On May 16 of last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) finally allowed both accredited and non-accredited investors to engage in regulation crowdfunding. Under the new SEC rules, startups and other private companies could offer equity in return for capital to help support business growth. As of May 2017, total contributions under the regulation crowdfunding into startups and small businesses are over the $40 million mark with an average investment of $833 per investor.

In part one of two, SSTI will examine NIH’s proposed changes that will place limits on individual researcher funding.

On May 2, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that it intends to implement a new approach to grant funding with the purpose of increasing the number of researchers receiving grants. These proposed changes are due to a highly skewed distribution of NIH funding with 10 percent of NIH-funded investigators receiving over 40 percent of funding. NIH intends to roll out specific policies and procedures as part of the new approach – titled the Grant Support Index (GSI) – that will assess effectiveness of NIH research investments. During this time, NIH also will seek feedback from on how best to implement the individual grant funding limits.

The 2017 SSTI Creating a Better Future Award provides the perfect opportunity to show other practitioners, as well as policymakers, the success you have achieved at creating a better future for your region through science, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship. To be eligible, submit a brief application that highlights one of your organization’s most successful initiatives. Award categories encompass research; entrepreneurship and capital; competitive industries and economic opportunity; and, recognition for the most promising initiative. Check out the categories and more information at sstiawards.org.

Visit our SSTI awards resources page for the call for applications, writing samples, and to listen to the information call.

Don’t delay – deadline for applications is May 26.

SSTI continues its reporting on actions taken by state legislatures to invest in economic growth through science, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship. This week, we look at the budgets passed and signed by governors in Arizona, where R&D infrastructure will get a boost at the state’s public universities, Montana, which will see an increase in funding for some higher education research facilities, and Nebraska, where the state maintained the amount authorized for funding to small businesses for commercialization activities.

Arizona

Through Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s proposed budget, the country’s 2017 Innovation and Skills Plan will provide significant support for efforts intended to attract talented immigrants to the country, encourage investments in clean tech, and make the government procurement process easier for small, emerging technology firms.

A better future depends on science, technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship, but it also depends on harnessing these tools as a way to solve society’s shared problems. Growing jobs and wealth in a community is the goal of nearly all economic development programs, but more can be done to ensure that the public good is given an equal priority when developing regional prosperity strategies. The following highlights examples of technology-based economic development organizations increasingly focusing their efforts on creating opportunity through innovation.

In a document provided to Politico and now widely circulated, the White House revealed its budget reductions for FY 2017. While the budget is currently under a continuing resolution through April 28, the proposed funding numbers largely reflect a partial-year implementation of the administration’s FY 2018 budget blueprint.

Noting a growing need for additional education to meet workforce needs, several states have announced programs focusing on education and workforce needs, channeling state funding to grants that will focus on aligning learning opportunities with business and industry needs, or creating new initiatives in the private sector. Reaching a higher educational attainment among a greater percentage of the workforce by 2025 is also a goal set by several of the states.

Government offices focused on innovation have been around for several years, yet some states and even the federal government are seeking new ways to incorporate the concept into their offices. This week the White House announced a new Office of American Innovation, while earlier this month Rhode Island used its Office of Innovation to launch a new effort called the Government Innovation League, and in January Ohio’s governor proposed funding a new state office focused on innovation, emerging technologies and their job-creation potential.

Although the U.S. National Institutes of Health may face decreased funding under the new presidential administration, recently published research in Science argues that public investments in biomedical research play an important role in driving private sector R&D. In an analysis of 365,380 grants awarded by the U.S.

On March 28, the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) announced nearly $2.5 million in grants to expand and diversify the economy in coal-impacted communities across multiple states. With this latest announcement, ARC has now invested $75.5 million (leveraging an additional $142 million in investments) to diversify the economy in 236 coal-impacted counties across nine Appalachian states through the Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization (POWER) Initiative. The new round of investments are intended to create and retain hundreds of jobs in advanced manufacturing and agriculture; build a workforce pipeline through the region’s community colleges; and, identify additional economic opportunities for economic growth.

