making up 47 percent of pre-pandemic employment. Even among women, job loss was not uniform, with women who are also people of color experiencing even greater negative impacts. Sarah Miller, the paper’s author, found that in April 2020, at the onset of COVID-induced unemployment, the unemployment level for all women was 15.1 percent, lower than both Hispanic (19.8 percent) and Black (15.8 percent) women but higher than white women (14.6 percent). This can be attributed to Latinas holding a significantly larger number of jobs displaced by the pandemic, and Black women being less likely to hold jobs with an option to work remotely. According to Miller, a key reason for these trends affecting labor force participation is the need to care for children. Prime-age workers, especially those who are women, saw a disproportionately negative impact on their employment levels during the pandemic, with FRBA…

Canadian provinces are overrepresented in North America’s most competitive states in the innovation economy with Ontario ranked third, British Columbia ranked fourth and Quebec ranked ninth, according to a competitiveness index from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF). Massachusetts, California, Ontario and Maryland were named overall leaders in subnational innovation competitiveness. Accounting for 28 percent of global economic output, North America contains diverse innovation ecosystems and forms one of the largest free trade zones in the world, which makes it a critical subject of study in regards to the innovation economy. The North American Subnational Innovation Competitiveness Index (NASICI) released this week by ITIF ranked North American states overall and used 13 indicators under three categories: knowledge-based workforce, globalization and innovation capacity, in order to rank innovation competitiveness. The ITIF index found that the U.S. falls far behind Canada in terms of workforce education with just 35 percent of the U.S. workforce holding postsecondary education, as compared with 61 percent of the Canadian workforce.…

During the SBIR/STTR Spring Innovation Conference, the U.S. Small Business Administration hosted a keynote session titled, “SBIR at 40 – What’s Next?” Panelists, moderated by SBA’s Erick Page-Littleford, discussed the impact that the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs have had over their 40 years of existence, and what the future may hold. Jason Rittenberg, policy and development director at SSTI, focused on the significance of SBIR/STTR to national and regional innovation economies. In the past 40 years, more than 30,000 companies have received at least one award from the programs, which have provided a total of more than $29 billion in funding in the last decade alone. Studies by the National Academies and others have found that the program has supported tens of billions of dollars in sales of new technologies by awardees — including back to the sponsoring agencies to help the departments advance their missions — and accelerated advances in critical medical treatments. Rittenberg also noted that SBIR/STTR agencies and supporting organizations need to do a better job of reaching underserved entrepreneurs and…