SSTI Digest

The Kauffman Foundation has announced 17 organizations will share the $1.5 million in funding allocated through their Heartland Challenge. These grantees will work to solve specific challenges entrepreneurs in the heartland region — comprised of Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas — face, and will participate in facilitated, peer-learning communities of practice to share knowledge across the region. “Entrepreneurship represents an opportunity for this region to reverse a decades-long trend of economic decline,” said Melissa Roberts Chapman, Kauffman’s senior program officer in entrepreneurship. “Creating more equitable ecosystems, revitalizing rural communities and accelerating IP-driven business creation are three things we can do to ensure that starting a business in the Heartland isn’t harder than it has to be. In fact, the only way we can regain momentum in the cities and rural areas of Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas, is to work together to meet the challenges ahead of us.” The challenge serves as an opportunity to develop, catalyze, and expand inclusive programs, create communities of practice, and strengthen regional entrepreneurial ecosystems…

A recent hearing by the House science committee provided several experts, including Lee Cheatham from SSTI-member Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, an opportunity to discuss the importance of science and innovation to achieving a “clean energy future.” Comments by the panelists largely focused on the value of public-private partnerships, such as those modeled through SBIR/STTR, prize competitions, and joint research at national labs, to developing innovations that can be transformed by new and established companies into new products and jobs. Questions from the committee members were largely constructive, seeking details on how specific policies and programs could unlock further activities and successes. The committee has worked on nearly 50 energy-related bills so far this session and, based on this hearing, may be considering legislation specific to transforming Department of Energy research before the end of the year.

Exactly 21 years after the SSTI Weekly Digest ran its first story on the digital divide, a recent report by the Government Accountability Office confirms what inestimable studies before it have reported: access to broadband has expanded, but significant shortcomings in broadband still exist. Meanwhile, the Federal Communications Commission has issued new rules to improve collection and mapping of broadband availability. The commission is also seeking comments on proposals to ensure the accuracy of the new broadband coverage maps.

In an hours-long virtual workshop that could have covered days, the presidents of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and leaders from government, academia, and publishing explored key questions the research enterprise must address to build a more effective and resilient 21st century research university. Facing challenges that may have long been present but have been exacerbated and accelerated by the COVID-19 crisis, the leaders began exploring questions that could help research universities rebound to a better place than the pre-pandemic status quo. Facing issues including strained budgets, intellectual property challenges, decreases in state funding, restrictions on international students, racial inequality, laboratory challenges and more, research universities were already grappling with myriad challenges. Speakers in the workshop, from Mary Sue Coleman, president of the Association of American Universities, to Michael Lauer, deputy director for extramural research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and France A. Córdova, the 14th director of the National Science Foundation, the leaders presented a sometimes grim picture of the…

At a time when higher education is facing some of its greatest challenges, its value both for individuals and for states is reinforced through the findings of a recent working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research. In “The Economic Impact of Access to Public Four-Year Colleges,” Jonathan Smith et al. show through an examination of the University System of Georgia that access to public higher education leads to “substantial economic benefits for the marginal student,” and that the state roughly breaks even on its initial investment after 10 years. Although other studies have provided descriptive evidence that identify colleges as catalysts for economic mobility, the authors looked for causal evidence of the linkage and employ a novel approach through credit bureau data.

A new report released by the George W. Bush Institute has measured the impact that innovation research at U.S. universities and research institutions has had on the country’s economic development. The report, The Innovation Impact of U.S. Universities: Rankings and Policy Conclusions, examines and ranks institutions on four primary impact categories: commercialization, entrepreneurship, research, and teaching. These four categories, along side each institution’s total research spending, contributed to the Bush Institute’s rankings, finding that the top 10 universities for innovation impact were: The University of California System The University of Texas System MIT University of Washington University of Michigan University of Florida Columbia University University of Minnesota Stanford University University of Pennsylvania The full report, including the complete rankings of the 195 qualified institutions, can be accessed at the George W. Bush Institute website.

