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Earlier this week during a keynote address at the United Nations, a U.S. Department of State official unveiled an initiative to bring 1.5 billion people around the world online by 2020. Global Connect, the new initiative, will be a cross-agency effort to make Internet access a top priority in foreign policy. The State Department announcement explicitly states that Internet access is being made a priority because of its role in entrepreneurship, innovation, knowledge flows and market creation.

This week, the Obama administration launched TechHire, a new, multi-sector initiative that seeks to educate workers through universities, community colleges, high-quality online courses, and other nontraditional approaches like “coding bootcamps,” with many programs not requiring a four-year degree.

Economic conditions across the country continue to improve, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis’ (BEA) latest release of gross state product (GSP) data. GSP is derived as the sum of the gross domestic product originating in all the industries in a state. The period between 2008 and 2009, where the U.S. GDP decreased by 2 percent, marked a transition for many states, where their gross state product either decreased from the year before or where their growth rate was subdued.

Seed stage valuations have risen steadily over the last five years to an all-time high of 3.95 million (Median), a 30% increase over 2014, according to the recently released 2015 Q2 ARI HALO Report from the Angel Resource Institute at Willamette University (ARI). The authors found that all U.S.

Last week, the Treasury Department released guidance recognizing foundations may make investments with a wider range of return and risk expectations so long as they are not jeopardizing or compromising their charitable missions.  Proponents for the change expect the guidance to open the doors to more mission-related investments (MRIs), impact investing and innovative finance approaches to dealing with the growing array of societal and environmental issues confronting the globe.

While most state legislative sessions ended over the summer, a number of states only recently approved spending for FY16. Governors in Alabama, North Carolina and New Hampshire have approved budgets in the past few weeks, each after months of tense negotiations. SSTI reviews budgets in each of these states for spending related to technology-based economic development. For past articles in this series, visit ssti.org/tags/state-budget.

While speaking in Detroit last week, Vice President Joe Biden announced the creation of an Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IAMCI)  location in Detroit, aimed at creating better composite materials for wind turbines, compressed gas storage, and in particular, the automotive industry. Funded by the U.S.

The Department of Energy (DOE) announced that it is accepting applications for the first round of its Small Business Vouchers Pilot (SBV) program. Under the SBV program, the DOE will commit up to $20 million in technical and research assistance awards to help small businesses bring next-generation clean energy technologies. Companies may apply for and receive up to $300,000 in assistance from U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories nationwide.

Although every state delivers tax incentives for economic development, there are numerous inconsistencies in how these incentives are evaluated.

The Signature Report, an annual report on college completion conducted by researchers at the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center and Indiana University’s Project on Academic Success, identifies six-year student success outcomes and college completion rates by state for the cohort that began post-secondary education in fall 2008.

Five North Carolina communities have been selected to participate in InnovateNC, a two-year economic development initiative centered on sharing knowledge, tools and resources between partner regions. Asheville, Greensboro, Pembroke, Wilmington and the city and county of Wilson were chosen from the 18 applicant regions. The initiative is spearheaded by NC State University’s Institute for Emerging Issues with nine partners and supported by a grant from the Kenan Creative Collaboratory.

The Department of Energy (DOE) announced it will commit up to $70 million in funding for the Manufacturing Innovation Institute for Smart Manufacturing to support R&D efforts to develop, demonstrate, and transition to industry advanced sensing, instrumentation, monitoring, control, and process optimization as well as modeling and simulation technologies for industrial automation. The Innovation Institute on Smart Manufacturing will be the third DOE-funded facility as part of President Obama’s National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI) institutes.

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez has released the state’s first comprehensive energy plan since 1991. Her administration characterizes the plan as an “all of the above” approach with an emphasis on improving infrastructure, creating new incentives and streamlining regulations. Though the plan does not feature support for energy technology R&D, it prioritizes reducing fresh water consumption and improving workforce training for energy jobs.

The STEM Funders Network (SFN) announced that 27 communities will pilot the national science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) Ecosystems Initiative. Launched at the Clinton Global Initiative, the program is intended to nurture and scale effective preK-16 instruction best practices in STEM learning.

German leaders are debating the future of a program intended to help its elite universities compete in research with the likes of Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge. The 11-year, €4.6 billion (USD$5B) Excellence Initiative was launched in 2006, and has provided funding to support clusters of excellence, international graduate schools and strategies to strengthen the institutions as a whole. Since the program began, Germany’s universities have greatly increased their research publication output and their number of highly-cited articles.

In a fact sheet released ahead of President Obama’s visit to Macomb Community College in Warren, MI, this week the Obama administration announced new steps to expand apprenticeships and continue other efforts around workforce development and free community college.

Applicants for the Economic Development Administration’s (EDA) FY 2016 Public Works and Economic Adjustment Assistance Programs Federal Funding Opportunity (FFO) will notice some changes to the application process when the FFO is released in the coming weeks. The standard ED-900 form has been replaced with a selection of shorter forms that can be mixed and matched to fit the needs of different solicitations. Also, a short proposal form can be submitted to ascertain whether a project is responsive to the FFO, instead of having to complete a full application.

Around the world, increased attention is being paid to inclusive economic growth, which, according to the World Bank, suggests that for growth to be sustainable in the long run it should be broad-based across sectors and inclusive of the large part of the country’s labor force, regardless of demographics.

Six states received A's for the health of their manufacturing sector in a new study from Ball State University (BSU) – Conexus Indiana 2015 Manufacturing and Logistics National Report.

Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto announced the launch of the Pittsburgh Roadmap for Inclusive Innovation, a strategic plan that is intended to support economic growth and the equitable access to technology, city resources, and information. The roadmap includes three primary goals that include:

Using data to track recent graduates in the workforce helps ensure postsecondary education institutions are preparing graduates for successful careers, according to a report recently released by the National Governors Association (NGA) – Tracking Graduates into the Workforce: Connecting Education and Labor Market Data. In this report, NGA contends that accurate, real-time information is a key element of functional labor markets.

Oregon announced an agreement with the four regional economic development organizations to improve business development coordination, help existing Oregon businesses expand, recruit new companies, and align other economic developments efforts to grow Oregon's economy and job creation. To achieve the goals of the program, the partners will share office space, hold regular planning meetings, and develop ongoing communications through shared software tools.

Tennessee leaders hope to raise $10 million in public and private funding over the next five years to support an effort to attract 200 agricultural technology entrepreneurs and establish 100 ag-tech businesses by 2020. USDA Rural Development and the Tennessee Department of Agricultural recently announced they would seed that effort by contributing $220,000 to AgLaunch, a program to aid early-stage ag-tech companies. Memphis Bioworks Foundation will lead the initiatives, providing mentoring and programming opportunities for entrepreneurs. The program will begin in 2016.

A new Virginia council will coordinate the state’s efforts to help young people create businesses. Gov. Terry McAuliffe recently signed Executive Order 47 establishing the Governor’s Council on Youth Entrepreneurship, following up on a series of roundtables with students and faculty.

An August 2015 report prepared by an independent consulting firm for the Association of Public & Land-grant Universities (APLU) seeks to answer the question: How Did Revenue and Spending per Student Change at Four-Year Colleges and Universities Between 2006-07 and 2012-13? During the six-year period analyze