SSTI Digest

The news that a drug has been developed that appears to significantly reduce the risk of hospitalization or death from COVID-19, understandably garnered international attention. While most of the coverage centered on Merck, dig a bit deeper and one learns that Emory University researchers developed molnupiravir which Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics have licensed. For the TBED community, there is another interesting angle to the story if one goes even further: this work was a result of a non-profit that Emory had set up, Drug Innovation Ventures at Emory (DRIVE), to help bridge the gap between scientific discovery to helping patients. Jonathan S. Lewin, Emory’s executive vice president for health affairs and executive director of Woodruff Health Sciences Center, said in a press release that the news underscores the important role of academic medical research. DRIVE, a non-profit LLC wholly owned by Emory, repurposed a broad-spectrum antiviral drug it had been developing for infectious diseases when the pandemic began. DRIVE’s CEO and co-founder, George Painter, PhD, had invested nearly five years of research with funding from the National Institutes of Health…

Understanding the industry-level dynamics of business and job creation can help pinpoint which industries in regional economies may be hotspots for innovation activity. This edition of Useful Stats builds on previous SSTI analysis of business and job creation by state and examines data from the Census Bureau’s recently updated Business Dynamics Statistics (BDS) on net establishment and job creation in 2019 at the state and industry levels. The data serves as a useful baseline of where the economy stood prior to the pandemic’s start in 2020. While the national data shows that five industries experienced net establishment losses in 2019, industry trends at the state level vary widely with some states seeing losses across many industries while others experienced losses in only a few. There were also similar national- and state-level trends in net job creation in 2019. This analysis also provides additional context by examining the long-term state trends in these metrics from 2005 to 2019.

The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) has released a new request for information (RFI) related to a national strategic plan for advanced manufacturing, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are seeking information on how the scientific community uses public data tools. Both RFIs provide an opportunity for the tech-based economic development field to shape the future of federal innovation policy.  On behalf of the NSTC, the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) is seeking input from the public on ways to improve government coordination, and on long-term guidance for federal programs and activities in support of U.S. manufacturing competitiveness, including advanced manufacturing R&D that will create jobs, grow the economy across multiple industrial sectors, strengthen national security, enhance sustainability, contribute to climate change challenges, and improve health care. This input will inform OSTP and NSTC as they work with federal agencies and other stakeholders to develop the strategic plan. A series of public events has been organized at various technical conferences (in-person and virtual) from October to December to directly…

A new strategic plan for the Appalachian region reaffirms the Appalachian Regional Commission’s (ARC) primary investment goals emphasizing economic development. It benefits from insights gathered from more than 1,800 stakeholders and is built on multistate and regional collaboration. Federal co-chair Gayle Manchin said in a press release that the while the investment goals (building Appalachian businesses, workforce ecosystem and infrastructure; building regional culture and tourism; and building community leaders and capacity) reaffirm the core mission, they are “reflected through a modern lens of promoting equity, innovation, sustainability and resilience into our work.” Manchin also noted that the success of the plan “is completely dependent on how well all 13 states and 420 counties in Appalachia can work collaboratively to build upon our past work to bring the region to the next level.” The five-year plan also lists a set of objectives for each of the goals, and includes: providing financing, technical assistance, and other support for entrepreneurship and small business development in the region; investing in workforce development…

The U.S. Economic Development Administration today announced the 50 organizations that will share in grants totaling $36.5 million to support programs that fuel innovation and tech-based economic development as part of the Build to Scale program. The 2021 awardees will leverage an additional $40 million in matching funds from a variety of private and public sector sources. SSTI has been a proponent of the Build to Scale program, which had not received any federal appropriations prior to the creation of SSTI’s Innovation Advocacy Council.

This week marks the 10th anniversary celebration of National Manufacturing Week. National Manufacturing Week celebrates the role of the manufacturing sector within the United States. With roughly 12.1 million employees, the manufacturing sector is the fifth largest employer relative to other industries, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The manufacturing sector continues to evolve with the adoption of advanced manufacturing technologies and improvements in workforce development. Manufacturing Day will be held on Friday, Oct. 1, to show the public the role that modern manufacturing has in today’s world. Manufacturers across the country will be hosting and sponsoring webinars and in-person events on Oct. 1 and throughout October and November. These events will highlight the importance of the manufacturing industry, while providing insight on advanced manufacturing technologies and strategies for workforce development. Additionally, there will be opportunities for students to gain exposure to the manufacturing industry. More information of Manufacturing Day and how to register for these events can be found here. Origins of Manufacturing Day and its connection to…

