SSTI Digest

This week, the Senate energy committee discussed new funding for the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) implementation of hydrogen research and development projects using funds from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The infrastructure act provides DOE with $8 billion to create four regional clean hydrogen hubs, as well as $1 billion for clean hydrogen electrolysis demonstration projects and $500 million for R&D on the manufacturing processes and recycling methods for clean hydrogen development. During the hearing, witnesses spoke to the importance of innovation for helping to drive down costs while creating economic opportunities, and a DOE representative announced a forthcoming request for information (RFI) on the programs. Sen. Joe Manchin, chairman of the committee, in his opening remarks cited the important role that clean hydrogen can play in decarbonizing many sectors of the economy such as energy and transportation. However, he addressed the costs associated with clean energy, such as production costs that are higher than alternative sources and the large investments necessary from both the public and private sectors. The witness panel covered how…

As total Higher Education Research & Development (HERD) expenditures increased nationally and in most states from 2019 to 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic and global recession, HERD intensity also increased. HERD intensity is an indicator of the relative importance of R&D spending by colleges and universities to regional economies, and is calculated as HERD expenditures as a percentage of total gross domestic product (GDP). This edition of Useful Stats expands on previous SSTI analysis of total HERD expenditures in 2020 (the most recent figures available), specifically examining HERD intensity by state for the five-year period from 2016 to 2020.

To boost inclusive innovation and entrepreneurship in climate technology, the Office of Energy and Renewable Energy (EERE) should provide funding for intermediary organizations who work directly with underrepresented communities to integrate clean energy education activities; and EERE should make it easier to request federal funding by streamlining the application process. Those are the recommendations resulting from EERE’s efforts to broaden access to funding opportunities and enable an inclusive and just entrepreneurial innovation ecosystem in climate and energy technologies. Various stakeholder groups, including environmental justice and community-based organization; incubators and accelerators; tech developers, investors, and funders; state, local, and tribal governments; and, researchers responded to a request for information (RFI) in June to provide these recommendations. The RFI requested information based on themes centered around identifying barriers to applying and receiving funding and methods for increasing awareness of funding opportunities. According to the report, the RFI received 80 responses from over 160 organizations. Many of these responses focused…

Alabama, Minnesota and Pennsylvania governors are proposing new or increased funding for innovation initiatives. Alabama could see a substantial increase in its Alabama Innovation Fund, while Minnesota’s governor is looking to boost the state’s startup ecosystem and Pennsylvania would increase funding for the Ben Franklin Technology Partners, which has worked for more than 30 years to grow the state’s innovation economy. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, in her FY 2023 Executive Budget, recommends $32.4 million for the Alabama Innovation Fund, a $20 million increase over the approved amount in FY 2022. Innovate Alabama and the Alabama Innovation Corporation (both established in 2021) receive funding via the Alabama Innovation Fund. The Innovate Alabama Matching Grant Program would make matching grants of up to $250,000 to businesses and organizations that received SBIR or STTR grants. Last year Ivey signed legislation establishing the Alabama Innovation Corporation, a public-private partnership to serve as a catalyst for the state’s growing innovation economy, along with legislation that created the…

A research team including members from MIT and the Federal Reserve Board assessed the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to determine if the initiative was able to keep businesses from closing and people from becoming unemployed. The authors present the highlight finding, which has been covered in multiple publications, as indicating that only about 23-34 percent of PPP funds went to workers who would have lost their jobs otherwise. This rate of effectiveness implies a cost of $170,000-$257,000 per job-year[1] of employment. The outcome seems surprising, given the program’s requirement that at least 60 percent of funds be spent on payroll. A dive into the results and policy implications bears lessons for future emergency program design. PPP was a platypus of a federal small business financing program. Like SBA’s loan guarantees, businesses accessed the funding through a lender, such as a bank. However, PPP was designed to be forgivable, with requirements more similar to grants or tax incentives than loans. The authors estimate that 94 percent of employer businesses with fewer than 500 employees received at least an initial PPP loan. This breadth is indicative of…

While the overall U.S. venture capital market has drawn headlines for record-breaking total investment levels in 2021, the story has been far different for smaller deals. Data currently suggests a decline in deals under $1 million, and only modest growth for deals under $5 million. The final data may tell a slightly different story,[1] but the level of activity at the smaller end of the spectrum is clearly quite different than what is driving market coverage. Of the $335 billion in angel, seed and venture capital deals PitchBook has identified for 2021, more than 10 percent went to deals of $1 billion or more and almost 60 percent to deals worth at least $100 million. Small investments are important for regional economies to track so that they can understand their pipeline of companies that can fuel innovation and job creation, beyond the handful (in most states) that attract headlines. Understanding the local market for investments under $5 million is also critical for states that are interested in using the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s State Small Business Credit Initiative to support access to capital for new and young technology companies. Treasury’s…

