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On April 8, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that the Excelsior Scholarship program will be included in the state’s FY 2018 budget, after having been approved by the legislature. In its first year, the state will commit $163 million to provide tuition-free options for New Yorkers from ‘middle-class’ families at the state’s public institutions of higher education. Under the Excelsior Scholarship program, students can attend any of the colleges or universities that comprise the State University of New York and the City University of New York systems. After completing their degree, the scholarship requires that recipients must work or live in the state after graduation for the same number of years that they receive support. Cuomo contends that over 75 percent of the state’s 940,000 families with college-aged children would qualify for the program.

The federal FY 2018 budget process is well underway, and SSTI members have participated in record numbers to ask Congress to prioritize funding for the Regional Innovation Strategies program. Member organizations, working with SSTI and The Sheridan Group, co-signed 60 appropriations requests to congressional offices and helped to secure 39 signatures on a “Dear Colleague” letter by Reps. David Cicilline (D-RI) and Randy Hultgren (R-IL).

While the Department of Commerce (DOC) has incorporated several key practices for enhancing and sustaining interagency collaboration around the Manufacturing USA network, the agency needs to develop a better a governance system that outlines the responsibilities and role of non-sponsoring agencies (e.g. Department of Labor, Department of Education) in the network, according to a new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). The report makes recommendations to DOC with the intent of increasing the involvement of non-sponsoring agencies in helping support the 11 innovation institutes that comprise the Manufacturing USA network.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on Friday that it had reached the congressionally mandated 65,000 visa H-1B cap for FY 2018, just five days after opening the application process. USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions that are otherwise exempt from the cap. This year, petitioners were unable to apply for premium processing, which has been temporarily suspended. USCIS has also received “a sufficient number” of H-1B petitions to meet the 20,000 visa U.S. advanced degree exemption, also known as the master’s cap.

Broadband connectivity is foundational for regional competitiveness in the global economy, prompting more states and communities to develop innovative solutions to expand high-quality broadband access for their businesses, residents, education systems and public sector. Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam provided one of the most recent examples of the trend by signing legislation making it easier for municipalities and cooperative boards to deliver broadband connectivity in underrepresented communities throughout the Volunteer State. Considerable socioeconomic and political challenges remain for communities interested in providing broadband service at the municipal level.

While the U.S. remains the global leader in overall R&D spending, China has surpassed the U.S. in later stage technological investments, according to a new report by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). At its current rate of growth, the authors find that China’s investment in later-stage R&D could double that of the U.S. by 2018. Their analysis suggests that there is significant potential for the U.S to get more out of its R&D by strengthening the relationships between industry and research institutions.

Innovation in the energy sector requires strong leadership from the federal government to help mitigate potential risks, according to a recent report by the American Energy Innovation Council (AEIC), a project of the Bipartisan Policy Center. The AEIC is a group of ten private sector leaders that includes Bill Gates, the heads of industry giants like Dominion Energy and Southern Company, and retired leaders of corporations such as Lockheed Martin and DuPont.

U.S. companies spent 18 percent of their research and development dollars outside of the United States in 2013, according to data recently released by the NSF. The $73 billion in foreign R&D is concentrated in the information industry, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, and automobiles and parts. Those four industries accounted for 52 percent of all foreign R&D performance by U.S.

New legislation in Maryland that takes effect in June provides $1 million in workforce development scholarships and builds on current apprenticeship programs, while also providing tax incentives for new and existing manufacturers to create jobs in areas of the state that need them most. Gov. Larry Hogan signed the More Jobs for Marylanders Act into law last week, a key piece of his jobs initiative. The new legislation establishes scholarships for eligible students enrolled in job training programs at community colleges, and contains measures to encourage high schools to offer additional vocational training, as well as requiring state agencies to analyze their registered apprenticeship programs.

U.S. Senators Cory Gardner (R-CO) and Gary Peters (D-MI) sent a letter requesting a 4 percent increase in appropriations for the National Science Foundation and National Institute of Standards and Technology to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The White House announced an executive order to review the H-1B visa program, and the accompanying language suggests the administration’s interest in reforms to emphasize applicant skills and wages.

Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney lifted the federal hiring freeze last week and asked agencies to plan for workforce reductions.

According to the most recent U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis state personal income data, national per capita income grew 4.0 percent from 2015 to 2016, and growth since 2012 is at 12.0 percent. States are experiencing this growth disparately, however, with five-year growth rates ranging from -0.6 percent (North Dakota) to 17.6 percent (California). Over this period, few states experienced significant changes in their performance relative to their peers — just four states moved more than five rankings — but shifts between income quintiles and variable growth rates suggest that more movement will be witnessed over the next few years.

