SSTI Digest

National Apprenticeship Week (NAW) will see its 7th annual celebration from Nov. 15 to 21 this year. Key individuals in areas such as government, industry and education will host events that highlight the importance of apprenticeship in the workforce. These events will showcase how apprenticeship programs can address challenges such as supply chain demands, public health issues, and advancing initiatives in diversity and equity — especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), there has been a 70 percent increase in new apprentices since 2011. While the number of new apprentices fell 12 percent from FY 2019 to FY 2020 — likely due to the COVID-19 pandemic — DOL found that 3,143 new apprenticeship programs were established nationwide in FY 2020, representing a 73 percent growth from 2009 levels.   DOL is using NAW this year as an opportunity to highlight Registered Apprenticeship Programs (RAP). RAPs differ from Industry-Recognized Apprenticeship Programs (IRAP) in terms of their components and requirements. Both programs, however, are validated by DOL or a DOL recognized State Apprenticeship Agency. RAPs…

Faculty of the nation’s higher education institutions have long used research publications and citations as a measure of success. A new working paper posted by the National Bureau of Economic Researchers (NBER) suggests a select group of research publications may do more than gain the authors tenure and celebrity in their chosen field: these works are correlated with reductions in local disease-related mortality. In an era of marked increases in anti-intellectualism among legislatures, is this finding an additional argument to add to TBED policymakers’ arsenal for increasing state and regional investments targeting R&D? Does Research Save Lives? The Local Spillovers of Biomedical Research on Mortality, written by Rebecca McKibbin (University of Sidney) and Bruce A. Weinberg (Ohio State University), reports the findings of the authors’ study using the PubMed database, the geographic location of the publishing biomedical researchers, and the timing and intensity of local mortality rates by disease. They conclude each “additional research publication on average reduces local mortality from a disease by 0.35 percent.”  McKibbin and Weinberg also suggest “…

The New Mexico Economic Development Department released a new strategic plan that identifies core challenges to the state and a multi-part approach to the future. The six challenges include talent attraction, misalignment between higher education and industry, public sector “dominance” of innovation, and concentration in a few industries. The plan includes recommendations related to the state’s innovation economy: develop state-sponsored investment funds to match investments in target industries; help academic researchers to advance new technologies; establish persistent funding for incubators and accelerators; fund university-industry research partnerships; and, develop a mentorship network across entrepreneurship support organizations in the state. The state funded the strategic planning process through a grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration, and SRI International developed the plan. In a press release announcing the plan, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order to review the state’s licensing and permitting requirements (another recommendation).

The Economic Development Administration (EDA) recently announced it received more than 500 applications to its Build Back Better Regional Challenge (BBBRC. Applicants are competing for 50 to 60 Phase 1 awards of $500,000 each to support the planning of “bottom-up, middle-out” economic development projects designed to advance and accelerate an equitable economic recovery, create good-paying jobs, and build resilient regions across the country. Winners of the Phase 1 awards will go on to develop a full proposal for Phase 2, and in March between 20 and 30 of the projects will receive up to $100 million each to implement their projects.

President Joe Biden this morning delayed his planned departure for Europe to announce a framework for the Build Back Better Act, a $1.75 trillion plan that the president said he was confident could pass both houses of Congress. While the Build Back Better Framework is not as large as initially proposed, the White House says it represents the largest effort to date to combat climate change, promises to create millions of good-paying jobs, spur long-term growth and meet clean energy ambitions. The plan includes $40 billion for higher ed and workforce by raising the maximum Pell Grant and providing support to Historically Black Colleges & Universities, Hispanic Serving Institutions, Minority Serving Institutions, and Tribal Colleges and Universities. It also would invest in workforce development, including community college workforce programs, sector-based training, and apprenticeships. There is another $90 billion targeted for equity and other investments, but it is unclear as of this writing if that would include some of the innovation initiatives that were outlined earlier. The White House says the plan’s $555 billion investment in clean energy would…

Five clusters have been added to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Regional clusters Initiative, according to information available through USASpending. The Regional Cluster Initiative was launched in 2010 to maximize the potential of clusters and better support small businesses. The initiative connects innovation assets so that small businesses can effectively leverage them to commercialize new technologies and expand into new markets. While the SBA has not formally announced the winners, the five new award recipients listed on USASpending.gov  as receiving funding include AgLaunch Engine, LLC ($300,000); Development Capital Networks, LLC ($299,932); Acendian, LLC ($292,760); Larta, Inc., ($225,000); and Startup Junkie Consulting, LLC ($201,633). As with previous RIC awards, each organization has the potential to renew these awards through up to four additional option years (with a corresponding increase in the value of the contracts). At this time, it is not clear which clusters these organizations will be supporting. More information on the awardees and their programs is expected to be forthcoming from SBA and will be updated here.

