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Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced a suite of new policies and investments aimed at catalyzing the nation’s economy through science, innovation and entrepreneurship. The National Innovation and Science Plan would fund university research, invest in K-12 and university STEM programs, limit the financial risks of entrepreneurship, invest in technology commercialization programs, and introduce a new class of visa for entrepreneurs. The changes would also enable equity-based crowdfunding and provide tax credits for early stage investment.

A number of governors around the U.S. have already begun rolling out budget proposals for the next legislative session. This week, SSTI examines gubernatorial spending recommendations related to research, commercialization, STEM education and entrepreneurship in Alaska, South Dakota and Utah. See our previous article on proposals in Florida and Wyoming.

Overwhelming majorities of voters across the nation and in key swing states support a comprehensive initiative designed to parlay the United States’ strong research base into greater economic prosperity and a higher quality of life for all. These findings come from a new survey conducted for the Innovation Advocacy Council, an initiative of SSTI, by the bipartisan team of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research and TargetPoint Consulting.

In many industrialized countries, including the U.S., government spending on research and development (R&D) has stagnated since the beginning of the decade. A new report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) highlights this trend, noting that overall government R&D spending in the group’s 34 member countries has reverted to levels at the beginning of the century. Recent data from the National Science Foundation (NSF) reveals that U.S.

Bank or venture capital (VC) financing? This is one of the toughest questions that aspiring entrepreneurs and small firms must answer. A recent academic study contends that VC financing may be the superior financing structure for early stage capital. However, several other studies contend that both bank and VC financing can help create and grow successful startups. For potential entrepreneurs, each provides strengths and weaknesses that are highlighted in the studies.

Between the second quarters of 2014 and 2015, consumer spending significantly slowed, according to research from the JP Morgan Chase Institute. The institute used data from credit and debit card transactions to track spending in 15 major U.S. metropolitan areas. They found that most of the slowdown could be attributed to decreased spending among consumers 65 and older, and among middle- and high-income consumers. Also, while consumer spending declined among all businesses, larger businesses reduced their spending by a larger margin.

As universities become increasingly interested in the economic development dimension of their missions, it may be appropriate to consider entrepreneurship, innovation, and technology-based economic development activities in faculty advancement decisions, according to a new report from an Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) task force.

In the face of declining state funding and drawn-out budget negotiations, universities are moving beyond traditional budget procedures to secure funding for their economic development activities. Over the past few months, several universities have leveraged new sources of public and private funds to establish seed funds for university technology. These efforts are intended to increase the number of businesses emerging from their respective educational and research programs and spur regional economic prosperity.

At a White House event, the Small Business Administration (SBA) announced approximately $4 million to prizes to 80 growth accelerators in 43 states the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico through the second round of its Growth Accelerator Fund Competition. Launched in 2014, the competition makes awards of $50,000 each to help fund operating budgets for accelerators and other entrepreneurial ecosystem models in parts of the country where there are fewer conventional sources of access to capital (e.g., venture capital and angel capital investors).

Over 150 heads of state met in Paris this week, the largest group of leaders ever to attend a UN event in a single day, to address global climate change and the need for policies and technologies that will set the world on the path to a low-carbon, climate resilient future.

A number of governors around the U.S. have already begun rolling out budget proposals for the next legislative session. This week, SSTI examines gubernatorial spending recommendations related to research, commercialization, STEM education and entrepreneurship in Florida and Wyoming.

Florida

Funded through a small tax on extramural research budgets, Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awards are offered by 11 federal agencies with an overall goal of backing innovation by small businesses. With a typical maximum of $150,000 for phase I awards and $1 million for phase II awards, SBIR programs have had varying degrees of success – especially when factoring in their explicit mandate to enhance opportunities for women and minorities.

Across the globe, the proliferation of innovation-led economic development is typically viewed in an urban context. Despite cities receiving the bulk of the attention, researchers have begun to focus on how to leverage best practices in rural economic development. Just as is the case in nearly all economic development scenarios, practitioners and policymakers working in rural areas benefit from a better understanding of local strengths and opportunities, according to new research from the United States, Canada, and the European Union.

