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Today, the Supreme Court ended Affirmative Action on college campuses.

Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont has signed into law a bill that establishes a green jobs corps program. This program will identify a talent development strategy for communities to address the impacts of climate change and reduce carbon emissions. The bill includes several provisions to accomplish those goals and a plan to market and recruit these jobs to individuals, especially from underrepresented populations.

The U.S.

The Economic Development Administration (EDA) has updated its Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) Content Guidelines, effective April 2023. CEDS are strategy-driven plans for economic development prepared through a regionally owned planning process.

The U.S.

The House and Senate are working toward FY 2024 appropriations, but not even a negotiated agreement has kept the chambers moving in the same direction. Today, the Senate appropriations committee directed its subcommittees to produce bills that align with the slight reduction in non-defense spending agreed to in the debt ceiling agreement reached earlier this month.

The Distressed Area Recompete Pilot Program (Recompete Pilot Program)—authorized by the CHIPS and Science Act— will invest $200 million toward interventions that spur economic activity in geographically diverse and persistently distressed communities nationwide. The program will support economic revitalization in distressed communities across the country.

On May 30, 2023, FCC released a broadband map that had been updated to reflect states' challenges to the availability data for more than 4 million locations throughout the U.S. Seventy-five percent of those challenges had been resolved in the new map. The new map reflected a net increase of more than one million new serviceable locations that had not appeared on the previous map.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) have all made recent announcements on new funding provided either through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law or the CHIPS and Science Act. DoE is accepting applications for an $80 million program focused on benefiting small and medium-sized manufacturing firms. USDA and MEP announced more than 170 awards to expand innovative uses of wood and to address supply chain issues.

As part of the country’s single biggest investment in science in 40 years, the UK unveiled a new investment in UK talent and skills aimed at growing and attracting the best in science and innovation. Last week, UK business secretary Greg Clark outlined a £1.3 billion ($1.72 billion) investment for British universities and businesses to develop the next generation of entrepreneurs, innovators and scientific leaders.

In last week’s Digest, SSTI looked at several macro venture capital (VC) trends, this week’s Useful Stats article focuses on regional trends as well as provides downloadable VC stats by state by quarter from Q1 of 2016 to Q2 of 2018. The data includes median VC deal size, VC deals, and VC dollars invested.

On June 14, 2023, NSF announced 34 semifinalists for the first-ever NSF Regional Innovation Engines (NSF Engines) competition. The NSF Engines will be led by universities, nonprofits, businesses, and other organizations from across U.S. states and territories. Each NSF Engine could receive up to $160 million over 10 years; actual amounts will be subject to a given NSF Engine's status and overall progress, as assessed annually.

Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Director Laurie E. Locascio announced five leaders joining the CHIPS Research and Development Office within CHIPS for America.

The upshot of the debt ceiling deal recently approved by Congress is that all nondefense discretionary spending will remain at its current level of $638 billion in FY 2024, which begins October 1. Additionally, some funds were marked for recission, including $150 million from the State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI). All jurisdictions that have been approved or have applied for SSBCI funding will not see a decrease in their funds, according to an email from Treasury regarding SSBCI.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has released its plans to invest $2.6 billion in coastal resilience funded by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). These funds will support communities on the frontlines of climate change, restore marine resources, improve weather and climate data and services, strengthen NOAA's research airplane and ship fleet, invest in critical infrastructure, and more. Of particular interest to Digest readers will be funding for ocean-based climate resilience accelerators and climate-ready workforce.

Republican dissatisfaction with colleges and universities has been growing for some time. The Pew Research Center detected growing discontent with colleges and universities in 2012 and found that from 2015 to 2019, the number of individuals saying colleges and universities have a negative effect on the country went from 37% to 59%.

NSF designed the recently awarded NSF Engine Type 1 development awards to bring technology-based solutions to bear on many critical challenges facing our nation. These challenges include climate change and sustainability, and this week we are highlighting three SSIT members whose NSF Engine proposals focus on sustainability.

Corporate laboratories were hotspots for U.S. innovation for most of the twentieth century. Large firms, such as DuPont or Bell Labs, acted as epicenters for research and development activities, driving investment in frontier technologies underserved by university researchers at the time. By the 1980s, however, many of these powerhouses of industrial research began to cut back on their research programs, paving the way for universities and startups to emerge as new centers of innovation.

Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) was one of several legislators who participated in SXSW, including on a panel that also featured Ben Johnson of BioSTL representing SSTI’s Innovation Advocacy Council.

The Appalachian Regional Commission has released a request for proposals for the 2018 POWER (Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization) Program.

Just before the 2023 Memorial Day weekend, the Texas Senate passed and sent the Texas CHIPS Act bill to the governor’s desk. The legislation creates the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Consortium in a bid to protect the state’s competitive standing for future federal funding and authorizes the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund. The recently passed Texas budget appropriates $1.3 million for the Consortium, but it does not appear that there is a dedicated appropriation in the budget bill for the Fund.

The recently awarded NSF Engine Type 1 development awards are intended to bring technology-based economic development to vast swaths of the US landscape, including those that Silicon Valley and Boston have long overshadowed. This week we kick off an examination of some of the proposals led by SSTI members that were selected by NSF for funding.

Each year, more than 703,000 federally aided students enroll in one of the 1,800 career training programs, according to a Department of Education fact sheet. Unfortunately, the typical graduate of these programs leaves with unaffordable debt or earns less than a high school graduate in their state. Sometimes, these programs shut down with little warning, leaving students in the lurch.

This week, the U.S. Department of the Treasury approved the state of Mississippi and 15 Tribal Governments for State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) awards. Mississippi is receiving $86 million to launch four programs, including a $15 million fund investment program and an $11 million direct investment program.

The United Kingdom government recently released a new industrial strategy that outlines a number of striking commitments. These include a plan to increase R&D spending from 1.7 percent to 2.4 percent of GDP, £406 million for STEM training, £1 billion for network infrastructure and a new £2.5 billion investment fund. Like many similar U.S.