Support for small companies has long been a pillar of federal and state policies meant to drive business formation, job creation, and the resulting spillover economic benefits for regional economies. The debate remains, however, about whether smaller or larger businesses play an outsized role in the nation’s economy. This edition of Useful Stats provides some context to the argument, finding that although smaller and newer establishments accounted for the greatest amount of total job creation, job losses from small business closures reduced the group’s net job creation significantly, leaving larger companies to account for the greatest share of net job creation in 2019.

Foundations, in almost all of their stripes, represent an underutilized but often willing partner to encourage regional innovation. Relationships may take time to nurture, but the resulting collaborations can be of critical importance for advancing your local TBED agenda. To spur your thinking, the six examples below from the past three weeks alone show the various ways foundations are stepping up to help support regional innovation and entrepreneurship. On the principal or endowment management side of a foundation, they can be and have been willing partners for seeding or co-investors in a local early stage equity capital fund. While the number of U.S. universities and colleges offering entrepreneurship support services to their students, staff and faculty number in the hundreds, few of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) can report the same level of offerings. It isn’t for a lack of opportunities, but rather financing. A recent PNC Foundation gift to Howard University is one step to correct that.  The bank’s foundation provided the D.C.-based institution a five-year $16.8 million grant to create the Howard University and PNC National Center…

Indiana and Illinois are two of the most recent states to implement innovation voucher programs, adding another tool to their efforts to increase economic activity among innovators and entrepreneurs. Innovation vouchers are provided by governments to small businesses and help foster R&D with access to additional funding and resources. Depending on their design, they can incentivize collaboration between firms and public knowledge providers, such as universities and research institutes, and increase accessibility to crucial resources, such as lab space and specialized equipment, that small businesses would otherwise not have access to. In 2019, the Indiana General Assembly established a Small Business Innovation Voucher Program to provide funds to and support eligible small businesses (SB563). The Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) was authorized to administer the program at that time. In August, Elevate Ventures announced the full launch of the program in partnership with IEDC and will provide access to up to $50,000 in services from qualified Indiana higher education institutions and authorized nonprofit research providers to support…

The findings from a recent webinar and report suggest that Employment Social Enterprises (ESEs) are significant market-based mechanisms that can address workforce misalignment by supplying employers with skilled workers while increasing economic mobility and addressing structural employment barriers. Business for Impact at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business recently delivered the webinar and report on Jobs for All: Employment Social Enterprise and Economic Mobility in the United States. Business for Impact’s work aims to manage the triple bottom line of sustainable development - people, planet, and profit - and contribute to positive growth for disadvantaged populations. Several key groups have been identified as historically excluded from work in the U.S. These include: people who were formerly incarcerated; people with intellectual, emotional, and physical disabilities; immigrants or refugees; veterans; people from low-income backgrounds; and opportunity youth (defined as those between the ages of 16 and 24 who are neither employed nor in school). Researchers estimate 27-35 million individuals in these population groups want to work, yet face…

Greater investment in basic scientific research, as opposed to applied research, is more likely to drive stronger long-term economic growth, induce a knowledge spillover effect, increase productivity ROI, and encourage more public-private collaboration, according to a group of economists at the International Monetary Fund. They found that basic research is an essential input into innovation and the economists explain its importance in a recent post on the IMFBlog titled Why Basic Science Matters for Economic Growth. Productivity is one of the most significant drivers of long-term economic growth, though there has been a notable decline of productivity in advanced economies despite steady increases in R&D, the economists say. They argue this is because developed economies tend to concentrate investment in advanced scientific research, which is less conducive to long-term productivity growth. Rather, innovation is a key stimulant for long-term productivity growth, which benefits more from investments in basic scientific research. Basic research affects more sectors, in more locations, and for a longer period of time than applied research, they say. This helps to…

With the regular budget process stalled for the time being, Senate Democrats released their draft bills for the remaining three-quarters of the FY 2022 federal budget. Included in these proposals are substantial increases for Build to Scale and the Small Business Administration’s innovation programs, as well as funding for a new Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP) at the National Science Foundation. The draft bills are another positive indicator for how Congress may invest in science, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship in the near future, but the path forward remains uncertain. The bills released by the Senate majority earlier this week include legislation funding the Department of Commerce, science agencies and SBA, among others. Highlights for regional innovation economies include the following: Economic Development Administration Total programmatic funding — $345 million (House proposal is $382.5 million; FY 2021 was $305.5 million) Build to Scale — $50 million (House $50 million; FY 2021 $38.5 million) Minority Business Development Agency — $55 million (House $70 million; FY 2021 $48 million) Small Business…