A “fire breathing economic development initiative” is unfolding at Kansas State University, and if it succeeds, it could add 3,000 jobs and $3 billion in new, outside investment to the state in the next 10 years. The new initiative is the university’s Economic Prosperity Plan, approved in December by the Kansas Board of Regents, and is in response to the board’s strategic plan that focused on advancing Kansas families, business and the Kansas economy. Each state university was asked to create an economic prosperity program that would align with job creation and direct investment metrics from the regent’s plan. It was in response to that third pillar of the plan that universities were asked to create an intentional economic prosperity program. Kansas State’s plan was approved by the BOR in December. Calling the initiative a “fire breathing economic development initiative,” Kent Glasscock, president of the Kansas State University Institute for Commercialization, or KSU-IC, said the leadership team behind the plan considered how the university could bring in more money from outside the state and create jobs with it. They considered their strengths, how they could…

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently announced a $1.4 billion investment into rural areas of the U.S. for job training, business development, and technical assistance. These investments are granted through eight different programs to 751 awardees across 49 states, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. USDA estimates that the grants and loans provided by these awards will create or save at least 50,000 jobs in the rural United States. The breakdown of the dollars invested and number of awards by program is as follows: Business and Industry CARES Act Program - $155,450,399 (39 loans) Business and Industry Loan Guarantees - $1,151,281,875 (187 loans) Intermediary Relending Program - $6,250,000 (8 loans) Rural Cooperative Development Grant Program - $5,800,000 (30 grants) Rural Economic Development Loan & Grant Program - $8,443,320 (12 loans) and $1,761,052 (7 grants) Rural Innovation Stronger Economy Grants - $8,510,000 (8 grants) Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program - $2,650,000 (6 loans) and $3,563,299 (64 grants) Value Added Producer Grants - $65,772,660 (390 grants) California received the most awards (37),…

Women in academia are underrepresented in leadership positions at the 130 universities ranked as R1 (the highest level of research activity by the Carnegie Classification), a recent report done by the Eos Foundation’s Women’s Power Gap (WPG) Initiative found. The report found that women make up 55 percent of all PhD earners, but just 22 percent of all the presidents and 10 percent of system presidents of R1 universities as of September 2021. The study also found that 46 percent of the universities in the study had never had a woman leader.   The Women’s Power Gap Initiative focuses on increasing the number of women in CEO and C-suite positions around the country. The WPG research is conducted to outline the power and wage gaps in prominent sectors such as higher education with the intentions of increasing representation and inclusion. Eos Foundation’s report also found that: Women of color comprise only 5 percent of all presidents. Not all deans are treated equally — the study found lower pay for deans in female dominated fields such as nursing, social sciences, and social work. No school has reached gender parity in tenured full professors. …

More than 40 percent of Indiana’s manufacturing companies successfully implemented Industry 4.0 technologies in 2021, more than doubling the number that had reported that a year earlier, according to a recent Conexus Indiana report. The advanced manufacturing and logistics (AML) industries are considered the backbone of Indiana’s economy. Indiana manufacturers account for more than $100 billion of the state’s economy and employ 17 percent of the state’s workforce. The industry is at a crossroads, the report holds — challenged to adopt smart technologies and methods to increase its competitiveness. In 2020, Conexus Indiana and the Indiana University Kelley School of Business Center for Excellence in Manufacturing launched an annual survey to measure Indiana industries’ readiness and early adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies. That study provided a baseline for the follow-up study in 2021, which found progress on several fronts. For instance: In 2020, about 20 percent of respondents indicated they had implemented or piloted an Industry 4.0 technology; in 2021 that number increased to 43 percent of companies. The number of companies with technology adoption budgets rose…

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) National Defense Education Program is seeking to strategically fund science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education at 2-year institutions and community colleges through a consortium approach. DoD is planning five awards ranging between $5 million to $11 million with an aim to enhance the STEM workforce through regional consortia that will develop and encourage STEM ecosystems between 2-year institutions and/or community colleges and 4-year institutions, industry, local education agencies, and others in STEM education. Responses to this funding opportunity are encouraged to focus on either or both of the below goals: (1) Promote and support the completion of technical training and certificate programs that strengthen the DoD and Defense Industrial Base (DIB) science, technology, and manufacturing workforce. (2) Develop, support, and increase the transition of students, especially those from underserved and underrepresented populations to include veterans and their spouses, from 2-year institutions and/or community college STEM programs to STEM degrees at 4-year institutions. The…

The U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) announced the eight winners of its STEM Talent Challenge, a national competition to receive funding for programs developed to train talent in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This challenge encourages a resilient workforce to amplify the United States as a competitive force in STEM. Winning programs will receive up to $250,000 in awards and leverage another $2.5 million in matching funds from private and public sources. The STEM Talent Challenge is administered by the EDA’s Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, which also runs the Build to Scale program to boost regional economies by encouraging scalable startups. STEM Talent Challenge winners are: Chicanos Por La Causa, Phoenix, Arizona, $250,000 LabCentral, Cambridge, Massachusetts, $249,624 Metropolitan Community College, Omaha, Nebraska, $248,624 Purdue Polytechnic Anderson, Anderson, Indiana, $250,000 Rung for Women, St. Louis, Missouri, $250,000 The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, $219,182 The Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, $249,397 Utah State University, Logan, Utah, $244…