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The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employment and Training Administration (ETA) released a federal funding opportunity (FFO) for the America’s Promise Job Driven Grant Program.

The Department of Labor (DOL) announced that it will commit up to $90 million for the newly established ApprenticeshipUSA initiative with the intent to double and diversify the number of apprenticeships by 2018. Through the ApprenticeshipUSA program, the DOL will coordinate efforts with industry and education leaders, nonprofits, and local governments to accelerate and expand state apprenticeship strategies and grow the use of apprenticeships in new industries.

The Biden administration this week took a significant step in its efforts to catalyze expansion and modernization of the U. S. semiconductor industry, with the announcement of how it will begin to deploy $50 billion of funding under the CHIPS and Science Act, with $39 billion of the funding intended for incentives for the construction, expansion, or modernization of commercial facilities for the front- and back-end fabrication of leading-edge, current-generation, and mature-node semiconductors, all with a goal of returning semiconductor manufacturing to the U.S.

In his budget proposal, Maryland Gov.

Although men and whites still make up the largest share of the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) workforce, it has been gradually diversifying over the past 10 years, with increased representation of women and underrepresented minorities — that is, Hispanics or Latinos, Blacks or African Americans, and American Indians or Alaska Natives, according to the 2023 biennial report, Diversity and STEM: Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities, from the National Center

In a recent economic brief, Why Are Startups Important for the Economy?, the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond provides a comprehensive review of the current literature around startups, their impact on productivity and job creation rates, and their significance in the U.S. economy.  

The U.S. Department of Treasury has announced its approval of $801.4 million in SSBCI funding for eleven U.S. states and territories: Arkansas, Delaware, Guam, Kentucky, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, Tennessee, the U.S.

The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) announced approximately $100 million in grant funds for the TechHire partnership grant program. The ETA anticipates that it will make up to 35 grants to support  pilot and scale public-private workforce development partnerships that can rapidly train workers for and connect them to well-paying, middle- and high-skilled, and high-growth jobs across a diversity of H-1B industries such as Information Technology (IT), healthcare, advanced manufacturing, financial services, and broadband.

Differences in per capita innovation capacity between urban and rural regions are not as large as previously believed according to a recent working paper from the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES). The study’s conclusions reduce the difference by a factor of three.

This week, Rep. David Cicilline (RI) announced that he will resign his seat in the U.S. House, effective June 1, 2023, to become the president and CEO of the Rhode Island Foundation.

The 2020 pandemic was unique when it came to changes in the labor market. Unlike in previous recessions, most layoffs from the pandemic were temporary. While employment is back to pre-pandemic levels, the recovery has been uneven across states and industries, leaving some states still with a deficit while others have grown past 2019 levels.

On average, Black households engaged in entrepreneurial activity have a higher rate of return on their business in comparison to Hispanic and white households, according to an Economic Commentary from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. Public policy encouraging and supporting minority entrepreneurship and innovation pays profits as well as social dividends, the study reveals.

On Wednesday, President Obama launched a new National Strategic Computing Initiative (NSCI) by executive order. The multi-agency effort will seek partnerships with academia and industry to build high-performance computing systems capable of exascale processing and more than 10 times as fast as existing supercomputers.

The NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), a national public-private partnership initiative within the US.

The Economic Development Administration (EDA) recently issued a Request for Information (RFI) on the Regional Technology and Innovation Hub (Tech Hubs) program.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced initial guidance on the design of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) program, created under the Inflation Reduction Act. EPA published two Federal Assistance Listings outlining key parameters of the grant competitions that will ultimately award nearly $27 billion to leverage private capital for clean energy and clean air investments across the country.

Editor's note: The Senate appropriations subcommittees were formally updated after this article originally published. They have been updated to reflect new assignments.

The U.S. National Science Foundation announced a new $60 million investment led by NSF's Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships — the Accelerating Research Translation, or ART, program. The program will build capacity and infrastructure at higher education institutions that are needed to strengthen and scale the translation of basic research outcomes into impactful solutions and practice.

This week, the U.S. Department of Commerce updated its timeline for funding opportunities that support semiconductor and related manufacturing, as well as relevant R&D facilities. The department still intends, as first stated in its strategic plan last fall, to make funding for chip fabrication facilities available later this month.

Although freshman enrollment in higher education increased 4.3% in fall 2022 compared to the previous year, total enrollment declined by 0.6% and still remains below pre-pandemic levels. Total enrollment of both undergraduate and graduate levels is down about 1.11 million students (5.8%) compared to fall 2019. Freshman enrollment in community colleges, which had taken a greater hit during the pandemic, is up 6.1% over fall 2019.

The Department of Labor (DOL) announced that it will award $450 million in job-driven training grants to nearly 270 community colleges across the country via the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) competitive grant program, which is co-administered by the DOL and Department of Education. The awards are to support community college-industry partnerships that will expand and improve education and career training programs offered at community colleges across the country.

On Tuesday, Feb. 1, SSTI’s new TBED Community of Practice hosted its first webinar as part of a multi-year effort to build capacity among Economic Development Administration (EDA) grantees to achieve greater impacts and strengthen the overall practice of technology-based economic development (TBED). Webinar participants learned about new funding sources and how they can support regional innovation economies.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) requests input from stakeholders on place-based innovation activities leveraging research institutions, such as (but not limited to) DOE’s national laboratories and sites. Feedback collected as part of this RFI will inform DOE’s future program planning and development efforts. The RFI is an opportunity to provide input on how DOE can catalyze and sustain place-based ecosystems across the country.

This past December, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) sent out letters of encouragement, or discouragement, to applicants in the competition for up to $7 billion in federal funding to support the development of regional hydrogen hubs. Of the 79 original applicants, 33 were advised to move forward with writing a full application.