SSTI Digest

Discussions surrounding automation’s power and the effect it could have on jobs have only increased over time. The current pandemic adds to the debate of whether automation and robotics, which are unaffected by viruses and have the potential for cost savings, could offer a safer bet for industries than human labor. Such are the debates the authors of a new working paper considered in their research examining jobs that were identified in the past as being at risk of elimination through automation. While building on previous studies from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) of the impact of automation on jobs, OECD authors Alexandre Georgieff and Anna Milanez seek to expand that knowledge to a cross-country context and the paper claims to be the first to evaluate employment outcomes using the task-based measure of automation risk developed by the OECD. The researchers found no support for net job destruction at the broad country level.

Metropolitan areas in the U.S. with fewer than 370,000 residents are more likely to be more economically reliant on R&D performed by colleges and universities than larger metros, according to new SSTI analysis. Three data points are used to consider how R&D at institutions of higher education is impacting a region’s economy: NSF’s Higher Education R&D (HERD) data on expenditures at individual institutions; metro area Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis; and population estimates from the Census Bureau. The resulting analysis shows that despite larger metro areas producing a greater total amount of HERD, they are typically less reliant on these expenditures directly powering their economies.

This week, the U.S. Economic Development Administration announced that the Build to Scale program has opened for applications. The Build to Scale program provides operating funding for tech-based economic development initiatives in regional economies. This program has long been a top priority for SSTI’s Innovation Advocacy Council, and we are happy that our continued success in raising the program’s appropriation means this year’s funding opportunity will award $38 million in grants.

The FY 2021 program is comprised of two competitions, the Venture Challenge grants with two funding levels: one at $750,000 to build programs and another up to $1.5 million to scale programs; and the Capital Challenge, which has increased its level of funding and offers grants up to $400,000 to increase access to capital in communities where risk capital is in short supply.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has updated its Technology Assessment Design Handbook, a program evaluation tool designed to assist in the development of robust technology assessments. First released to the public in December 2019, the handbook now includes additions based on the experiences of GAO teams, a review of relevant literature, and comments submitted by external experts. It also provides a high-level process for developing policy options. While the tool is designed for use by GAO staff, its methods and strategies are useful to any organization conducting a technology assessment.

Ohio unveiled the Columbus Innovation District this week, marking the third such announcement in less than a year, with a $100 million commitment from JobsOhio, the state’s nonprofit economic development corporation. Other partners in the Columbus initiative include Ohio State University, which will contribute $650 million, and Nationwide Children’s Hospital, with a $350 million commitment. The district is intended to bring together globally recognized education and healthcare research institutions to help create in-demand jobs and fuel $3 billion in economic impact for Columbus and Ohio over the next 10 years.

Policymakers will need to consider the larger social and economic conditions associated with efforts to decarbonize the U.S. energy system if the nation is to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. These broader considerations of future energy policy play a core role within the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s recently released report Accelerating Decarbonization in the United States: Technology, Policy, and Societal Dimensions, which details the varying dimensions of research and policy activities that are needed throughout the next 30 years to reach net-zero emissions by midcentury.

While natural gas production has continued to expand throughout the Appalachian region, the surrounding communities have yet to experience the economic and social benefits that were initially seen as surefire byproducts of the natural gas industry’s growing footprint within the area, according to a new report. The newly released study by the Ohio River Valley Institute weighs the impact natural gas production has had on the national economy against the continuing decline of jobs, income, and population levels throughout the Appalachian region.

A working paper from the Innovation Growth Lab (IGL) series featuring researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition provides causal evidence on the effectiveness of innovation vouchers and adds to the argument for implementing small-scale government funding mechanisms like innovation vouchers. Innovation vouchers are designed to link small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with external knowledge resources to promote small-scale innovations.

The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) is building a program to create new career pathways for low-income rural students. Through a partnership with the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development at Purdue University, the program will address the needs of rural employers by creating a model to identify rural workforce needs, developing stakeholder partnerships, mapping workforce pathways, recruiting and supporting low-income rural learners, and building entrepreneurship and leadership skills. In a press release, APLU noted that the program will work to help low-income rural students looking for their first career options while helping non-traditional working-learners, such as displaced workers.

Already weakened before the pandemic, a new report from the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) finds that the health and readiness of the U.S. defense industrial base — composed of manufacturers, technology innovators, and systems integrators, research organizations, and suppliers — faces particularly large obstacles in the areas of innovation and supply chain. Assessed along eight different metrics, NDIA assigns an overall letter grade indicating the health and readiness of the defense industrial base. This year’s report assigned the final grade of a “C,” which is a passing grade, but leaves much room for improvement.

The first area NDIA identifies as one of concern is innovation, which it says has declined since 2018. The driving factor for this poor innovation score is a drastic decrease in average annual patent applications in both the manufacturing and scientific R&D services industries.

Editor’s notes. Feb. 18: We have updated the article to reflect assignments to key subcommittees in both the House and Senate. 

Nearly a month into the 117th Congress, formal committee assignments are being announced. The highest-priority committees for tech-based economic development policies are those affecting science and small business issues. The lists, below, provide a description of those committees in the Senate and House for the next two years.

Senate Commerce Committee

The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation authorizes policies and programs related to trade, manufacturing, science and transportation, including the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Build to Scale program at the Economic Development Administration (EDA), as well as shared responsibility for the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program with the small business committee.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the country’s reliance on overseas manufacturing production when there was a lack of medical supplies and equipment to treat those affected by the virus as supply chains were reliant on supplies from outside the country. A recent report from Heartland Forward finds that many domestic and foreign companies are recognizing the strategic advantages of locating in the U.S. and are considering reshoring operations. With the heartland’s historic manufacturing capabilities and its remaining culture, skills and infrastructure to support production facilities, it stands to benefit the most from reshoring activity, and bipartisan support for such an effort has never been stronger, the report maintains. Heartland Forward defines the heartland as the 20 states located largely between the Appalachian Mountains and the Rockies.