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SSTI encourages organizations dedicated to serving entrepreneurs to participate in the creation of a new primary data set on the impacts resulting from your efforts. The deadline for participation is August 16.

Some states are better positioned for success in the data economy than others, but all have opportunities for growth, according to a recent report from the Center for Data Innovation. To determine The Best States for Data Innovation authors Daniel Castro, Josh New, and John Wu use 25 indicators across three dimensions: data availability, digital infrastructure, and human and business resources. The authors suggest that all states are capable of improving their capacity for data-driven innovation. To do so, they recommend that state policymakers: make their data accessible and transparent; develop infrastructure items such as broadband Internet and smart connectivity; and, support the use of data to make existing industries more competitive.

Using the latest data update of the National Science Foundation’s National Patterns of R&D Resources series, this article, the third and final of SSTI’s series on basic research, describes how the performers of R&D and basic research in the U.S. have changed over time.

Over the past week, the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations has passed bills to fund commerce and science, transportation, energy and water and agriculture. Regional Innovation Strategies would be funded at $21 million, an increase of $4 million over FY 2017. Other innovation proposals received mixed support, as the Senate cut $3.2 billion from commerce, justice and science funding and another $400 million from agriculture.

As we enter the second half of 2017, the U.S. venture capital (VC) market is driven by several noticeable trends. After peaking in 2015, the current VC market continues its slow decline in the number of deals, but Q2 of 2017 saw a spike in mega-rounds – rounds of $100 million or more. These mega-rounds are accompanied by strong fundraising efforts including a record-setting mega fund launch.

The number of minority-owned employer firms in the United States inched closer to the million-mark in 2015 after growing by 4.9 percent from the previous year, according to recently published data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs. The 996,248 minority-owned employer firms in the U.S. employed roughly 8.0 million people in 2015 (6.2 percent increase from 2014) and had payrolls of $254.0 billion (8.0 percent increase from 2014).

From Main Street businesses to technology startups, research has shown the rate of new business formation in the United States has plummeted since the 1970s. In the past year, the Digest has frequently cited research from the Economic Innovation Group (EIG), the Kauffman Foundation, and the Federal Reserve on the impacts of declining dynamism on America’s economic outlook. A recent letter by economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco suggests that an often-overlooked aspect of business formation is the availability of labor, and that policies that seek to improve and deepen the labor pool may help increase new business growth.

The second in SSTI’s series on basic research, this article focuses on the ways that the funding sources of R&D and basic research have changed over time. Ultimately, the nature of basic research – long horizons, unknown rewards, and high costs – indicates why some sectors, namely the private sector, may seek shorter term options. A better understanding of the changing nature of funding sources for basic research may be useful in understanding the current state of research and development in the U.S.

Innovation in the United States, once a hallmark of economic success, finds itself resting on an increasingly weak foundation, according to an article in The New York Times. The author, Eduardo Porter, suggests that two trends – increased international competition and a stagnant R&D-to-GDP ratio – pose key challenges for the U.S. First, government funding for basic research continues to fall and is politically vulnerable. Second, evidence suggests that American corporations are walking away from basic science as well. Each of these challenges, Porter notes, bodes poorly for American progress. Using a variety of data sources, this Digest series provides a long-term analysis to assess how basic research has changed over time within the larger context of research and development in the United States.

Restoring America’s competitive edge requires a new approach to managing suppliers, one where all the players are connected, collaborative, and focused on maximizing shared value – a “smart supply chain” – says a new report from MForesight.

An SSTI analysis of exits occurring during the second quarter by a number of venture development organizations reveals equity investment in innovation companies undertaken as strategic public-private partnerships for regional growth can yield more for their communities than just hitting the return on investment expectations of seed and traditional venture capital. The recent exits highlighted below reveal a variety of economic development impacts resulting from effective innovation investment strategies, including:

Presently, the IRS provides private foundations a tax break if they show a trend of exceeding qualifying distribution requirements (grants).

In a recent paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), the authors contend the U.S. Patent Office (USPTO) has created a lottery-type system that creates great economic benefit for startups and other patent-seekers that drew lenient patent examiners. In What Is A Patent Worth? Evidence from The U.S.