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NVCA and PitchBook released Venture Monitor 3Q 2018 this week. The highlight data point in the report is that total U.S. venture capital investment in 2018 is on pace to break $100 billion for the year — and, in fact, to break $110 billion. At the same time, deal volume is on pace to be at the lowest level since 2012, with just 6,583 deals reported to date in 2018.

This week we continue our four-part series focused on navigating innovation priorities in a variety of settings. Part 2 focuses on how to create and hone an effective value proposition for your organizations given different audiences, funding sources, public support and the needs of clients. SSTI spoke with Faith Knutsen, director of Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Ohio University Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs; and Steve Glynn, director of Innovation, The Water Council.

The Angel Capital Association is piloting a new report on the factors that influence successful angel investing and the startups that angels support.  The initial Angel Funders Report covers 2017 data from 26 angel groups and provides new insights for one year of investments. Some of the report’s key findings include:

Colleges and universities that conduct research and development around science and engineering are central to technology-based economic development strategies and are at the core of America’s innovation hubs. The distribution of science and engineering R&D at colleges and universities (S&E R&D) – already distributed unevenly across the country— appears to have grown radically more so since the Great Recession.

Inclusive workforce development, downtown revitalization, and an influx of funds for venture capital are among the proposals in an economic development strategy unveiled by New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy earlier this week. In an effort to focus on bottom-up development rather than a package of tax incentive programs favoring big businesses, the strategy seeks to build the nation’s “most diverse and inclusive innovation economy.”

This month, we begin a four-part series focused on navigating innovation priorities in a variety of settings. The series features perspectives from experts in the field, presented in a Q&A format. Each practitioner we interviewed will also be presenting at our annual conference, where these topics will be explored in greater depth. Click here for more information on the conference.

The number of workers, students and educators participating in the Manufacturing USA institutes’ portfolio of programs, research projects and training courses grew seven-fold to surpass 191,000 individuals in 2017, according to the network’s new annual report.  With a network of 14 individual institutes supported by the departments of Commerce, Defense and Energy, the Manufacturing USA initiative saw tremendous growth during 2017, including six institutes that went online just during the year.

Established in 1979 as a way to help broaden the distribution of federal funds for research and development (R&D), specifically at the National Science Foundation (NSF), one of the most important initiatives funneling research and development funds to states with smaller populations is the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). As more attention is paid to the growing inequality between states, programs like EPSCoR are worthy of additional consideration.

With at least six federal agencies supporting quantum computing research and at least 10 agencies supporting synthetic biology research, more collaboration is needed to effectively marshal the agencies’ efforts to maintain U.S. competitiveness, according to a new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).

Vibrant Virginia (VV), a new program from Virginia Tech’s Office of Economic Development, is offering seed grants as a way to encourage faculty and graduate students to explore persistent public policy challenges spanning the state’s urban, suburban, and rural communities.

The U.S. Census Bureau seeks comments on all aspects of the Business Research and Development Survey for the 2018-2022 releases. Collected in partnership with the National Science Foundation (NSF), the survey provides comprehensive data on Research and Development (R&D) costs and detailed expenses by type and industry. The U.S.

With the close of the primaries, the 36 gubernatorial elections are now taking shape. November’s election will see at least 18 new governors as those seats were term-limited, the incumbent was not seeking reelection, or did not win the primary.  In each of the 36 races, SSTI has reviewed the major party candidates’ positions relating to technology-based economic development and here outlines what those candidates have revealed on topics touching the field.

During the past decade, there has been rapid growth of the smart cities movement – improving critical public service delivery, while reducing cost over the long run, through the Internet of Things, real time data gathering, better sensors and integrated systems management. The pace of growth is resulting in a wide variety of do-it-yourself models for smart communities to address their IoT data management and analysis needs.

As the National Science Foundation announces awards for five new regional academic centers to encourage underrepresented populations to pursue and attain college degrees related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), a recent working paper from two Harvard researchers finds an explanation for the popularly perceived persistent shortage of STEM workers: changes in technology.  The rapid pace of technological change is making the skills of the existing STEM wo

The 21st TCI Global Conference organized by the Institute for Competitiveness & Prosperity will be held in Toronto, Oct. 16-18. The conference is expected to draw more than 400 international practitioners and will focus on cluster leadership, governance and evaluation, as well as designing innovation networks for knowledge exchange, with the goal of furthering economic development. It will feature 11 unique immersion experiences on Toronto clusters, including advanced manufacturing, emerging technology, energy, and the innovation ecosystem.

Starting next month the SSTI Weekly Digest will bring you a special series of interviews conducted with leaders in the innovation economy. We will feature topics like driving regional innovation on modest R&D budgets, honing your value proposition, and tips on working with your state legislature and making innovation a priority with your governor. The Q&A series will provide a quick preview into some of the insights we will explore in greater depth during SSTI’s 2018 Annual Conference: Navigating the New Innovation Landscape, Dec. 3-5 in Salt Lake City.

After nearly 18 months of planning and meetings that gathered input from nearly 140,000 participants, Gov. Matt Mead announced the release of a 20-year strategy for the diversification of the state’s economy.

Although more city finance officers are optimistic about the fiscal capacity of their cities than last year, that optimism is tempered by the fact that tax revenue growth is experiencing a year-over-year slowdown, with growth in service costs and other expenditure outpacing it. That, taken together with other results of the 2018 City Fiscal Conditions survey, suggests that cities are reaching the limits of fiscal expansion, according to the National League of Cities (NLC).

The CDFI Fund awarded $165 million in financial and technical assistance awards to 264 organizations yesterday. The awards include funding to SSTI member Launch NY and to three other groups certified by the CDFI Fund as community venture capital funds, out of applications from 432 organizations around the country.

American Community Survey released its one-year estimates for 2017 on Sept. 13, with new statistics on income, poverty, educational attainment and a variety of other topics. ACS reports that many large metropolitan areas saw an increase in income and a decrease in poverty rates between 2016 and 2017.

A new platform to match promising start-ups with experienced business executives, investors and startup mentors from participating school’s alumni ranks is reporting momentum.

As part of the Federal and State Technology (FAST) Partnership Program, the U.S. Small Business Administration has awarded up to $200,000 to organizations in 21 states to provide outreach and technical assistance to science and technology-driven small businesses. With an emphasis on socially and economically disadvantaged firms, the FAST program provides funds to organizations helping businesses better prepare to compete for Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) funding.

Startups and small businesses raised $30 million during the first year of equity crowdfunding (also known as regulation crowdfunding or Reg CF) with an average of $289,000 raised in a successful campaign, according to a recent report published by the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Office of Advocacy.

The “AI Next” campaign, announced by DARPA last week, is geared toward moving AI defense applications into a “third wave” of advancement, capable of complex problem-solving. DARPA will be investing $2 billion into AI through a variety of programs, and a core element of this initiative will be “AI Exploration” projects designed to move from proposal to start in three months, and from start to feasibility assessments within 18 months.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) announced the 2026 Idea Machine – a prize competition to help set the U.S. agenda for future fundamental research in science and engineering. Participants can earn cash prizes and receive public recognition by submitting the pressing research questions that need to be answered in the coming decade.