In FY13, federal agencies obligated $29 billion to 995 academic institutions for science and engineering (S&E) activities, according to a recent National Science Foundation (NSF) InfoBrief. The FY13 federal obligation represented a 6 percent decrease in current dollars from the $31 billion that federal agencies obligated to 1,073 academic institutions in FY12 – the third year in a row of declining S&E funding to academic institutions.

Amazon announced the launch of Amazon Catalyst, a pilot grant program at the University of Washington to fund promising research to address complex global challenges, such as immigration and climate change. Awards will range from “tens of thousands” to $100,000 per grant. Amazon has not set a limit on the number of awards they will make, and will consider research in humanities and social sciences, as well as better funded areas like medicine and engineering. Students, faculty and staff are eligible to apply. There will be no deadlines or competition for the funds.

Governors in Massachusetts and Rhode Island have released details about their plans to boost innovative businesses in their respective states. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker offered a strategic plan to guide his administration’s economic development efforts, with an emphasis placed on fostering a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship. Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo announced the launch of three new incentive programs aimed at research-driven companies.

To support the growth of Northeast Ohio’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, The Greater Cleveland Partnership (GCP) announced a limited-partner investment in JumpStart's new for-profit $20M venture capital fund.

Nearly 10 million people are expected to participate in events during this year’s Global Entrepreneurship Week, launched November 16 by the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN). The first Global Entrepreneurship Week was held in 2008 with representatives from 37 countries. Now in its eighth year, more than 160 countries across the world will hold entrepreneurship-related events during the week. Although activities vary greatly in size and scope, they generally touch on three themes:

On November 12, Gov. Jay Nixon announced $1 million in state funding to ARCH Grants to provide entrepreneurial support to St. Louis startups. ARCH Grants is a nonprofit organization that provides $50,000 equity-free grants and pro-bono services to entrepreneurs who locate their early stage businesses in St. Louis. This is Gov.

California-based companies performed about $81.7 billion in research and development (R&D) in 2012, according to the latest data available from the National Science Foundation (NSF). That figure represents about 27 percent of all private R&D funding in the U.S. Not all of that funding, however, derived from the companies themselves. The federal government provided about 9.3 percent of the funds for California-based company R&D in 2012.

In his 1962 State of the Union address, John F. Kennedy said, "The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining."  Despite its foggy reputation, perhaps no region has had the sun shine on them more economically since that speech than California’s Bay Area. Currently, in spite of its strengths as a hub for talent, research, and innovation, the Bay Area lacks a cohesive and comprehensive regional economic strategy for sustaining economic growth, weathering business cycles and supporting shared prosperity.

The development of common metrics is increasingly used at the state and regional level as a method to ensure the coordination of likeminded stakeholders. While choosing which metrics to use is at the root of this process, identifying ways in which to communicate this information to interested parties is also important. With an emphasis on innovation and entrepreneurship, this article highlights the ways in which governments and nonprofits are using dashboards to highlight their successes, identify their shortcomings, and gather data to inform next steps.

Toyota Motor Corporation recently announced a five-year, $1 billion investment in robotics and artificial intelligence R&D in the U.S. Under the plan, a headquarters for the effort will be located near Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA with a second location near the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA. Dr. Gill Pratt, former program director at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will lead the effort.

As a part of the Obama administration’s Big Data Research and Development Initiative, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced four awards this week, totaling more than $5 million, to establish four Big Data Regional Innovation Hubs (BD Hubs). The four BD Hubs divide the U.S. into regional collaborations, each focused on different Big Data challenges:

Last week, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) released a combined synopsis/solicitation with the intention of awarding up to three contracts for entities to head regional innovation cluster initiatives. SBA intends to make three awards including one to an entity that will provide cluster initiative services to a community affected by changes in the coal economy.