For communities hoping to start and register an apprenticeship program, a new toolkit by the Department of Labor may offer some insight. Launched as part of National Apprenticeship Week (Nov. 12-18, 2018), “Building Registered Apprenticeship Programs” provides a guide to help start and register your apprenticeship program.

While diversity plays a critical role in both improving the quality and increasing the rate of innovation, women and several minority groups remain underrepresented in STEM fields. Several studies find that improving the retention rate of women and other underrepresented groups in STEM at the college level can have significant impacts on improving the diversity and representativeness of the STEM workforce.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced two new manufacturing prizes as part of the Manufacturing Innovator Challenge, an effort to crowdsource solutions for next generation manufacturing, to increase energy productivity and strengthen America's industrial base. Both prizes focus on additive manufacturing: Additive Manufacturing for Disaster Response and Solid State Lighting Manufacturing.

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is funding a program to better connect entrepreneurs, industry and investors with inventions from federally funded R&D. NIST has created a partnership with National Technical Information Service (NTIS) and will invest $1.7 million of its Lab to Market funding to complete the project.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivy announced the Alabama HBCU Co-Op Pilot Program to provide students at the state’s 14 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) with the opportunity for hands-on work experience in STEM fields as well as create greater collaboration between Alabama’s HBCUs, industry, and government. Participating students will be required to complete three co-op semesters with some of the state’s top companies in order to gain a sense of professional experience in the area of their majors.

NexusLA announced the launch of Apprenti Louisiana –  the state’s first registered information technology (IT) apprenticeship program. NexusLA, a Research Park Corporation subsidiary, will partner with Apprenti to support the program.

SSTI has reviewed the ballot initiatives across the country that affect innovation. Several states have energy initiatives on their ballots, while higher education funding is at play in Maine, Montana, New Jersey and Rhode Island. Utah could become only the second state to fund its schools through gas taxes, if a measure there is passed. At the same time, four states have ballot issues addressing redistricting commissions which could have a significant impact on state legislative makeup when lines are redrawn after the 2020 census.

Arizona

Companies already repurpose trash into marketable products, but can the same concept work with air pollution? The National Academies of Science provides a detailed answer to this question in a committee report outlining the necessary research and innovation investments to foster the commercial exploitation of carbon dioxide and methane gas emissions generated by our current industrial economy.

Last week, SSTI highlighted the recently released issue of the Economic Development Quarterly where three pieces stand out for their relevance to practitioners and policymakers. This article takes a look at how academic research can inform three common strategies for strengthening the manufacturing sector and encouraging regional economic development: targeting industry clusters, leveraging manufacturing extension services, and promoting workforce development.

While it has enjoyed a long history of success, the Maine Technology Institute (MTI) knew it was time to update its processes when it found itself hampered by long-standing practices. Founded in 1999, the Maine Technology Institute (MTI) is an industry-led, state-funded, nonprofit organization and among the nation’s oldest state-level technology-based economic development agencies.

Tuesday’s elections resulted in a Democratic majority in the House, but the changes for the next Congress go far beyond this outcome. Flipping party control means new chairs for every committee in the House; many Senate Republicans in leadership positions are reaching their party’s term limits, yielding new committee seniority; and, retirements and incumbent losses yield further changes. For the bipartisan issues of science and innovation, this shake up will produce new opportunities and uncertainties.

SSTI has reviewed the results of ballot initiatives affecting innovation following Tuesday’s election. Higher education funding received support from voters in Maine, Montana, New Jersey and Rhode Island; however, a South Dakota measure aimed specifically at developing a fund to assist the state's postsecondary technical institutes and students was defeated. Additionally, Utah voters opposed using gas taxes to fund its schools. Several states had clean energy initiatives on their ballots, with mixed results.

Since 2011, more than half of the nation's new investment in business research and development has come from California companies, and more than three-quarters has come from the top five states, according to an SSTI analysis of recently released NSF data.

