SSTI Digest

Earlier this week, SSTI participated in InBIA’s 39thInternational Conference on Business Incubation (ICBI39) in Philadelphia. The event brought together entrepreneurship support professionals from around the world to tackle shared challenges and explore strategies for fostering entrepreneurial ecosystems.  SSTI Program Director Casey Nemecek presented strategies for effectively communicating TBED concepts to broader audiences as part of the “Advocating for Entrepreneurship” panel session. The presentation emphasized three key approaches: making technical concepts accessible through relatable examples, centering local impact, and enlisting trusted community voices to demonstrate why innovation-driven economic development matters to communities and funders. This theme of clear, strategic communication resonated throughout much of the conference’s programming, from sessions on program sustainability to discussions about cross-organizational partnerships to build resiliency.  As always making new connections and reconnecting with familiar faces from SSTI member organizations was energizing. We look forward to being on the road again in June for the Global…

Recognizing Louisiana’s lag in some prosperity metrics, loss of talent over the past decade, and need to build a more competitive economy among its southern state peers, the Louisiana Economic Development (LED) has created a strategic plan that emphasizes innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship as the means to address the challenges and opportunities it faces in creating a more robust and talent-attracting economy. The Positioning Louisiana to Win: 2025 Comprehensive Statewide Strategic Plan, released in March 2025, details several recommendations and initiatives that seek to nurture homegrown entrepreneurs, startups and technology-driven businesses; attract and retain talent; and modernize the state’s traditional industries, educational, and training programs to ensure that key sectors and Louisianans are positioned to prosper from a more competitive technology-based economy. Emphasizing technology and innovation as drivers of economic growth and recognizing that talent and entrepreneurship are critical for creating a prosperous economy, the plan underscores the need for Louisiana to attract /expand technology sectors as cultivators of…

A handful of showcase events across the country are known widely by mere nicknames, gather lots of media attention, and attract tens of thousands of people or more each year. Can a state’s lead technology-based economic development stand out in this kind of crowd? Is it worth the investment to try?  For Lindsey Cox, CEO of Launch Tennessee, the answer has been a "yes" for the past two years and likely will be again in 2026. She led Tennessee's participation in SXSW (South by Southwest), an annual conference in Austin, Texas, that features tech, film, music, education, and culture. Launch Tennessee took over a centrally located event space, transforming it into Tennessee House with Tennessee-branded decor and programming. The programming at the Tennessee House provided a reason for SXSW attendees to want to check it out and to, while they were there, meet the Launch Tennessee team, the…

Exploring gross domestic product (GDP) at the county level offers a more detailed look at where industries are located and how they shape local economies, especially in smaller or more rural counties often overlooked at higher geographic levels. SSTI has provided similar analyses at the state and metropolitan levels, yet county-level data can reveal micro-level trends, showing local patterns that broader numbers might hide. Such refined looks can help TBED and innovation policy approaches to be more surgical in their application. To help guide that refinement, this edition of Useful Stats uses Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) data to map and illustrate differences in county-level GDP broken down by private industries. Figure 1 below provides a detailed map of the dominant industries by GDP contribution across all U.S. counties in 2023 for which data is available. The controls under the title of the figure can be used to toggle between the largest and second largest contributor to private industry GDP within each U.S. county. By visualizing the geographic distribution of the largest industries in each county, the reader can spot trends immediately. For…

The U.S. Census Bureau’s Narrative Profiles is an online resource that presents American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates as easily digestible analytic reports. Profiles cover 18 important topic areas—including social, demographic, and workforce characteristics—and present data through short paragraphs, tables, and charts, allowing users to quickly grasp the most relevant statistics without needing to parse large tables of raw numbers. The Narrative Profiles tool is particularly useful for policymakers, researchers, and businesses who require a quick, clear, and accessible snapshot of a region or area's makeup and characteristics. The tool supports informed decision-making and strategic planning, making it a valuable resource for understanding and addressing local trends and needs.Data is currently available for the recent 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates and as far back as the 2011-2015 estimates.Geographically, data is available at the national, metro and micropolitan statistical area, state, county, county subdivision, place (e.g., city, town, village, etc.), ZIP code tabulation area, and census tract level, as well as for American Indian Areas…

Imagine tapping into a talent pool already familiar with your region's culture, values, and challenges. This scenario is the core idea behind affinity recruiting, a strategy where communities and businesses actively target former residents, alums, and individuals with a genuine connection to the area. These initiatives aim to entice them for job opportunities, entrepreneurial ventures, leadership roles, or investment. As regions increasingly recognize the value of "boomerang migration," (SSTI Digest, March 20, 2025), integrating these strategies with broader talent initiatives may be a cost-effective way to revitalize workforces, bolster local economies, and strengthen community bonds. This article will explore the potential of affinity recruiting, examine successful examples, and address the inherent challenges in its implementation. Dr. Gary Spanner, who formerly worked in economic development in the southeastern region of Washington State, recently shared insights into an affinity recruiting program that was in place for several years until his retirement in 2015. “We had the anecdotal insight that people tend to have an affinity for places in which they have lived at…

