U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker announced the first 26 recipients of the 2014 Regional Innovation Strategies program grants. Managed by the Economic Development Administration, the Regional Innovation Strategies (RIS) program is designed to advance innovation and capacity-building activities in regions across the country through three different types of grants:
The U.S. Small Business Administration has announced four new Regional Innovation Clusters that will be included among its portfolio of high-performing regional networks. Awardee clusters will receive $500,000-$550,000 for mentoring, counseling, pitch development and other small business support programs. The new members of SBA’s cluster portfolio include Milwaukee’s Water Technology Cluster, Southeastern New Mexico’s Autonomous and Unmanned Systems Cluster, a Retail, Supply Chain and Food Processing Cluster spanning the Ozarks region and a Marine Industries Cluster in several Gulf Coast states.
The U.S. Department of Commerce released a solicitation (EDA-HDQ-OIE-2014-2004219) for Regional Innovation Grants via the 2014 Regional Innovation Strategies (RIS) program. Under the RIS program, Commerce is soliciting applications for three separate Regional Innovation Strategy funding awards, including:
To compete in the global world market, regions must continue to evolve and better understand how best practices support their regional industries, including defining the benchmarks of a successful industry cluster. In a recent academic article from Harvard researchers, Mercedes Delgado, Michael Porter, and Scott Stern unveiled a new algorithm tool that generates and assesses sets of cluster definitions. The new algorithm will be integrated into the U.S. Cluster Mapping Project to help researchers and policymakers cultivate more successful regional clusters.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. launched Small Business Forward℠ — a five-year, $30 million grant program to help industry cluster initiatives in cities across the country. Through Small Business Forward, JPMorgan Chase will fund nonprofit organizations that work with small businesses concentrated in a single industry sector.
The Small Business Administration (SBA) announced it is accepting applications for the SBA Clusters Program. Under the SBA Clusters Program up to four contracts may be made to lead organizations of innovation cluster initiatives from across the country. The awards are intended to help the lead organization bring together regional assets to support the cluster and provide services and resources to small businesses involved in the cluster. Applications are due July 31.
The U.S. Economic Development Administration and Harvard Business School have unveiled a new website that provides easy-to-navigate, granular data on U.S. economic clusters. The project aims to strengthen regional and national competitiveness by providing up-to-date, high-quality data on the economic performance of regions across the U.S. Users can browse a cluster dashboard, which maps out the strength of specific industries by region, or receive in-depth economic data on a particular region.
The fourth installment of SSTI’s Tech Talkin’ Govs series includes excerpts from speeches delivered in Illinois, Massachusetts and Utah.
After its first year of work, India's National Innovation Council has released a report on development of a long-term innovation roadmap. The keystone of this strategy is a Rs 5000 crores ($968,615,000 U.S.) India Inclusive Innovation Fund to support small businesses, paired with an Industry Innovation Cluster Initiative. The report provides background on other Indian initiatives, such as the pilot University Innovation Cluster at the University of Delhi, the country's twenty Design Innovation Centres and the new State Innovation Councils.
The California Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development is preparing to launch four new Innovation Hubs (iHubs) across the state. iHubs, strategically placed within existing clusters, serve as centers of collaboration for regional economic development agencies, venture capitalists, incubators, and higher education to develop joint programming for entrepreneurship (see the September 4 issue).
As the U.S. manufacturing sector continues to grow, so does the challenge for regions to find “middle-skill” workers who can fill job vacancies in advanced manufacturing. The Council on Foreign Relations has released a new report, Building the American Workforce, that suggests policymakers can fill this need by narrowing the skills gap for underserved, low-skilled workers.
Small businesses often are surrounded by a myriad resources and potential partners that could help leverage their products and services to innovate and grow, but they are not always aware of how to access them.
The city of Los Angeles is working with a consortium of public and private partners to redevelop unused docklands into space that will support new industry cluster development. The project highlights a trend of high-profile projects across the country, with cities like Brooklyn and Philadelphia repurposing dockside warehouse space to seed tech startups and advanced manufacturing.
The FY12 Business, Economic Development and Labor budget approved by lawmakers includes $25.7 million for USTAR, the state-funded initiative to grow a knowledge-based economy. This is the same amount recommended by Gov. Gary Herbert, but down from FY11 projected spending of $35.4 million. That amount included some ARRA funding from previous years, however. Research Teams will receive $23 million and $1.9 million is slated for Technology Outreach.
In an era of tightening fiscal constraints, states have to make tough decisions, establish clear economic development funding priorities and transform their economic development models to take advantage of immediate opportunities and position their state for long-term economic growth. Mississippi, Oklahoma and Washington have released state-specific strategic plans that make those tough decisions by focusing their resources on key science & technology (S&T) areas to address the economic impacts of the Great Recession and position the state for future prosperity.
The Department of Commerce announced the winners of the Strong Cities, Strong Communities (SC2) Challenge, the Economic Development Administration-led competition seeking to help cities and regions develop a comprehensive economic development strategy. Greensboro, North Carolina, Hartford, Connecticut, and Las Vegas, Nevada each were awarded $1 million to assist in the refinement and implementation of their respective plans.
The Small Business Administration released a funding announcement for the Regional Innovation Cluster (RICs) Program. The SBA will announce up to seven RIC awards intended to support public-private partnerships that bring together businesses, academic institutions, economic development organizations and other local actors to lay the foundations of sustainable growth and economic competitiveness. Three of the awards will be set aside to support small businesses that provide cluster-related services. Proposals must be submitted by August 6, 2012.
The Small Business Administration (SBA) plans to make seven awards to support organizations helping to build strong regional innovation clusters. The awards will support public-private partnerships that bring together businesses, academic institutions, economic development organizations and other local actors to lay the foundations of sustainable growth and economic competitiveness. Three of the awards will go to small businesses that provide cluster-related services. SBA intends to post a request for proposals on or about July 5.
The Obama Administration has released details on this year's $26 million Advanced Manufacturing Jobs and Innovation Accelerator Challenge, a multi-agency initiative to assist in the development and implementation of regionally-driven economic development strategies that support advanced manufacturing and cluster development. The challenge will fund approximately 12 new awards, each with a project period of up to three years. The deadline for applications is July 9, 2012.
A large majority of U.S. manufacturing jobs are located in large metropolitan areas, according to a new paper from the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program. In 2010, about 79.5 percent of manufacturing employment was centered in large metros and in central metropolitan counties. Over the past two years, however, there has been a slight shift in manufacturing activity back towards non-metro areas, as U.S. manufacturing has experienced a small resurgence.
The U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) announced the 20 winners of the $37 million Jobs and Innovation Accelerator Challenge. The multi-agency competition will support cluster-based, regional initiatives to spur job creation and economic growth. Descriptions of all 20 winning projects are available on the EDA site. Read the announcement...
The Greater Milwaukee Committee (GMC) announced Innovation in Milwaukee (MiKE) — a new $500,000 initiative designed to align southeastern Wisconsin's global and advanced manufacturers with the region's design, technology and innovation companies. MiKE will be built around three core elements:
One is a proposed tech corridor focused on energy and environment in southeastern Louisiana and the other is being called a "knowledge district" meant to capitalize on the life sciences sector in Providence, but both have the same goal: growing high-tech industry sectors and creating high-wage jobs. Though the concept has been around for decades and is successful in many areas of the country, some states and regions are just now finding their niche and gaining support to establish tech hubs.