The 21st TCI Global Conference organized by the Institute for Competitiveness & Prosperity will be held in Toronto, Oct. 16-18. The conference is expected to draw more than 400 international practitioners and will focus on cluster leadership, governance and evaluation, as well as designing innovation networks for knowledge exchange, with the goal of furthering economic development. It will feature 11 unique immersion experiences on Toronto clusters, including advanced manufacturing, emerging technology, energy, and the innovation ecosystem.

Starting next month the SSTI Weekly Digest will bring you a special series of interviews conducted with leaders in the innovation economy. We will feature topics like driving regional innovation on modest R&D budgets, honing your value proposition, and tips on working with your state legislature and making innovation a priority with your governor. The Q&A series will provide a quick preview into some of the insights we will explore in greater depth during SSTI’s 2018 Annual Conference: Navigating the New Innovation Landscape, Dec. 3-5 in Salt Lake City.

Working together to address the skilled labor shortage in manufacturing, manufacturers across the nation participate in Manufacturing Day as an opportunity to change perception. Always the first Friday in October, thousands of manufacturers open their doors to the public to exhibit what they do in modern manufacturing. Many community and technical colleges also participate to educate the public on the changing nature of the industry and highlight the skills required for a well-paid career in the field.

As the National Science Foundation announces awards for five new regional academic centers to encourage underrepresented populations to pursue and attain college degrees related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), a recent working paper from two Harvard researchers finds an explanation for the popularly perceived persistent shortage of STEM workers: changes in technology.  The rapid pace of technological change is making the skills of the existing STEM wo

During the past decade, there has been rapid growth of the smart cities movement – improving critical public service delivery, while reducing cost over the long run, through the Internet of Things, real time data gathering, better sensors and integrated systems management. The pace of growth is resulting in a wide variety of do-it-yourself models for smart communities to address their IoT data management and analysis needs.

With the close of the primaries, the 36 gubernatorial elections are now taking shape. November’s election will see at least 18 new governors as those seats were term-limited, the incumbent was not seeking reelection, or did not win the primary.  In each of the 36 races, SSTI has reviewed the major party candidates’ positions relating to technology-based economic development and here outlines what those candidates have revealed on topics touching the field.

With at least six federal agencies supporting quantum computing research and at least 10 agencies supporting synthetic biology research, more collaboration is needed to effectively marshal the agencies’ efforts to maintain U.S. competitiveness, according to a new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).

Vibrant Virginia (VV), a new program from Virginia Tech’s Office of Economic Development, is offering seed grants as a way to encourage faculty and graduate students to explore persistent public policy challenges spanning the state’s urban, suburban, and rural communities.

Inclusive workforce development, downtown revitalization, and an influx of funds for venture capital are among the proposals in an economic development strategy unveiled by New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy earlier this week. In an effort to focus on bottom-up development rather than a package of tax incentive programs favoring big businesses, the strategy seeks to build the nation’s “most diverse and inclusive innovation economy.”

The Angel Capital Association is piloting a new report on the factors that influence successful angel investing and the startups that angels support.  The initial Angel Funders Report covers 2017 data from 26 angel groups and provides new insights for one year of investments. Some of the report’s key findings include:

The number of workers, students and educators participating in the Manufacturing USA institutes’ portfolio of programs, research projects and training courses grew seven-fold to surpass 191,000 individuals in 2017, according to the network’s new annual report.  With a network of 14 individual institutes supported by the departments of Commerce, Defense and Energy, the Manufacturing USA initiative saw tremendous growth during 2017, including six institutes that went online just during the year.

Established in 1979 as a way to help broaden the distribution of federal funds for research and development (R&D), specifically at the National Science Foundation (NSF), one of the most important initiatives funneling research and development funds to states with smaller populations is the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). As more attention is paid to the growing inequality between states, programs like EPSCoR are worthy of additional consideration.