This weekend’s March for Science in Washington, D.C., and another 517 satellite locations across the globe, will be marked with teach-ins and rallies, and will be live-streamed as a virtual march as well. The march is intended to serve as “a call for politicians to implement science based policies, as well as a public celebration of science and the enormous public service it provides in our democracy, our economy, and our daily lives.”

This weekend also marks Earth Day, and the U.S. Census Bureau provided some facts pertaining to energy and the environment:

Although the U.S. National Institutes of Health may face decreased funding under the new presidential administration, recently published research in Science argues that public investments in biomedical research play an important role in driving private sector R&D. In an analysis of 365,380 grants awarded by the U.S.

On March 28, the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) announced nearly $2.5 million in grants to expand and diversify the economy in coal-impacted communities across multiple states. With this latest announcement, ARC has now invested $75.5 million (leveraging an additional $142 million in investments) to diversify the economy in 236 coal-impacted counties across nine Appalachian states through the Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization (POWER) Initiative. The new round of investments are intended to create and retain hundreds of jobs in advanced manufacturing and agriculture; build a workforce pipeline through the region’s community colleges; and, identify additional economic opportunities for economic growth.

To recruit more STEM students to teach in their field after graduation, pay them more money says a study by the American Physical Society (APS). Recognizing that innovation relies heavily on STEM initiatives and an educated workforce, the APS in collaboration with the American Chemical Society, Computing Research Association, and Mathematics Teacher Education Partnership set out to learn what discourages students in STEM from eventually teaching the subjects. Although STEM students who responded to a survey indicated they may be interested in the teaching profession, their misconceptions about salary and other factors seem to be keeping them out of teaching.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich is one of the last governors to deliver a state of the state address, which he did Tuesday evening. The former presidential contender assured the audience that he is “not running for anything,” but wanted to thank those who worked on managing the state budget. He used the address to focus on a variety of topics, including tech and innovation initiatives in the state, and educational efforts to support those industries. Kasich did not read a prepared speech and the following comments were taken from a transcript of his address:

Billion dollar acquisitions and IPOs of young startups capture a lot of media attention, but they are not the norm for the market by any means. Exits do not need to be measured in the billions of dollars to have significant economic development benefit for the states and regions that make sustained investments into startup innovation firms. An SSTI analysis of the Pitchbook and Crunchbase investment databases reveals a number of recent exits by venture development organizations (VDOs) that may provide funding to re-invest in even more innovation-based startups in their regions. Our analysis reveals that many of the acquired companies appear to be maintaining their local operations as they use the acquisition funds to scale. Several examples from the past quarter alone demonstrate the value of the VDO approach to supporting regional prosperity.

The number of companies receiving venture capital investments during the first quarter of 2017 dropped 24 percent compared to a year ago, according to the latest NVCA-Pitchbook Venture Capital Monitor, released Tuesday.  Venture capitalists also parted with 12 percent less money during the quarter, suggesting to the report’s authors that 2017 is on pace to compare to 2013 levels.

SSTI is pleased to announce the call for applications for the 2017 SSTI Creating a Better Future Awards program. The new title of the program is intended to better reflect the ever-changing field of tech-based economic development and celebrate exceptional initiatives that create a better future through science, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship.

As a recipient of a Creating a Better Future Award, your initiative represents a standard of excellence that has been recognized by your peers through a competitive selection process.

Between 2010 and 2015, the vast majority of metro areas experienced growth in gross metropolitan product (GMP), led by energy-intensive regions such as Odessa, TX, and Bismarck, ND, according to an SSTI analysis of recently released data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). The Elkhart, IN, and San Jose, CA, metropolitan areas experienced the largest increase in GMP per capita over the same period.

While the number of companies receiving venture capital (VC) backing continues to decline, the amount of money invested remains near record levels. As of Q3, the annual investment total for 2016 is approximately $56 billion invested across 6,000 companies.

While academics and policymakers have rushed to embrace venture capital (VC) investors, they have had a tendency to neglect other entrepreneurial financiers (specifically angel investors) who critically affect the success and growth of new ventures, according to a new study from Josh Lerner of the Harvard Business School and Antoinette Schoar of the MIT Sloan School of Management.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a report calling for reforms aimed at patent “trolls” to help lower the number of frivolous lawsuits filed by shell companies, a move welcomed by the tech industry that has pushed for reform because of the cost of lawsuits that result from the activity and its negative effect on innovation, research and development.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is seeking preliminary proposals for $18.5 million in funding to support the Smart & Connected Communities (S&CC) program. The NSF expects to make 18–29 awards in the following four categories:

Practitioners in the technology-based economic development field often face questions about what they do, or what the field entails. The answer can be a challenge. Is it attracting high-quality jobs and businesses to an area, finding capital to finance science and tech startups, STEM education support, educating a new workforce, bringing research ideas to the marketplace, partnering with other organizations to achieve all those goals? It can be a mouthful, and it can be difficult to convey all those ideas in simple terms.