SSTI Digest

Frank Salomone has been hired as the associate administrator in SBA’s Office of Investment and Innovation. Salomone’s background includes more than 12 years as director of Segal Marco Avisors, an investment consultancy, and just over six years with Verizon Investment Management Corporation, according to his LinkedIn profile. He is a graduate of Iona University with a Bachelor of Business Administration and Master of Business Administration degree.

Wednesday, March 19, 3:00 pm EDT | ZoomNo charge; registration required. Fostering a thriving tech-driven ecosystem is essential for sustainable regional growth. Our panelists will explore key strategies to accelerate technology commercialization, support startups, attract investment, and build collaborative networks. From leveraging public-private partnerships to enhancing workforce development, we’ll discuss actionable insights that can help regions compete in an increasingly technology-driven world. Griffin St Louis, Sr. Program Manager—Maryland Innovation Initiative, TEDCO Brian Cuevas, Director—Office of Innovation Management, University of Southern Mississippi Angela Specht, Global Head—BARDA Alliance, Johnson & Johnson Jerry Coughter, Program Director—TBED CoP, SSTI Register here. This webinar was prepared by SSTI using Federal funds under award ED22HDQ3070129 from the Economic Development Administration, U.S. Department of…

Overall U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) has steadily increased over the past decade. However, the growth in the sectors which drive it has been uneven. Data from 2014 through 2023 reveals that sectoral contributions to private industry GDP have shifted from manufacturing (down 1.57 percentage points since 2014) and mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction (down 1.05), to professional and business services (up 0.85) and construction (up 0.72). Differences in the sectoral makeup of private industry GDP at the state level show that most states share similar primary sectors but vastly different second-largest sectors. Significant changes in federal policy may affect GDP composition going forward.  All data used in this article comes from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis’ (BEA) GDP and Personal Income tables. Data used for GDP is in millions of current, not adjusted for inflation, USD, and is for private industries. All sectors and industries referenced are based on the 2017 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) used by the BEA.   National overview Over the past decade of available data, from 2014 through 2023, the makeup of…

NOTE: The nation's community of technology-based economic development organizations has entered the annual report season, and we've already seen several releases from SSTI members. All document TBED's impact on advancing research, moving it to market, and helping businesses improve their profitability and competitiveness. To help the TBED community prepare their own annual reports, SSTI is speaking with a few of our members to learn more about their evolving approaches to preparing their annual reports. This week, we share insights from our third conversation based on an interview with Lizzette Arias, communications manager, and Arnold Liyai, program manager, from US Ignite. The first two parts of this series are available here and here. A fundamental truth of communication is that you must target your message to your audience. But how can you do that when creating one universal document to address all your stakeholders, including military members, municipal leaders, startup companies, and university researchers? US Ignite faces this challenge in producing its annual report, which covers its five programs: Platforms for Advanced Wireless…

On Feb. 10, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee presented his 2025 State of the State address along with his FY 2025-2026 budget proposal and legislative agenda. Building on the theme of both his speech and agenda, “Tennessee innovates,” Lee seeks to position the Volunteer State as the epicenter of energy innovation, especially nuclear power. Over the past several years, the governor has presented a vision for Tennessee to lead the nation on nuclear energy initiatives and expand the state’s leadership in “the nuclear energy ecosystem.” In 2023, Tennessee established a Nuclear Energy Advisory Council through an executive order that was tasked to provide the administration with recommendations and guidance to advance the Volunteer State’s nuclear energy innovations and investment. Additionally, the state’s FY 2023-2024 approved budget funded the administration’s $50 million Nuclear Energy Fund to support nuclear power-related businesses and education/training programs across Tennessee. To date, the state has approved $13.5 million in grants, primarily to state universities, within that fund. In this year’s address and budget, the governor proposed several funding…

Research and development (R&D) tax credits are a common cornerstone of federal and state innovation policies and are offered to companies in hopes of spurring economic growth. But do R&D tax credits deliver the economic boost policymakers expect? Previous studies addressing this question often focused exclusively on either firm-level data or aggregate economic data. Firm-level studies typically found that R&D tax incentives significantly boost companies' investment in research and development. In contrast, macro-level analyses suggested a more modest impact on overall economic growth. A recent discussion paper from The Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) at the London School of Economics, How effective are R&D tax incentives? Reconciling micro and macro evidence, seeks to explain the gap between these two types of assessments. Authors Silvia Appelt, Matej Bajgar, Chiara Criscuolo, and Fernando Galindo-Rueda employ a dual approach by analyzing both micro-level data from individual firms and macro-level economic data. This approach allows them to assess how R&D tax incentives influence individual company behaviors and the broader economy and…

