Over two years, President Obama signed the JOBS Act, a bill authorizing a variety of significant changes to securities laws. Among those changes, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was mandated with implementing rules for equity crowdfunding within 270 days – approximately January 2013. However, the rules still remain in draft form.
With a recent request for information (RFI), the National Science Foundation began soliciting comments on the potential establishment of a national network of big data regional innovation hubs. These hubs will help to continue and scale up the activities and partnerships launched under the National Big Data R&D Initiative and also serve as a catalyst for economic prosperity by supporting the growth of the U.S. big data industry.
Ahead of the 2013 legislative sessions, groups in Florida and Wisconsin unveiled reports on revamping higher education to better fulfill workforce needs and strengthening sectors most likely to produce jobs. In Florida, Gov. Rick Scott's Blue Ribbon Task Force on Higher Education urged differentiated tuition making it more affordable for students to pursue in-demand careers.
The U.S. Department of Commerce released a solicitation (EDA-HDQ-OIE-2014-2004219) for Regional Innovation Grants via the 2014 Regional Innovation Strategies (RIS) program. Under the RIS program, Commerce is soliciting applications for three separate Regional Innovation Strategy funding awards, including:
The Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana metropolitan area is home to the largest number of manufacturing jobs in the country, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Approximately 510,900 people are employed by manufacturing firms in the Los Angeles metro, about 100,000 more than in the Chicago-Joliet-Naperville area, which is ranked second for manufacturing employment. Other top metros include New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown and Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington.
The Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) announced that it received state-backing for its Cybersecurity Investment Fund (CIF) – a fund that helps companies across the state develop and commercialize new cybersecurity products. TEDCO will make investments of up to $100,000 to help companies achieve early technical milestones that are critical to the commercialization process.
An Aug 22 Readwrite post drew our attention to a potential “peak app” period arising. That wasn’t the intended conclusion of the ComScore, Inc. according to the authors of the white paper, The U.S. Mobile App Report.
Most R&D expenditures are concentrated across just a handful of states, according to recent NSF data on how research and development is funded in the United States. In 2011, nearly two-thirds of all research and development expenditures came from private sources. In the wake of the nation’s federal stimulus package that saw an upswing in government spending on research and development, most states are beginning to rely more on innovation that stems from R&D conducted and paid for by private sources rather than the federal government.
Maryland's Innovation Initiative (MII), launched earlier this year, unveiled two inaugural programs on Monday aimed at commercializing technologies at the state's universities. The new Innovation Discovery Program will help universities identify promising technologies and potential collaborations by reimbursing them for the costs of employing on-site, part-time "site miners." The Innovation Commercialization Program will provide cash awards to support research, commercialization planning and product development.
As evidenced in the recent presidential debates and on the campaign trails, STEM teaching and learning is a national priority for maintaining global competiveness. Several universities and foundations have taken the lead, working with partners to design innovative learning tools and create research-based, professional development support for new math and science teachers.
As the rate of foreign students earning doctorates from American universities increases — from 17 percent of the total science, engineering, and health doctoral degrees in the 1960s to nearly 40 percent in 2010 — the question is where do these foreign nationals seek work? Do they remain in the United States post-graduation or do they return to their country of origin or do they go elsewhere?
While election night's main focus was on the presidential race, the importance of ballot measures for states and metros is growing as public services and budgets are being severely trimmed. A recent article in The New Republic reports on a new trend where states are embracing ballot measures as a potential source of dedicated funds for targeted investments in regional economic growth and development.
Bloomberg Philanthropies will award $45 million in grants to large U.S. city governments to help improve urban life. Specifically, the foundation hopes to encourage the adoption of the “Innovation Delivery” model in big cities, an approach that relies on in-house innovation consultancy within city halls to deliver data-driven solutions to urban problems. Bloomberg and Nesta released a report on the model earlier this year. The foundation has invited 80 cities to apply.
U.S. state tax revenues declined for the first time since the recent economic crisis, according to reports from the Rockefeller Institute of Government and the Pew Charitable Trusts. The small drop in revenues is not being viewed as a sign of another fiscal collapse, but does indicate that the recovery may be slowing. For the 26 states in which revenues still have not returned to 2008 levels, the slowdown may suggest that a full recovery could still be years away.
Minnesota’s economic future may well be rooted in its historic leadership in agricultural production, according to a new report prepared by Battelle, Agbioscience as a Development Driver: Minnesota Agbioscience Strategy.
About 70 percent of 2011 U.S. business R&D spending occurred in 10 states, according to a report from the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES). California leads the country in overall business R&D, and nearly every top industry. Both the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland and Los Angeles-Long Beach area rank in the top three areas for business research. Other top states include Washington, with high spending on software R&D, and Texas, a leader in semiconductor and mining research.
Recent memoranda issued by the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Science and Technology policy include the support of lab-to-market technology commercialization as a key pillar of cross-agency spending for the upcoming fiscal year. The White House instructs agencies to explain how resources are being redirected from low priority efforts to multi-agency collaborations in specific fields, including advanced manufacturing, clean energy, earth observation, global climate change, information technology, life sciences, homeland security and research policy-making.
As a wave of new freshmen begins to enter the halls of college campuses, a new trend is emerging – students staying. While the idea of students staying an extra year or two might make some parents cringe, in reality, college towns have proven to be an ideal environment not just for young people, but for young companies as well.
More than 60 organizations have signed on to an SSTI-initiated letter urging Congressional leaders to fund the Regional Innovation program at $20 million for FY2015. The Regional Innovation Program was authorized under the American COMPETES Act and is designed to provide funding to support regional innovation activities. The program received its first funding of $10 million in FY2014, and the solicitation for that funding is expected to be issued any day. The Senate has approved $20 million for the program for FY2015, while the House did not provide any funding for the program.
To compete in the global world market, regions must continue to evolve and better understand how best practices support their regional industries, including defining the benchmarks of a successful industry cluster. In a recent academic article from Harvard researchers, Mercedes Delgado, Michael Porter, and Scott Stern unveiled a new algorithm tool that generates and assesses sets of cluster definitions. The new algorithm will be integrated into the U.S. Cluster Mapping Project to help researchers and policymakers cultivate more successful regional clusters.
To revitalize the U.S. manufacturing base, states and private organizations are turning their attention to support university-led, manufacturing Research and Development (R&D) partnerships that reduce the cost of manufacturing domestically and equip U.S. manufacturers with cutting-edge technologies. Responsive to the needs of industry, these partnerships are intended to not only spur innovation, but also support economic prosperity in regions across the country. The Walmart Foundation and Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett announced new funding for university-led manufacturing partnerships.
The National Governor’s Association (NGA) announced that it will provide grants, technical assistance and opportunities to align education and training systems with private sector needs in 14 states. Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia have been selected to receive support to build industry and education partnerships and optimize their workforce-oriented incentives.
Global investors are more confident investing in the U.S. than anywhere else in the world, according to a recent survey from Deloitte and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). Confidence in the U.S. macroeconomy and U.S. investments has now grown for the third straight year and continues to lead among the 12 countries included in the study. Respondents, however, indicated that they had a negative opinion of the country’s investment policy environment. U.S.
In one of his first appearances at a national economic development conference, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development Jay Williams will address SSTI's Annual Conference on September 15 in Chicago.
Within the past few months, several indices have been released that attempt to rank states based on their entrepreneurial activity. From the perspective of economic development agencies, these indices are particularly helpful in assessing where each state stands according to the numerous ways to measure entrepreneurship. These indices, however, should be taken with a grain of salt; issues can arise when too much importance is placed on these lists for the sake of competition or the need for press.