Useful Stats: Where is US manufacturing? A county-level look at subsector-specific data
Why the 2025 Nobel Prize in Economics matters for innovation policy
Note: The research careers for this year’s triple winners support the underlying arguments for public involvement in technology-based economic development. Well-designed and sustained public-private regional innovation initiatives—the work of SSTI and its member organizations—can make a positive difference for local competitiveness.
Useful Stats: Business R&D continues to consolidate in top states
With federal R&D investments unlikely to keep pace with inflation or international competition based on the administration’s budget request, cuts to existing research grants, and Congress’s inability to pass a budget, business R&D investments become more critical for sustaining the competitiveness of regional innovation economies.
With federal R&D investments unlikely to keep pace with inflation or international competition based on the administration’s budget request, cuts to existing research grants, and Congress’s inability to pass a budget, business R&D investments become more critical for sustaining the competitiveness of regional innovation economies. Trends evident in new data released by the National Science Foundation point to areas of potential concern or need for state TBED policy attention and potential adjustment: business R&D is growing even more concentrated geographically, and for many areas of the country business investments likely are not growing at a sufficient pace to maintain the regions’ innovation capacity.
In 2023, just four states comprised 54% of the nation’s domestic business R&D expenditures, a sharp increase from being less than 45% in 2014, SSTI analysis of new Business Enterprise Research and Development (BERD) survey data reveals. The consolidation of BERD expenditures in the top states may lead one to think that less R&D is occurring outside of the largest states, but this is not the case; 24 jurisdictions doubled BERD expenditures in the past decade, with all but one state increasing total expenditures. Adjusted for inflation, however, reveals a more modest nine jurisdictions doubled their business R&D activities, while all but five increased. These trends and more are explored in this edition of Useful Stats.
Declining quarterly investment numbers may be an early indication of a larger trend
The Q3 2025 investment data is in, and trends of fewer deals and more dollars continue.
New report from AURP describes significant impacts of research parks
Recent Research: Are SBIR-funded inventions more likely to make it to market?
Commercializing patented inventions is a common goal of innovation policy, as it drives company revenues and regional economic growth. However, tracking the commercialization of inventions stemming from R&D is challenging. While programs like the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program are explicitly designed to encourage commercialization, most evaluation tools rely on approaches that may be anecdotal or incomplete, such as surveys, case studies, or patent counts.
NIH and NSF respond to order for “gold standard science”
Useful Stats: Growth in real business R&D expenditures comes to a halt in 2023
From 2022 to 2023, domestic R&D expenditures increased 4%, or $29 billion, but remained nearly unchanged when adjusted for inflation. This apparent slowdown follows a streak averaging nearly 12% ($59 billion) year-over-year growth from 2018 to 2022, and 8% over the past decade from 2014 to 2023. Adjusting for inflation paints a different picture of the growth trends, with a more modest annual average of 8% from 2018 to 2022 and 6% over the past decade.
Free college programs remain popular nationwide
SSTI Board of Trustees appoints Nick Maynard to the board
Comprehensive review of VDO investments highlights multi-billion-dollar economic impact of investing in early-stage innovation
SSTI recently examined the investment histories of 31 Venture Development Organizations (VDOs) across 20 states to quantify their impact and help to characterize how the broader technology-based economic development (TBED) community supports long-term innovation-driven economic and financial returns. Our top-level findings showed that
EDA reopens Public Works and Economic Adjustment Assistance Programs
After a nine-month hiatus, the Economic Development Administration has reopened its Public Works and Economic Adjustment Assistance programs with an updated Notice of Funding Opportunity.
Among recent U.S. EDA cuts is the 45-year-old University Centers program
Useful Stats: R&D's contributions to state economies
Like the broader metric of R&D intensity, the prominence of R&D value added in a state’s economic output has shifted within several states over the past decade. Does it matter? For sustaining a state’s innovation competitiveness, it may, and subsequently it is important to know for many state and regional TBED initiatives. Proximity to the conduct of R&D has been well documented in empirical research to support strong regional innovation economies.
Like the broader metric of R&D intensity, the prominence of R&D value added in a state’s economic output has shifted within several states over the past decade. Does it matter? For sustaining a state’s innovation competitiveness, it may, and subsequently it is important to know for many state and regional TBED initiatives. Proximity to the conduct of R&D has been well documented in empirical research to support strong regional innovation economies. Subsequently many TBED policies are designed to increase and maintain R&D activity within those boundaries as well as ensure the localized spillover effects are maximized. Determining where R&D activity is thriving and the size of its value added to the state’s GDP, particularly manufacturing-related R&D, may help inform those policy decisions. SSTI explores the latest data on state R&D value added in this Useful Stats article.
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NSF selects 15 finalists to advance to the next round of its second Regional Innovation Engines competition
Federal government wants patent rights? Budget bills see action
Congress likely to punt on SBIR reauthorization
As the end of the fiscal year approaches, Congress is again at a critical juncture in reauthorizing the SBIR and STTR programs.
Biotech VC funding points to early-stage funding gaps
As attention-grabbing as AI might be for the media and large investors (see previous SSTI analysis of AI investment), economic growth through innovation in life sciences and biotechnology is a priority for many state and regional TBED initiatives. The venture capital market recognizes that as well.
Recent research: Does larger size make a firm more innovative?
Conventional TBED wisdom for decades has been that small businesses generate more innovation in the United States. All big tech companies started as scrappy little companies in their respective eras of IT’s rapid growth. But there remains a long-running debate about whether large firms with financial resources and R&D capacity have an innovation advantage over smaller but more agile firms.
Conventional TBED wisdom for decades has been that small businesses generate more innovation in the United States. All big tech companies started as scrappy little companies in their respective eras of IT’s rapid growth. But there remains a long-running debate about whether large firms with financial resources and R&D capacity have an innovation advantage over smaller but more agile firms. Understanding the arguments for each side is important for policymakers and business leaders as they seek ways to support small and medium-sized enterprises and leverage the innovative capacity of larger corporations. In their paper, Firm Size and Innovative Performance: A Meta-Analysis Across 25 Years of Evidence, Federico Bachmann and Rodrigo Ezequiel Kataishi provide a comprehensive meta-analysis that synthesizes 25 years of research to clarify this relationship.
Philanthropy is unlikely to fill the gap left by decreased government funding
As federal funding for science research decreases, it may be tempting to think that philanthropy might be able to fill the gap. However, a recent study from the Science Philanthropy Alliance illustrates that it cannot replace the robust funds that government allocation once contributed.
Useful Stats: Examining county-level employment and establishments by sector
Understanding the composition of local economies requires looking beyond broad statewide or national trends. County-level data reveals the unique mix, or lack thereof, of industries and businesses in each area. Policy makers, by identifying which sectors drive employment and business activity within a locality, can influence the impact and design of regional innovation strategies to reflect local realities and potential.
Understanding the composition of local economies requires looking beyond broad statewide or national trends. County-level data reveals the unique mix, or lack thereof, of industries and businesses in each area. Policy makers, by identifying which sectors drive employment and business activity within a locality, can influence the impact and design of regional innovation strategies to reflect local realities and potential.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) allows examination of county-level employment and establishment counts across all private sectors at the 2-digit NAICS level. In this article, SSTI uses annualized private sector data for all provided 2-digit NAICS sectors at the county level for 2015 and 2024.