Governors in Maryland, Minnesota, and Florida proposed substantial funds to higher education in their budgets this week, with an emphasis on affordable education and expanded research capacity.

This week, governors in Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Wisconsin unveiled their budget proposals. Included in the governors’ recommendations are several cases of agency restructuring and funds for workforce development, innovation tax credits, and other TBED-relevant issues.

Over the past decade stem cell research has been touted as a game-changer in the life sciences and a potential fount of new biomedical innovations. As a result, several states have launched targeted programs to support stem cell research, despite the controversy that tends to surround the field. New research suggests that these programs have been effective at increasing the output of researchers in their respective states.

SSTI's Tech Talkin' Govs series has returned as governors across the country formally convene 2015 legislative sessions. The series highlights new and expanded TBED proposals from governors' State of the State, Budget and Inaugural addresses.

Last week, Johns Hopkins University released an action plan to cultivate and support a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship throughout the university and the Baltimore region.

Following a lively debate over education funding, state worker pay and pensions, Maryland legislators approved a $40 billion budget. Under the approved legislation, $68 million would be available to support the state's most expensive school districts. Gov.

Columbus-based State Auto Labs, the innovation arm of the State Automobile Mutual Insurance Company, is collaborating with venture development organization Rev1 Ventures on a $25 million corporate venture fund to support innovation and entrepreneurship in the insurance industry. Through the partnership, Rev1 Ventures and State Auto Labs will help connect InsurTech and FinTech startups with resources such as capital, technologists, and industry experts.

In an effort designed to stimulate economic growth and workforce development in Ohio and New York communities, KeyBank Foundation announced a $24 million grant awarded to JumpStart, Inc. The grant represents the foundation’s single largest philanthropic commitment to date.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich signed a bill (HB 233) last month that authorizes cities and villages to create Downtown Redevelopment Districts (DRDs) that can address innovation districts and/or historic rehabilitation. The DRDs permit tax abatements of up to 70 percent of increased assessments in conjunction with payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTs) or a redevelopment charge that functions as a special assessment tax. In the case of innovation districts, these charges may be used to fund loans or grants to technology businesses—specifically including R&D and technology transfer activities—or to incubators or accelerators in the district.

Throughout the United States, innovation districts have been proposed with varying degrees of emphasis on inclusivity and opportunity.

Venture development organizations are reaching into new territory for funding partners and finding success in innovative models. Two new funds, the San Diego Tech & Life Science Investor Syndicate and Rev1 Fund I in Columbus, OH, have recently opened with less traditional funding sources, testing the waters of crowdfunding and heavy corporate backing, respectively. The San Diego fund, launched by CONNECT, allows anyone wanting to invest $1,000 the opportunity to participate alongside more experienced lead investors.

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) announced a number of grants last week to aid regional innovation and entrepreneurship efforts through infrastructure improvements, the creation of new spaces, and business improvements in regions across the country. The grants fund projects in AR, AZ, CA, ME, MI, and OH.

The big data technology and services market is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 23.1 percent over the 2014-2019 forecast period, with annual spending projected to reach$48.6 billion in 2019, according to a 2015 study from IDC – a market research firm. Hoping to leverage this exponential growth into research and economic development opportunity, several universities are fund raising to establish new big data R&D Centers in the communities they serve.

Opportunities for successful workforce development partnerships exist across a variety of industries and geographies, according to a recently released report from the Community Development Department at the Cleveland Fed. The report, Addressing Employment Needs through Sector Partnerships, includes five case studies from throughout the Federal Reserve’s Fourth District, which contains Western Pennsylvania, Eastern Kentucky, the panhandle of West Virginia and all of Ohio. Although sector-based initiatives have been around for quite some time, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, whose final regulations became publicly available in June 2016, places a strong emphasis on aligning education and job training with employer needs, according to the report’s authors Kyle Fee, Matt Klesta, and Lisa Nelson.