With President Trump’s March 31 signature on an executive order to create a United States Investment Accelerator within the Department of Commerce aimed to help expedite development of foreign and domestic manufacturing investments priced at over $1 Billion, there is concern about what impact one sentence has on the existing $52 Billion in CHIPs related deals across the country. Some of the projects have been on ice since the change of Administration.  The sentence in question is: “The Investment Accelerator shall be responsible for the CHIPS Program Office within the Department of Commerce, which shall focus on delivering the benefit of the bargain for taxpayers by negotiating much better deals than those of the previous administration.” [Emphasis added.] Since there is no new money in known discussion for refueling the CHIPS Act coffers, will the terms of awards made since the CHIPS Act was passed by Congress in 2022 be subject to renegotiation? Just as existing R&D grants, transportation contracts, and other federal spending awards have become subject to rescinding or cancellation for unrelated changes in policy differences between the two presidential…

Numerous reports across the country indicate the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has taken the first step toward eliminating the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program, which, for nearly 40 years, has provided technical assistance, training, research and strategic direction to tens of thousands of small and medium manufacturers across the country. Reports vary as to whether 10 or 11 of the 51 centers across the U.S. and Puerto Rico were told they would not receive current funding already appropriated and expected per the terms of their existing multi-year agreements with NIST. While news reports for individual state centers have surfaced, the most detailed coverage of the action to eliminate MEP that SSTI has yet to see is provided in an April 2 Wired posting by Paresh Dave and Louise Matsakis. The move, along with several recent Administration actions, is consistent with recommendations outlined in Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, a 2023 publication of the Heritage Foundation. The book advocates for the private market to address many of the public goods and services presently supported by the federal government.…

Gov. Phil Murphy and representatives from the founding partners—the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA), Princeton University, Microsoft, and CoreWeave—officially opened the New Jersey Artificial Intelligence (NJAI) Hub on March 27, 2023. Together, the founding partners will invest over $72 million to support the long-term success of the hub. New Jersey’s NJEDA has committed $25 million; the remaining $47 million of donated services and support will come from Princeton and the industry partners. A portion of NJEDA’s and CoreWeave’s committed funding will include a planned NJ AI Venture Fund supporting innovation commercialization through equity investments.

States with economies based on resource extraction are among the least diversified in the country—they know well the boom-and-bust cycles that come with that concentration. Innovation and entrepreneurship represent a path out of that boom-bust cycle, and New Mexico’s recently updated economic development strategy, Empower and Collaborate: New Mexico's Economic Path Forward, hints at wanting to build on that recognition in its planned actions for the coming years. The forward-looking strategy, which began in 2021 and further refined in 2023, details actions to expand New Mexico’s economy away from reliance on natural resource extraction while also shifting away from traditional sector-based job creation strategies towards addressing structural economic challenges that affect all sectors. It seeks renewed commitment to long-term planning, supporting regions transitioning away from coal, and helping cities foster the partnerships, infrastructure, and assets necessary to grow existing businesses and industry clusters.   Specifically, the plan outlines recommendations and initiatives to improve the quality of New Mexico’s higher education and training…

The April 2025 issue of NBER Digest, a publication of the National Bureau of Economic Research, includes the following summary of a recent working paper. NBER grants permission to reproduce the piece here. While the research focuses on students’ experiences only in Texas, SSTI believes the findings likely could have policy value in other geographies striving to increase workers’ skill sets in an increasingly innovation driven economy. In Texas, disadvantaged students often forgo college entirely when far from a community college, while more advantaged students substitute towards four-year colleges. Proximity to a community college impacts college enrollment and degree completion, particularly for minority and low-income students. Consequently, disparities in geographic access to higher education contribute to educational attainment gaps across demographic groups. In Distance to Degrees: How College Proximity Shapes Students' Enrollment Choices and Attainment Across Race-Ethnicity and Socioeconomic Status (NBER Working Paper 33337), Riley K. Acton, Kalena Cortes, Lois Miller, and Camila Morales analyze administrative data covering all Texas public high…

How one applies and has their proposal reviewed to gain a small share of the world's largest funding source for life science research is changing. The following highlights modifications affecting grant applications submitted to the National Institutes of Health for due dates on or after January 25, 2025, as posted on their Implementation of New Initiatives and Policies page. NIH narrowed the framework for the peer review of most competing research project grant (RPG) applications. Excluded from the change are proposals for small business and multi-project grants. The new framework will reorganize the five regulatory criteria into three factors:  Importance of the Research, scored 1-9; Rigor and Feasibility, scored 1-9; and Expertise and Resources, to be evaluated as either sufficient for the proposed research or not.  In addition, NIH staff will now review the following additional review considerations: applications from foreign organizations, select agent research, and resource sharing plans. Peer reviewers will focus on whether or not the proposed research project should be conducted and, if so, whether it can be performed. More details…