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This week, U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker announced the 25 recipients of the Economic Development Administration’s 2015 Regional Innovation Strategies grants. These awards support innovation and capacity-building in regions around the country through two grant programs: the i6 Challenge and the Seed Fund Support Grants competition. The Regional Innovation Program remains a key priority for SSTI.

Last year, the venture capital investment hit a 15-year high, with total dollars topping every year since 2000. A slow fourth quarter brought the remarkable trajectory of the year back down to earth, but with a total of $11.3 billion invested, 2015 became the second highest year on record since PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) began the Moneytree Report in 1995. Much of this growth was due to larger deals, and, in fact, the total number of deals was down from the previous year.

Technology companies raised $225 million globally on rewards-based crowdfunding sites in 2015, according to a new report from the UK-based Crowdfunding Centre. In State of the Crowdfunding Nation, the Crowdfunding Centre reported that reward-based crowdfunding sites helped raise over $1.5 billion worldwide between the calendar years of 2014 and 2015. Global rewards-based crowdfunding campaigns raised $823.5 in 2015 million (a 20 percent increase over 2014) from nearly 10.2 million backers.

At his State of the State address last week, Gov. Bruce Rauner announced that Illinois’ principal economic development organization, the Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity, as well as some of the state’s business leaders will collaborate to organize a newly formed private, nonprofit organization exclusively focused on increasing Illinois’ competitiveness for job creation and investment.

As long-term trends continue to impact the U.S. economy and its recovery from the Great Recession, more must be done to develop diversely skilled and adaptable workers, according to a new report by the U.S. Council on Competitiveness.

In the February 3 Federal Digest, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) issued proposed rules affecting Impact Small Business Investment Corporations (SBICs) and is accepting comments. In addition to codifying the existing, temporary guidelines, the proposal would add new investment certifications, change the expedited processing benefit for reduced fees and replace the branding penalty for non-compliant SBICs with the threat of imposed default.

The White House recently released a preview of its plans to build a stronger pipeline between K-12 education and high-skill employment. The President’s Computer Science for All Initiative would boost investment in states, districts and teacher training to improve computer science (CS) education for K-12 students. The three-year, $4 billion plan would also call on multiple federal agencies to focus investments on improving CS skills.

Many governors around the country have begun laying out priorities for the next legislative session. In the coming weeks, SSTI will review gubernatorial addresses and budget proposals related to economic development. This week, we highlight developments in Delaware, Kentucky and Massachusetts.

When General Electric (GE) announced earlier this month that it was moving to downtown Boston’s Seaport District, significant attention was paid to the generous incentive package handed to the company by Massachusetts.

Although universities are often pitted against each other in athletic events or competitions for state funding, one area in which they have increasingly been able to collaborate is in research and development. Modeled after the hugely successful Research Triangle in North Carolina, the University Research Corridor (URC), an alliance of Michigan’s three largest higher education institutions – Michigan State University, the University of Michigan, and Wayne State University – was established by the state in 2007 with the goal of accelerating statewide economic development.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced a recompetition of Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) centers in 12 states and Puerto Rico including: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Utah, and Vermont.

As globalization transforms national R&D funding priorities and increase the demand for top S&T, nations are shifting their national R&D strategies toward initiatives intended to attract top scientists from other countries. These attraction efforts have a specific focus on repatriating top researchers by offering them access to the funds necessary to build world class facilities. In addition to large national commitments, foundations also have announced efforts to attract researchers by providing grant funding to support R&D projects and build facilities.

This week, leaders in Illinois and New Mexico announced new investments to help seed and early stage technology startups access equity capital. The Illinois Treasurer will launch the Illinois Growth and Innovation Fund, which would invest $220 million over the next three years in 15-20 funds across the state. No more than 15 percent of the money will be placed with any particular fund. The state’s investment will target emerging tech companies, beginning later this quarter.

Leaders in Des Moines, Kansas City, Omaha and St. Louis have teamed up to leverage their respective resources and help build an economic mega-region in the center of the country. The Heartland Civic Collaborative will focus on four main areas of opportunity: transportation, federal advocacy, life science and entrepreneurship. In the coming months, the collaborative plans to begin work on an entrepreneurial metrics dashboard for the participating metros and a map of life sciences research assets.

In September 2010, the Obama administration launched Challenge.gov– an online portal for federal agencies to engage the public to offer solutions that address issues of national priority in return for monetary and non-monetary prizes. Since its launch in 2010, more than 80 federal agencies have run nearly 500 competitions and awarded upwards of $150 million in prizes. Challenge.gov is one of the most well-known examples of this growing trend in government and foundation funding.

Several foundations have announced major commitments to fund workforce development efforts focused on expanding the talent pipeline in metros across the country. Each of these efforts is intended to provide high school students and/or young adults with skills and experience necessary to match specific needs of regional industries.

Many governors around the country have begun laying out priorities for the next legislative session. In the coming weeks, SSTI will review gubernatorial addresses and budget proposals related to economic development. This week, we highlight developments in Arizona, Maryland, Missouri and South Carolina.

While considerable attention has been paid to the growing role of cleantech jobs in the American economy, there has been less of a focus on the skills it takes to pursue these careers.

Through a partnership with the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, the government of Ontario is launching the Cluster Development Seed Fund, offering grants of up to $100,000 to support cluster initiatives. The funds are part of the Partnerships for Jobs and Growth Act, passed in 2014 by the Ontario government.

AT&T has announced a new partnership with three U.S. metros to establish a Smart Cities Framework using Internet of Things (IoT) innovations to create solutions for cities. In the first stage of the effort, Atlanta, Chicago, and Dallas will showcase the potential use of sensors and other Internet-connected technologies to improve municipal services. In addition to existing services offered by AT&T, the new framework adds several new services in four categories: infrastructure; citizen engagement; transportation; and, public safety.

As top tech-hubs like California’s Bay Area become increasingly unaffordable, a new Jones Lang LaSalle report finds evidence that secondary markets will continue to experience accelerated industry growth.

In the days leading up to his final State of the Union Address, President Obama hinted that in lieu of the usual wishlist of policy proposals he would lay out his take on the issues that will define American public life over the next few decades. These issues took the form of four big questions, the first two of which directly relate to the work of tech-based economic development professionals.

Even though the total amount invested by venture capitalists (VCs) grew for the fourth straight year to nearly $77.3 invested, Pitchbook analysts contend that 2014/2015 was the peak of the VC industry for the foreseeable future. While high valuations drove up the total amount invested, the number of deals plummeted during the second half of 2015 according to new data from Pitchbook.  In addition to insights from Pitchbook, other analysts contend that the declining trends of 2015 should remain through 2016.