SSTI Digest

The momentum building in the 21 “Building Better Regions” (BBR) projects is growing, and RTI, the leader of the BBBRC Community of Practice, and SSTI are seeing positive impacts and approaches to collaborative regional innovation that could benefit other practitioners and TBED stakeholders if made aware of the success.

SC Launch Inc., the investment affiliate of the South Carolina Research Authority, was named in PitchBook’s 2025 Global League Table for the Southeast region. The ranking award is attributed to SC Launch Inc.’s acceleration in investment activity during recent months. Since July of 2025, with a significant increase in the last quarter of the year, SC Launch Inc. has invested almost $4 million in 12 high-growth startups from across the state.  

Mar 26, 2026 

On March 17, Indiana Gov. Mike Braun revealed a new tax credit initiative aimed at creating 100,000 high-wage agriculture and life sciences jobs over the next decade, with the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) committing $1 billion in tax credits toward those jobs. The initiative stems from an executive order from Braun last year directing Indiana’s 15 economic regions to submit formal growth plans to boost economies, per capita income, and educational attainment. To qualify for the credit, jobs will have to pay 125% of a county’s median annual wage. 

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker recently signed the Clean & Reliable Grid Affordability Act, which seeks to make energy more affordable, including the incentivizing of battery storage and kick-starting nuclear power and renewable energy development in the state. 

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves announced that Elon Musk’s company, xAI, is investing over $20 billion in his state to build a new data center and power plant in Southaven. The center represents the largest single investment in the state’s history, Reeves said.

As we come to the end of February, more than half of the governors have either delivered their 2026 State of the State, their Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 Budget addresses, or a combination of the two, laying out their priorities for the coming year. With forecasted revenues for many states tightening, many governors and lawmakers, with a few exceptions, offer cautious or constrained funding priorities and proposed initiatives.

The proposed Biomanufacturing Excellence Act of 2025 would establish a single National Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing Center of Excellence within the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). H.R. 6089 was introduced by Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA) with bipartisan cosponsors and paired with a Senate companion bill (S. 3188) led by Senators Chris Coons (D-DE) and Ted Budd (R-NC). It authorizes $120 million in FY 2026 for NIST to conduct a competitive process to select one non-federal entity to build and operate the center. Eligible applicants include public-private partnerships, institutions of higher education, and multi-institution consortia. Because only a single awardee will be chosen, the proposed legislation likely sets up what is likely to be a stiff competition among many states which have made life sciences and manufacturing key elements of their innovation strategies.

NSF’s Regional Resilience Innovation Incubator (R2I2) project has awarded Phase 1 funding to six teams, each addressing specific regional climate challenges and demonstrating solutions. The award includes funding for a seventh team to create the R2I2 National Office, which will support the collective and coordinated implementation of R2I2 award activities.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has asked the state legislature to inject $113 million into programs that support the commonwealth’s innovation economy—including $50 million for the PA Innovation Program, which provides a $30 million allocation specifically designated for the commercialization of life sciences and a $20 million fund to “support large-scale innovation, match federal awards to mitigate risks for start-ups, and leverage Pennsylvania’s best-in-class research and development assets.” Shapiro presented his FY 2025-2026 budget proposal and policy recommendations to state lawmakers in his Feb.

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.

Recent headlines have been full of discussion on cryptocurrencies and speculation on significant changes in federal policy related to the technology. Anticipating federal action, leaders of several states are exploring ways to get their own jurisdictions involved in the space. Here are some recent examples, drawing from proposed legislation to implemented policies and structures for acceptance of the financial innovation:

States Considering Bitcoin Reserves

The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) recently awarded  $14.5 million in Appalachian Regional Initiative for Stronger Economies (ARISE) grants for five projects. ARISE is ARC’s multi-state initiative that aims to drive large-scale, regional economic transformation through collaborative projects.

Despite being hit with a recession brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the latest 5-year impact report from Ben Franklin Technology Partners (BFTP) shows even higher growth than the previous five years. The most recent analysis, The Economic Impact of Ben Franklin Technology Partners, reveals that BFTP generated $400 million in tax receipts for the state and boosted Pennsylvania’s overall economy by $6.1 billion between 2017 and 2021, contributing to an overall boost of more than $30 billion since the program began more than 40 years ago.

The BFTP impact study, conducted by KLIOS Consulting and Econsult Solutions Inc., also found that BFTP invested in 612 companies across the commonwealth and generated 5,874 jobs in client firms, plus an additional 10,132 spinoff positions for a total of 16,006 new Pennsylvania jobs.