As discussion of innovation ecosystems remains near the front of science, technology, and innovation policy discussions — and resources are spent providing environments for creative exchange between researchers, industry, government, and entrepreneurs — substantive and empirical research is still lagging. However, a recent study sheds new light on the mechanisms and types of interactions that may contribute to the desired outcomes of promoting innovation ecosystems. Specifically, the study evaluates the effectiveness of combining two long-running, potentially complementary programs in encouraging increased engagement among ecosystem groups and individuals. Based on a short-lived program at the National Science Foundation (NSF) — which provided supplemental funding to firms with active SBIR Phase II or Phase IIB awards for membership in Industry-University Cooperative Research Centers (IUCRC) — the study surveyed participating firms to evaluate the program’s effectiveness. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, the researchers explored how participating firms increased and leveraged their social capital through formal and informal interactions with IUCRC…

The majority staff of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis released a “roadmap” this week for the U.S. to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 and net negative emissions through the rest of the century. The plan says these climate goals can be achieved while growing the economy and improving public health. In the area of climate and manufacturing, the committee proposes supporting the building or retrofitting of facilities, creating domestic markets for low-emissions goods, and developing new supply chains in cleantech industries. For innovation, the committee’s proposals include facilitating technology transfer through regional partnerships and a Department of Energy foundation, financing decarbonization technologies, and engaging environmental justice groups in R&D priorities. The full report, “Solving the Climate Crisis: The Congressional Action Plan for a Clean Energy Economy and a Healthy, Resilient, and Just America,” is more than 500 pages, but, to make their recommendations more accessible, staff also released separate factsheets for more than 20 areas of activity.

The PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor Q2 2020 shows that COVID-19 is having an impact on the earliest parts of the venture capital funnel. By extrapolating the first half data through the rest of 2020, initial investments are on pace for a 26 percent decline from 2019, and the fewest total deals since 2010. Continuing this same extrapolation, seed investments are on track for a 36 percent decline in 2020 from 2019 and also the lowest level in at least seven years. Meanwhile, angel investments are on track to finish the year comparably to last year, and late-stage VC investments are on pace for a stronger year than 2019. COVID also appears to be helping the most established VC markets at the expense of the rest of the country, despite the pandemic’s early impacts in those regions. The West Coast and New England (but even more specifically, the Bay Area and Boston) have increased their shares of the nation’s VC dollars during Q2, relative to last year. The rest of the country has seen its share of VC dollars in the second quarter decline from 37 percent in 2019 to 26 percent in Q2 2020 (with much of this investment occurring in New York City).

The total number of science and engineering (S&E) degrees awarded grew from 520,474 in 2000 to 955,401 in 2018, an increase of 83 percent, according to National Science Foundation (NSF) data. The portion of S&E degrees awarded compared to all degrees has increased as well, from a 2000 average of 31 percent of all degrees awarded to an average of 34 percent in 2018. S&E degrees includes bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees in areas such as life sciences, physical sciences and engineering. Over the 19 years, Maryland, Vermont, Washington D.C., and Wyoming took various turns as the state with highest proportion of STEM degrees awarded. During that time period, Washington had the greatest increase of S&E degrees relative to all degrees over time with an 11 percentage point increase (30 percent of all degrees awarded being concentrated in STEM in 2000 to 41 percent in 2018). Other states with the largest increases in percentage points of S&E degrees to all degrees awarded include Nevada (8 percent), Connecticut (8 percent), Michigan (7 percent), Delaware (7 percent), Alaska (7 percent), Maryland (6 percent), , New Mexico (6 percent),…

The Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation is making a $194.7 million grant to advance research and economic development at the University of Arkansas and will allow a new research institute to become reality. The grant is expected to grow the university’s cross-disciplinary research capability, expand the scope of discoveries made by U of A researchers and increase the speed in transferring such discoveries to the marketplace. The new research institute, the Institute for Integrative and Innovative Research (I3R), will receive the bulk of the grant, and will create a flexible, collaborative framework that will facilitate the integration of research across five overlapping clusters of innovation: materials science and engineering; food and technology; bioscience and bioengineering research in metabolism; data science; and, integrative systems neuroscience. The $88 million earmarked for the institute will include funding for endowed chairs and faculty positions, faculty start-up matching funds, industry liaison and support, and more. The I3R research facility will receive $89 million in funding. Another $3.5 million will be used for entrepreneurship education and $…

The final wave of state career and technical education (CTE) plans have been approved under the new Perkins V Act, with innovation and workforce taking a front seat in the plans. Perkins V encourages states and territories to expand opportunities for every student to access educational opportunities that will put them on the path to success. Each state and territory crafted a plan to fulfill its promise of offering a robust CTE option for students following consultation with its key constituents representing education and workforce, business and industry, and parents and community partners. To date, the U.S. Department of Education has approved 42 Perkins plans and nine Workforce Innovation and Opportunities Act (WIOA) Combined State Plans that include career and technical education. California and Palau have been granted an extension to submit their plans due to COVID-19 disruptions. The following is just a brief sampling of some of the recently-approved plans’ elements. More information from each state is available on the department’s website. Arkansas  Promotes a skilled workforce through its “Be Pro Be Proud” initiative, a hands-on…