SSTI Digest

The supremacy of the U.S. research enterprise has been eroding, particularly challenged by China and other Asian countries, and a new draft report from the Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (BESAC) at the Department of Energy (DOE) concludes that U.S. leadership in basic energy sciences will continue to diminish without intervention. Specifically, the report finds that to stay internationally competitive in basic energy sciences the U.S. must: increase total funding for R&D, spanning from basic and fundamental research to experimental development; focus multi-disciplinary research on several key areas of energy sciences; increase the nation’s ability to attract and retain the world’s top scientists and engineers; and, facilitate interactions among basic, applied, and industrial researchers to accelerate the translation of research into socially beneficial technologies.

The Small Business Administration (SBA) has announced a combined total of $5.4 million in awards to innovation-focused entrepreneur support organizations with programs to support entrepreneurs researching and developing STEM-related innovations. The 2021 competition included two prize tracks with 84 winners for the Growth Accelerator Fund Competition (GAFC) and eight winners for the new SBIR Catalyst competition, which aims to spur investment in underrepresented communities within the innovation economy.   The accelerators and incubators who won GAFC awards support a broad range of industries including clean energy, supply chain resilience and infrastructure, and will each receive a $50,000 prize. The winners of the SBIR Catalyst competition are connectors across programs that fund innovation clusters, hubs, and other technology-based economic development initiatives. SBIR Catalyst winners will each receive a $150,000 prize.  SSTI recognizes the following members that were among the prize winners (and a complete list of winners is available here):                 SBIR Catalyst…

The Biden administration announced the 30 members of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) this week. The panel, which is co-chaired by the president’s science advisor and external experts, exists to make science, technology and innovation recommendations to the White House. The administration calls this the most diverse PCAST in its history, which dates back to 1957, including the first women co-chairs. Included among the advisors are two former secretaries under President Barack Obama: Penny Pritzker (Commerce) and Ashton Carter (Defense). The full list of PCAST advisors is available in the White House’s announcement.

The Community Development Financial Institution Fund (CDFI Fund) of the U.S. Department of Treasury recently awarded more than $24.1 million in Technical Assistance Awards to 191 Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs). These awards were distributed through the Community Development Financial Institutions Program (CDFI Program) and the Native American CDFI Assistance Program (NACA Program). The 191 CDFI awardees represented 39 states — as well as Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Through the CDFI Program, more than $21.6 million was awarded to 174 organizations — with most organizations receiving the maximum allotted amount of $125,000 in Technical Assistance Awards. CDFIs use these awards to better serve their target market. It is notable that of the 174 recipients, 45 of them were located in Puerto Rico. Technical Assistance Awards are typically utilized to assist low-income individuals and underserved communities by providing them with access to financial assistance. CDFIs use these funds to determine the necessary financial products and services for their target market — allowing them to develop market-specific strategies and policies for lending.…

The Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation revealed the awardees from its second round of the Defense Manufacturing Community Support Program this week. The office awarded $5 million to each of five organizations to lead partnerships that will strengthen defense manufacturing and related supply chains. The five awards are listed below and available on the office’s website: Commonwealth Virginia Office of Veterans and Defense Affairs for Maritime Industries Talent Development North Carolina State University - Industry Expansion Solutions for Smart Textiles and Wearables Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station for Defense Workforce and Supply Chain Development University of Tennessee at Knoxville for Advanced Machine Tooling Wichita State University, National Institute for Aviation Research for Prototyping

The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) recently announced its largest POWER (Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization) grant package to date, investing nearly $46.4 million into 57 projects across 184 counties. The award aims to leverage entrepreneurship, workforce development, and infrastructure to bolster re-employment opportunities, create jobs in existing or new industries, and attract new sources of investment. To date, ARC has awarded over $287 million and supported 362 projects, benefitting 353 coal-impacted communities. Funding for the awards is made available through the POWER Initiative, which aims to help communities and regions that have been affected by job losses in coal mining, coal power plant operations, and coal-related supply chain industries due to the changing economics of America’s energy production. Among the awardees are the Ben Franklin Technology Center of Central and Northern PA and West Virginia University. The former was awarded $1.5 million for the Igniting Innovation in the PA Wilds Region project to support and enhance opportunities for tech-based entrepreneurs and manufacturers. The latter…

The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and its partners announced that they will provide at least $1.8 billion in funding and financing to 23 more cities across nine countries to implement integrated development approaches to improve efficiency, inclusivity and resilience against climate change.  The health and livelihoods of more than 58 million people will be improved through the new investment, collectively called UrbanShift. Participating cities are in the nine countries of Argentina, Brazil, China, Costa Rica, India, Indonesia, Morocco, Rwanda and Sierra Leone.  The program is funded by the Global Environment Facility and additional financing and technical support is being provided by the World Resources Institute, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, C40 Cities, Local Governments for Sustainability, and the United Nations Development Programme. In the Sept. 21 media event, speakers said at least 130 million carbon dioxide equivalent emissions will be avoided as a result of the collective approaches across the 23 cities, emissions equivalent to those released by 32 coal-fired power plants.

The Community Development Financial Institutions Fund of the U.S. Department of Treasury awarded 100 community development entities (CDEs) $5 billion in New Market Tax Credits (NMTC) earlier this month. The purpose of this tax credit program is to stimulate investment and create jobs in low-income urban and rural communities that would benefit from economic revitalization — especially amid the financial hardships caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Of the $5 billion allotted by the federal government for this program, approximately $2.7 billion will be invested in major urban areas, $1.1 billion will be invested in minor urban areas, and $1.1 will be invested in rural areas. In regard to the investment activities of these CDEs, approximately 78 percent of NMTC investment proceeds will be used toward supporting operating businesses, while the remaining 22 percent will be used to support real estate projects. Of the 100 CDEs that received NMTC awards, 45 will focus their investment activities in a national service area, 26 will focus on a multi-state service area, 13 will focus on a statewide service area, while 16 will focus on local markets such as a city or a county.…

The Committee on the Future of NSF EPSCoR (NSF's Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) requests input from the broad EPSCoR stakeholder community on EPSCoR’s investment strategies and opportunities for increased success. The committee was convened as part of a year-long visioning activity to guide the program. The visioning process will help determine the effectiveness of EPSCoR’s current investment strategies, as well as help consider novel strategies or changes to the current strategies that would enable NSF EPSCoR and its jurisdictional partners achieve its mission more effectively.

The U.S. Department of Commerce is seeking applicants for the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE). NACIE advises the U.S. Secretary of Commerce on matters related to accelerating innovation and entrepreneurship, advancing the commercialization of research and development, promoting workforce development, and other related matters. NACIE is managed by the Economic Development Administration’s (EDA) Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Members will be selected based on their ability to advise the secretary on matters relating to the acceleration of innovation and the support for and expansion of entrepreneurship, and will serve for two years. 

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), through the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E)), announced awards totaling $15 million for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to establish Centers of Excellence (COEs) in Biotechnology and Materials Science. The COEs will provide training to underrepresented students pursuing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, and will also provide internships at defense laboratories while also offering training to K-12 students to strengthen the talent pool entering the STEM pipeline.

The U.S. Department of Energy announced a request for information (RFI) to help inform the creation of a new Clean Energy Manufacturing Institute focused on industrial decarbonization. Released by DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), the RFI seeks input from stakeholders in identifying key opportunities to decarbonize energy-intensive sectors across America’s economy through public-private collaboration.