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One of this year’s most important books on economic development tells a story that those involved in the field need to know and might not necessarily want to hear. In Coping with Adversity: Regional Economic Resilience and Public Policy, authors Harold Wolman, Howard Wial, Travis St. Clair, and Ned Hill seek to understand why some metropolitan areas are resilient in the face of economic hardship, while others are not. This commentary will summarize the authors’ findings and provide insight into what their findings might mean for the broader economic development community.

One of our partner organizations, the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE), recently opened their registration for their annual conference, NACCE 2018 The Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Revolution. The conference features keynotes from engaging entrepreneurs that have innovated in areas ranging from 1980’s rock and roll memorabilia to one of the co-developers of Amazon’s Alexa. Panels and breakout sessions featuring NACCE members from across the U.S.

In 2017, 25.7 percent of all angel capital group deals went to a founding team with at least one female founder, up from 17.0 percent in 2016, according to the Angel Resource Institute’s (ARI) HALO Report: 2017. The report also found a sizeable increase in the number of deals made for companies that included at least one minority female founder – 5.5 percent in 2017 (1.0 percent in 2016).

Last year, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) considered multiple strategies to address the implicit bias toward researchers with ‘proven track records’ during its existing grant making process.

As hearings for the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) begin this week, a report by the “Section 809 Panel” is likely to influence the bill’s acquisition provisions. The panel, authorized by the FY 2016 NDAA, has emphasized efforts the Department of Defense can implement to work better with innovative small businesses, including simplified contracting and strengthening SBIR.

The new four-year strategic plan for NASA provides a foundation to return to the moon “for long-term exploration and use” as well as creating a base for “eventual crewed missions to Mars and potentially beyond.”

After more than a decade of supporting regional economic development efforts, philanthropic communities in Southeastern Michigan and Northeastern Ohio are changing course to focus on economic inclusion and broader prosperity efforts. In the wake of the Great Recession, the Cleveland region’s Fund for Our Economic Future (The Fund) and Metro Detroit’s New Economy Initiative (NEI) became notable examples of philanthropic partnerships that emphasize economic diversification through innovation, entrepreneurship, and workforce development. Both initiatives recently unveiled plans for their next phases.

While nearly all (98 percent) of U.S. public school districts offered career and technical education (CTE) programs in the 2016-17 school year, such programs differed between rural and city districts and faced barriers to participation from both the districts and students. Rural districts are much less likely to have work-based learning activities as a part of their CTE programming, according to a new report from the National Center for Education Statistics.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the EPA have each released new four-year strategic plans, continuing to reflect agencies’ adoption of the Trump administration’s policy directions. HHS has a streamlined science agenda that limits explicit connections to regulation while aiming to expand its overall capacity for research.

Low-income students in the Dallas County Community College District (DCCCD) will be among the first allowed to use federal student aid to enroll in programs offered by nontraditional educational providers. The providers — including coding bootcamps, online courses, and employer organizations — are partnering with accredited colleges or universities through an experimental program called Educational Quality through Innovation Partnerships (EQUIP). The U.S.

Asserting that autonomous vehicles are poised to revolutionize both transportation and the way people live and work throughout the world, KPMG has developed a readiness index that evaluates 20 countries around the world according to four pillars. They include: policy and legislation; technology and innovation; infrastructure; and consumer acceptance.

The European Commission and European Investment Fund announced the creation of VentureEU – a fund-of-fund initiative intended to increase the availability of venture capital for the continent’s startup community. Through the VentureEU effort, the EU will invest approximately €410 million (approximately 507.8 million USD) across six funds run by established European fund managers.

In February, SSTI highlighted several state-led efforts to address the rural broadband gap, which affects more than 30 percent of rural America who currently lack access to adequate broadband service.

New Jersey is considering a state program for free tuition for community college which would be phased in over several years and Virginia is proposing money for a customized workforce recruitment and training incentive program in newly proposed state budgets. Both states have new governors who have revised their predecessors’ budgets, resulting in some additional TBED initiatives in the states.

May 1 marks the deadline to choose a school for students considering their college options. A new tool developed by the University of Texas system and the U.S. Census Bureau can give a real sense of what students graduating from that system can expect to earn as well as the average debt graduates carry. The tool, seekUT, reveals the average earnings from each of the majors at the different schools and branch campuses one, five and 10 years after graduation.

PitchBook and NVCA released the 2018 Q1 Venture Monitor this week, and the data show that 2017’s trends toward fewer, larger deals are only accelerating into the new year. First financings are over $5 million for the first time since Q3 of 2006, and the average angel and seed deals are at their largest sizes in at least a decade — largely due to investments under $1 million now accounting for just 39 percent of disclosed deals.

Due to the effectiveness of employer-sponsored training program, U.S. states are working to build partnerships with industry partners that leverage public resources to help develop a 21st century workforce that addresses specific industry needs. Over the last month, partnerships have been announced between states and key industry leaders including AGCO, CVS, Tesla, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. Some of those collaborations are detailed below.

Age is a predictor of entrepreneurial success – and not in the ways that many might expect – according to a new National Bureau of Economic Research article. While the venture capital community and the media sensationalize young entrepreneurs like Mark Zuckerberg, the authors of Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship – Pierre Azoulay, J. Daniel Kim, Benjamin Jones, and Javier Miranda – find that older entrepreneurs have more success.

In the immediate aftermath of the FY 2018 federal budget deal’s announcement, SSTI covered the increased funding for a few key programs, including Regional Innovation Strategies ($21 million) and the National Science Foundation ($7.5 billion). Today we reveal our full analysis covering several new funding line items and substantial funding increases for regional innovation organizations to consider.

In reviewing data regarding the hundreds of TBED-related investment funds, SSTI found that 24 of them have invested in at least one dozen startups each over the past year.  The funds are characterized as economic development, university-centric, regionally focused, or impact oriented investment funds, incubators and accelerator programs located in the U.S. or Canada. Data the various funds provide to  Pitchbook is the source of the list below, ranked in order by activity level.

The U.S. Small Business Administration and Department of Treasury have released strategic plans through FY 2022.

In a previous Digest, SSTI discussed the positive impact that community banks have had on small business lending activity and economic growth in communities across the country since the Great Recession. In this article, SSTI shares two studies on the existing roadblocks and pessimism faced by minority small business and entrepreneurs as they seek financing through banks.

While conventional wisdom suggests that university entrepreneurship efforts should focus on faculty spinoffs or student inventions, recent research highlights the importance of student talent in entrepreneurial ecosystems. In an effort to create employment opportunities in the startup space, several universities throughout the country are implementing programs that embed students into their local startup communities.

The equal-weighted internal rate of return (IRR) for the venture capital (VC) industry was 6.6 percent between Q2 of 1999 and Q2 of 2017, according to the 1Q 2018 PitchBook Benchmarks. Over that 18-year timespan, several other asset classes – such as private equity (10.5 percent), debt financing (10.1 percent), fund-of-funds (8.1 percent) and several stock market indices – significantly outperformed the VC industry’s equal-weighted IRR.

The U.S. Department of Treasury released its final annual report for the State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI), which provided funding to states for lending and investment programs. “Venture capital” programs, often structured for pre-seed (13 percent of funds), seed (27 percent) or early stage (45 percent) investments, attracted $4.2 billion in immediate private financing against $327 million in federal dollars.