Search

For those readers who have seen their 53rd birthday, it was probably not a remarkable occasion. Perhaps it passed by without notice, and why should it? It isn’t regarded as a major milestone like 21, 50, 60 or 75.  What good is 53? It is often overlooked because we rarely run into it. We put 52 cards in a deck, but 53? We can’t deal with that.

Earth Day probably felt that way this year as Saturday, April 22, went by with fewer people marking its 53rd birthday than in previous years. Collectively, the gifts in its honor seem smaller, less meaningful.

Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves called on business leaders to “lean into” partnerships with the public sector to strengthen the United States’ position as a global tech leader during remarks at a recent Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) summit.

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.

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.

A recent project from the National Bureau of Economic Research used data from the Annual Survey of Manufactures to study the characteristics and geography of investments in robots across U.S. manufacturing establishments and find whether it revealed any impact on the economy. The team found that robotics adoption and intensity is more closely related to the size of the establishment than it is to its age. The study presents results on the distribution of robots in U.S.

Despite being hit with a recession brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the latest 5-year impact report from Ben Franklin Technology Partners (BFTP) shows even higher growth than the previous five years.

The U.S. Small Business Administration finalized new rules that provide more opportunities to leverage the agency’s flagship lending programs to support economic development strategies. The most significant changes in the rules would allow more non-depository lenders (e.g., loan funds) to participate in SBA’s lending programs, make employee ownership transitions an eligible use of loan proceeds, and remove many of the existing underwriting criteria. These changes mean tech-based economic development organizations should consider becoming approved SBA lenders.

The vision and strategy for a National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC), a key part of the R&D program set out in the CHIPS and Science Act, was released this week by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

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.

Late last week, the Economic Development Administration (EDA) released “Tech Hubs Program Fact Sheet,” which provides some information on where the Tech Hubs program is headed. However, the sheet leaves many questions unanswered and raises new questions about how the program will be administered. The program, authorized in the CHIPS and Science Act at $10 billion, received $500 million in funding to date.

Venture capital (VC) activity continued to decline in the first quarter of 2023, according to data from Pitchbook-NVCA Venture Monitor Q1 2023. Total deal count declined, with exit count and venture-growth also slowing, and angel and seed activity hitting a 10-quarter low. The difficulties facing the market grew with tensions from the continuation of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, and high inflation rates.

The European Council and the European Parliament have reached a provisional agreement to strengthen Europe’s semiconductor ecosystem, a deal designed to double the EU’s global market share in semiconductors from 10% to 20% by 2030.

Mark your calendar for Sept. 6-8 to join us in Atlanta for the 2023 SSTI Annual Conference!

Attendees will have the chance to share best practices and problem solve with colleagues who share your passion for innovation. There will be opportunities to explore funding sources to help take your projects to the next level, learn about the latest trends and topics in the innovation economy, and more!

A study titled Incubators, accelerators and urban economic development,[1] published in the Urban Studies Journal last year, found positive impacts on employment and access to capital for participants.

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

The U.S. Census Bureau in February released a new experimental data product designed to better measure the business dynamics of innovative firms (BDS-IF). The new Business Dynamics Statistics of U.S. High Tech Industries provides measures of business dynamics for what the Census classifies as high-tech and non-high-tech industries, defined by science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) occupation intensity.

A new Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) release shows that over the past five years of available data (2018-2022), nationwide per capita personal income increased by 21.64%, rising from $53,786 to $65,423, with an average yearly percentage change of +5.04%.

EDA is now accepting applications for its $4.5 million FY 2023 STEM Talent Challenge to support programs to train science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) talent and help fuel regional innovation economies.

Tuesday’s announcement by Revolution of the creation of a $150 million Rise of the Rest Seed Fund for companies located outside of Silicon Valley builds on Steve Case’s tour to connect with entrepreneurs throughout the middle of the country. The Rise of the Rest Seed Fund enjoys the backing of more than three dozen other big investors from Jeff Bezos and Eric Schmidt to the Waltons and Kochs, and is intended to provide support and connections to entrepreneurs in small towns and underserved cities.

This article was edited on April 19th, 2023, to correct for an error in the original data analysis.

Support for the recently introduced Startup Act continues to build across the country. The legislation, profiled earlier in the Digest, would accelerate the commercialization of university research, improve the regulatory processes at the federal, state and local levels, and modernize a critical Economic Development Administration (EDA) program to promote innovation and spur economic growth.

Senators Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) along with Senators Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.)  introduced the Startup Act today – legislation that would help regions throughout the country address critical gaps between R&D and economic prosperity. SSTI has worked with the offices on sections of the bill that reauthorize and expand the Regional Innovation Strategies program and would implement a new commercialization grants program. SSTI supports the Startup Act (S.

This week the Congressional Research Service (CRS) released Regional Innovation: Federal Programs and Issues for Consideration, which provides a summary of federal programs supporting regional innovation systems (RIS), including programs of the CHIPS and Science Act.