As this week’s recent research article mentions, R&D tax credits work, so it isn’t surprising several states have either proposed, amended, or enacted research and development (R&D) tax credits for both the current fiscal (2025) and new (2026) fiscal year in efforts to encourage innovation and economic growth. Some specifically target life sciences or biotechnology sectors while others focus on attracting new or existing companies and startups or to further develop life sciences and/or biotech sectors and hubs. The following is a brief wrap-up of some states that have recently introduced or implemented notable R&D credits in their innovation space. Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont announced in his FY 2026-2027 biennial budget address on Feb. 5 that he was proposing to increase the state’s biotechnology R&D tax credit from 65% to 90%. Doing so would allow companies that make less than $70 million a year in sales to cash in their unused tax credits at a higher exchange rate than the current 65% exchange rate. The boost would cost the state about $1.8 million but result in multiple millions in increased economic activity at startups, industry boosters…

Higher education R&D (HERD) expenditures have steadily increased over time. They’ve soared past $100 billion in the most recent data year, fiscal year (FY) 2023, growing in every state. However, the gains are not shared equally in all fields of research. SSTI analyzed HERD Survey data, finding that in the 10 FYs since 2013, science R&D fields, led by the life sciences, were responsible for the largest dollar growths. In contrast, non-S&E fields, led by education, experienced the largest relative growth. SSTI has examined these shifts over the past decade at the national level and broken down expenditures by R&D field at the state and institutional level for FY 2023. This edition of Useful Stats provides the resulting comprehensive picture of HERD expenditures by R&D field.

NOTE: The nation's community of technology-based economic development organizations has entered annual report season, and we've already seen several releases from SSTI members. All document the impact TBED can have on advancing research, moving it to market, and helping businesses improve their profitability and competitiveness. To help the TBED community prepare their own annual reports, SSTI is speaking with a few of our members to learn more about their evolving approaches to preparing their annual reports. This week, we share insights from our second conversation based on an interview with Kimberly Metz, senior manager and head of marketing at Ben Franklin Northeast. The first part of this series ran in the Feb 13 issue of the Digest, and is available here. Long before an annual report begins to take its final form, there are typically extensive internal conversations among leadership about what the document should include and what the look and feel should be. The early planning stages for the 2024 issue of the Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania annual report were punctuated with a series of collaborative meetings between…

The U.S. Senate confirmed Kelly Loeffler to run the Small Business Administration by a vote of 52-46 on Wednesday, Feb. 19. Spending more than two decades in technology and financial service businesses, Loeffler is a former owner of the WNBA team, the Atlanta Dream and served in the U.S. Senate by appointment from 2019-2021. SBA provides the policy direction for the SBIR and STTR program run by 11 other federal agencies, the world’s largest source of non-dilutive research funding for small innovation companies. SBIR is housed within the SBA Office of Investment and Innovation, also home to the Small Business Investment Company program and the TBED-popular Regional Innovation Clusters and the recently closed Growth Accelerator Fund Competition.

In this week’s continuing coverage of gubernatorial addresses as they discuss the innovation economy, the following highlights have been selected from the State of the States or budget addresses given between Feb. 5 and Feb. 13, 2025, by the governors from Connecticut, Maryland, New Hampshire, and West Virginia. Information on previous 2025 State of the States and Budget addresses can be found here, here, and here. Additional addresses and states will be covered in future Digest issues. Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont gave his FY 2026-2027 Biennium Budget Address on Feb. 5. During his presentation, Lamont announced that Connecticut Innovations, which provides venture capital for high-tech companies in the energy, biotechnology, IT, and photonics sectors, has created a $50 million quantum AI fund to invest in Connecticut startups. Dovetailing that announcement, the governor also proposed over $100 million in key capital investments in AI and quantum computing in his new biennium spending plan. This investment into the Department of Economic & Community Development, the University of Connecticut and Yale would assist in further developing the state’s AI innovation…

SSTI is following personnel and policy changes across the federal government that will likely affect programs of importance for innovation-driven businesses and for growing stronger regional innovation systems across the country. There have been several announcements in the past week alone, so this week’s federal news column is fairly lengthy. Simultaneous with laying off thousands of Department of Agriculture (USDA) workers across rural America, Secretary Brooke Rollins sent a letter to the nation’s governors encouraging them to join the department’s new “laboratories of innovation” initiative to provide input into policy issues, including the USDA priorities to bring “more jobs and economic opportunity to rural communities and ensure that we equip and empower the next generation of American farmers.” Also at USDA, Politico reports Rural Development, which houses all USDA economic development programs, was one of several agencies within the department to experience the first wave of layoffs on Feb. 14. It is unclear at this point which staff and programs are most impacted. “Up to 5,200 employees lost their jobs across Health and Human Services, initial…