Implementing innovative policies is necessary for driving the manufacturing industry forward in Illinois, according to a recent report from the Illinois Manufacturing Excellence Center (IMEC). Nearly 600,000 Illinoisans are employed directly in manufacturing, and the manufacturing industry accounts for 12 percent of Illinois’s annual GDP. The findings of the state report, however, are adaptable and can be utilized across the United States in regions that seek to encourage innovation in manufacturing and promote job growth in an increasingly competitive globalized economy. IMEC partnered with the Illinois Manufacturer’s Association, the Technology and Manufacturing Association, the Valley Industrial Association, and the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research for a study highlighting the status of advanced technology adoption for small and mid-sized manufacturers in Illinois. The resulting report covers the challenges that manufacturers in Illinois face and how they have been implementing advanced technology to overcome them. The report also covers the benefits and opportunities that come with adopting advanced manufacturing technologies. The report…

Pew Charitable Trusts recently published data demonstrating that Q1 2021 experienced the largest year-over-year personal income growth rate since 1948. All states recorded increases in total personal income, and 27 experienced their strongest year-over-year growth on record. This sharp uptick is largely attributed to an “unprecedented” increase in government aid and pandemic-related federal economic relief packages, primarily received through Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, safety-net programs, and state unemployment insurance, according to the report. Their findings suggest that federal aid in Q1 addressed and counteracted some of the recession outcomes experienced after the 2007 financial crisis. According to Pew, the Great Recession saw a decline in personal income by roughly 15 percent before recovering, with little difference made by government assistance. The report authors estimate the pandemic-driven recession would have resulted in around a 6 percent decline in personal income had there not been any government assistance. Congress has taken a different strategy to spending through the pandemic recession than during the previous two…

A recent research study suggests that diverse identity representation of website spokespeople increases the likelihood of attracting a higher proportion of prospective entrepreneurs. Rosanna Garcia and Daniel Baack, researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and the University of Denver respectively, explore whether the demographic of spokespeople featured on websites had an impact on the entrepreneurial intention of individuals of various identities. Their article, Entrepreneurial Intent Is Not Black or White: An Intersectional Perspective, sampled 562 students across five American universities to gain insight into this issue. The goal of the study was to isolate and cross-examine individual and compounded impacts of race and gender in both the website spokesperson and student respondent in order to identify ways to encourage more diverse entrepreneurial involvement in university settings. Garcia and Baack’s experiment entailed student respondents of a variety of races and genders viewing different versions of a website, each version specifically tailored to a particular race and gender. The researchers measured respondents’ propensity to participate in…

The EDA University Center Economic Development Program Competition recently announced $2.5 million in grants awarded to 25 colleges and universities in the Chicago and Philadelphia EDA regions to leverage assets, promote innovation and strengthen regional economies. The goal of these awards is “to boost innovation, create good-paying jobs and ensure American competitiveness in the global economy” while funding research as well as innovation economy development services. Funding for the awards is made available through the EDA University Center Program, which helps institutions of higher education and consortia of institutions establish and operate University Centers that will build regional economic ecosystems to support innovation and high-growth entrepreneurship, resiliency and inclusiveness. Centers focus on regional commercialization, entrepreneurship and innovation, business expansion, developing a highly skilled workforce, and/or regional resiliency. The awardees will receive EDA grants for the next five years to support regional economic development ecosystems and provide expertise, applied research, and technical assistance. Approximately 60 centers are…

Higher levels of business creation can be linked to the presence of innovation in a state through entrepreneurial activity and transitioning to new industries, and this edition of Useful Stats examines data from the Census Bureau’s recently updated Business Dynamics Statistics (BDS) on net establishment formation and the job creation stemming from those establishments in 2019. While figures vary widely among the states, most saw growth in both net establishment creation and net job creation in 2019; this data is prior to the onset of the pandemic in early 2020. This analysis also provides additional context by examining the long-term state trends in these metrics from 1978 to 2019. Net establishment formation is calculated as the difference between new establishment openings and establishment closures. Fewer states saw negative net establishment creation (total establishment losses) and negative net job creation (total job losses) in 2019 than in 2018. As seen in the first map below, the states that experienced the greatest levels of net establishment formation in 2019 were California (10,285); Texas (8,424); Florida (8,096); Georgia (2,861); and, North Carolina (2,359…

Increased adoption of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles has been empirically linked to improved financial performance, but venture capital (VC) has fallen behind other sectors in embracing such measures. With more than $100 trillion in assets under management (AUM) already being managed according to the ESG framework globally, a recent article by Johannes Lenhard and Susan Winterberg provides some guidance on how VC can improve in adopting ESG principles, while also giving some pointers to limited partners (LPs) in VC funds, regulators, and company founders — the groups that have been the drivers of what little ESG adoption VC has experienced.