To recruit more STEM students to teach in their field after graduation, pay them more money says a study by the American Physical Society (APS). Recognizing that innovation relies heavily on STEM initiatives and an educated workforce, the APS in collaboration with the American Chemical Society, Computing Research Association, and Mathematics Teacher Education Partnership set out to learn what discourages students in STEM from eventually teaching the subjects. Although STEM students who responded to a survey indicated they may be interested in the teaching profession, their misconceptions about salary and other factors seem to be keeping them out of teaching.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich is one of the last governors to deliver a state of the state address, which he did Tuesday evening. The former presidential contender assured the audience that he is “not running for anything,” but wanted to thank those who worked on managing the state budget. He used the address to focus on a variety of topics, including tech and innovation initiatives in the state, and educational efforts to support those industries. Kasich did not read a prepared speech and the following comments were taken from a transcript of his address:

Billion dollar acquisitions and IPOs of young startups capture a lot of media attention, but they are not the norm for the market by any means. Exits do not need to be measured in the billions of dollars to have significant economic development benefit for the states and regions that make sustained investments into startup innovation firms. An SSTI analysis of the Pitchbook and Crunchbase investment databases reveals a number of recent exits by venture development organizations (VDOs) that may provide funding to re-invest in even more innovation-based startups in their regions. Our analysis reveals that many of the acquired companies appear to be maintaining their local operations as they use the acquisition funds to scale. Several examples from the past quarter alone demonstrate the value of the VDO approach to supporting regional prosperity.

The number of companies receiving venture capital investments during the first quarter of 2017 dropped 24 percent compared to a year ago, according to the latest NVCA-Pitchbook Venture Capital Monitor, released Tuesday.  Venture capitalists also parted with 12 percent less money during the quarter, suggesting to the report’s authors that 2017 is on pace to compare to 2013 levels.

SSTI is pleased to announce the call for applications for the 2017 SSTI Creating a Better Future Awards program. The new title of the program is intended to better reflect the ever-changing field of tech-based economic development and celebrate exceptional initiatives that create a better future through science, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship.

As a recipient of a Creating a Better Future Award, your initiative represents a standard of excellence that has been recognized by your peers through a competitive selection process.

U.S. clusters looking to collaborate with European clusters are invited to an event taking place in Washington, D.C., during the TechConnect World Innovation Conference, on May 16, 2017. The seminar and matchmaking event is being organized by the European Cluster Collaboration Platform and BILAT USA 4.0. BILAT USA 4.0 seeks to support transatlantic cluster cooperation for strategic business partnerships and enhance, support and further develop the research and innovation cooperation between the European Union and the U.S.

In a report released this week, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the 11 agencies participating in the Small Business Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs have varied in their implementation of fraud, waste and abuse prevention requirements. The ten requirements were put in place as part of the SBIR/STTR Reauthorization Act of 2011, following a 2009 congressional hearing regarding fraud in the programs.

The Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC) held its national meeting this week, and the emphasis of many conversations around the conference site in San Antonio was how labs can implement new partnerships to yield greater tech transfer successes.

Here at SSTI, we receive requests from time-to-time from members looking to better understand their regional economy through data. Though the federal government has long been the largest provider of publicly available data, the mechanisms to explore it have been unwieldy. Now more than ever, users have options for interactive resources to explore government data and help inform decision making around economic development. This Digest article highlights many of the free tools and databases that are available.

As the relationship between technology and work continues to evolve, concerns abound, including its effects on jobs, education and business. The National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine took a deeper look at the relationship and its impact, convening an expert committee to delve into the topic and set forth a research agenda. The resulting report, Information Technology and the U.S. Workforce: Where Are We and Where Do We Go from Here, explores the current state, trends, and possible futures of technology and work, as well as the possible implications for education, privacy, security and even democracy.

Among this year’s most talked about books on economic development is Richard Florida’s The New Urban Crisis. This commentary provides a brief overview of Florida’s book, a response to his conclusions, and insight into what the crisis may mean for economic development practitioners more broadly. 

As the state budgeting process comes to a close, SSTI will report over the coming weeks on actions taken by state legislatures to invest in economic growth through science, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship. Up this week is a look at commitments that legislatures in Arkansas and Idaho have made including funds for a new accelerator program, Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) centers, and more than $14 million for a biosciences research institute.

Congress has passed a budget for FY 2017 that largely continues support for federal innovation programs and R&D investments. Among the highlights are $17 million for Regional Innovation Strategies (a $2 million increase over FY 2016), level funding of $130 million for the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership and $5 million for SBA’s clusters program. In reviewing dozens of line items, offices that had received significant cuts in the White House’s skinny budget appear to receive some of the largest funding increases (such as the Appalachian Regional Commission, Community Development Block Grant and ARPA-E). However, with the exception of multi-billion dollar increases for Department of Defense R&D, many increases are rather small in terms of overall dollars. This is, at least in part, a reflection of non-defense spending caps rising by only $40 million for FY 2017, limiting the availability of new funds. In this context, science and innovation gains are particularly impressive, with a five percent overall increase for federal R&D that particularly benefits NASA and NIH.

Both before and after the new administration released its budget plan, SSTI was communicating with both parties to identify how Congress would react to significant budget reductions. The message we heard was clear and consistent: Congress would continue to fund its existing priorities. The FY 2017 Omnibus shows that legislators were true to their word. Innovation policymakers and practitioners throughout the country should take a moment to appreciate this….