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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.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper released his administration’s $27 billion budget request for fiscal year 2017, which includes significant refunds for taxpayers and reductions for higher education, hospitals and state buildings.

In an effort to increase the proliferation and participation of venture capital firms across the 28-nation European Union, changes are needed at the institutional level, according to the capital markets union plan unveiled last month.

On April 5, 2012, President Obama signed Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS Act) into law with the intent of helping small businesses and startups raise capital through several changes to long-standing securities regulations, including a change that would allow companies to raise equity from both accredited and non-accredited investors through a publicly solicited crowdfunding campaign (Title III of the Jobs Act).

The Research Foundation for State University of New York (SUNY) is seeking feedback regarding the translation of SUNY research and innovation into meaningful startup company formation, acceleration and growth through targeted venture investing. In particular, the foundation seeks ideas on how SUNY could connect research experts to entrepreneurial leaders, advisors, or mentors in order to build upon emerging industry sector strengths.

On Friday, November 6, at 10:00 A.M. ET, the Economic Development Administration will host a conference call for economic development organizations that are interested in participating in Hannover Messe 2016 – the world’s largest trade show for industrial goods, technology, and R&D. The conference call agenda includes information on U.S. Industry Pavilions for SMES/Export Services; the show’s Research & Technology Pavilion; and, a Q&A with SelectUSA, U.S.

The Delta Regional Authority (DRA) announced the establishment of a consortium for research and innovation that is intended to have a long-term positive economic impact on the region. The 35-member consortium will be comprised of universities and other private and public institutions in eight states – Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee.

Although the United States remains among the world’s most competitive nations, its ability to effectively deliver quality math and science education hinders its competitiveness, according to the most recent edition of the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index.  New commitments ranging from the White House to the philanthropic sector offer opportunities to increase the capacity for American schools to engage in additional STEM activities.

In the first three quarters of 2015, U.S. venture capital firms have invested $47.2 billion, more than the year-end totals for 17 of the past 20 years, according to new data from the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). About $16.3 billion was invested in 1,070 deals in the third quarter, bringing the 2015 total to $47.2 billion in 2,239 deals. Investment activity is on track to reach its highest annual level since 2000, and the second highest year since the beginning of PwC’s Moneytree report.

This week, the National Economic Council and Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) released an update to the White House strategy document on fueling the U.S. innovation economy. A Strategy for American Innovation includes a model of the nation’s innovation engine that sheds some light on how the federal government views its role in research and economic growth. For example, digital government initiatives play a key role, alongside investing in basic research, digital infrastructure and STEM education.

Women received significantly less financial support from biomedical research institutions than men early in their careers, according to Sex Differences in Institutional Support for Junior Biomedical Researchers – a study by Health Resources in Action’s Medical Foundation published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam recently announced a new fund to support economic development in rural parts of the state. While most of the $8 million (approximately $7 million) is designated for shovel-ready economic development sites and tourism projects, the state will commit $600,000 for economic development grants to support entrepreneurship in small towns across the state including $300,000 to support a Main Street Business Incubator Program for downtown business districts.

The GRA Venture Fund LLC, the private investment fund for companies originating from the Georgia Research Alliance's commercialization programs, has added another $25 million in venture capital. This latest round of funding brings the fund's total investment capital to $45 million. The fund currently has 10 portfolio companies. Combined, these 10 companies have collectively raised more than $241 million and have created over 400 jobs in the state of Georgia.

Veolia, The Water Council, and the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation have reached an agreement to launch the emPowering Opportunities in Water (POW!) program – a two-year national competition to support entrepreneurship and economic development while fostering sustainability efforts in the field of water.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced today the addition of three more cluster organizations to the portfolio of communities supported through the SBA Regional Innovation Clusters initiative, raising the total number of awardees in the program to 14.

The last decade has seen a rapid expansion and deepening of the types of vehicles that fund startup firms in the U.S. and worldwide, according to The Globalisation of Angel Investments – a new study from Josh Lerner, Antoinette Schoar, Stanislav Sokolinksy, and Karen Wilson. In particular, the authors have seen a growing role for angel groups and other more “individualistic” funding options, such as super angels or crowd sourcing platforms.

At more than $456 billion, the value of research and development performed in the United States grew 4.8 percent from 2012 to 2013 according to new data from the National Science Foundation’s National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES). Over that same one-year period, U.S. gross domestic product grew at just 3.7 percent.

Venture investors around the world have more confidence in the U.S. market than any other in the world, according to the 2015 Global Venture Capital Confidence Survey from Deloitte and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). Israel, Canada, China and the UK also ranked among the top five. The U.S. policy environment, however, received lower reviews.