With nearly $10 million in additional funding for the upcoming year, the public-private Missouri Technology Corporation (MTC) will receive a boost in support for core programs and new resources to administer early stage business grants. MTC invests in emerging high-tech companies with a focus on bioscience industries.
Massachusetts continues to reign as the U.S. state best prepared to meet the challenges of the current and future global economy, according to the sixth edition of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation’s (ITIF) State New Economy Index.
Tasked with taking the Small Business Administration (SBA) to the next level, Maria Contreras Sweet, the new head of the agency, envisions a modern SBA with a greater focus on inclusion. Contreras Sweet outlined steps to achieve her vision earlier this week in a speech at the Center for American Progress.
In recent years, national polices supporting university-led innovation have shifted from the linear, science-push model to a model that supports an interactive, reciprocal process of knowledge transfer between industry and university through research parks, university-industry research projects, etc. As these new national polices mature, academic researchers are starting to examine the effectiveness of university-focused policies on spurring innovation and their impact on economic development. A recently released study examines the effectiveness national polices in leading Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries in spurring university-led innovation and the impact of these policies on social and economic development.
In a recent Pacific Institute and Vox Global survey, about 80 percent of U.S. companies reported that water availability has become an issue for their business, particularly among firms in the South and Southwestern regions of the country. About 63 percent said water issues would affect their future location decisions, and more than half reported that they expected water scarcity to impact their growth and profitability over the next five years.
National Institute of Health (NIH) Director Francis S. Collins has accepted recommendations from an NIH working group that call for increased investment in the federal government’s effort to map and understand the human brain. Under the recommended plan, the initiative would receive $400 million each year between 2016-20, which would grow to $500 million a year for 2021-25. The BRAIN Initiative is a multi-agency effort, supported by NIH, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency of the U.S. Department of Defense, National Science Foundation and Food and Drug Administration.
NASA is looking to U.S. universities to explore transformative space technologies and help the agency advance its plans for exploration to deep space and Mars. The agency will make up to 12 awards totaling $500,000 each this fall with R&D efforts taking place over two to three years. Notices of intent to submit proposals are due June 24.
Last year, 108 unique institutional funders made a total of 260 investments in North Carolina companies, according to a report from the Council for Entrepreneurial Development. The 2013 Innovators Report details the $461 million in equity investments, grants and awards received by firms, including support from venture investors, angel networks, foundations, federal agencies, competitions, crowdfunding and other sources. Life sciences firms generated the most activity with $275 million in 134 deals, driven by the biopharmaceutical industry.
A project underway between IBM and Louisiana State University’s School of Engineering aims to better meet employer needs by tripling the number of computer science graduates in five years. Hoping to generate more partnerships like these, lawmakers approved legislation supported by Gov. Bobby Jindal that allows colleges and universities to compete for funds in an effort to produce graduates in high-demand areas. A smaller percentage of the funds distributed under the new Workforce and Innovation for a Stronger Economy (WISE) Fund will be based on federally funded research expenditures.
U.S. angel investors returned to their pre-recession level of activity in 2013, according to the latest release from the University of New Hampshire’s Center for Venture Research (UNH CVR). Investment had plummeted during the economic crisis of 2007-09, and grew over the next few years. Last year however, investment dollars jumped by 8.3 percent and deals increased by 5.5 percent over the previous year. Total investments reached $24.8 billion in 2013, near the market high of $26 billion achieved in 2007.
Ivy Estabrooke has been named the executive director for the Utah Science and Technology Research initiative. She replaces former Executive Director Ted McAleer, who stepped down in January.
Catherine Lang, Nebraska’s director of Economic Development and Commissioner of Labor, has resigned to pursue a job in the private sector.
Building on a bare bones structure for privatizing economic development established last session, Gov. Pat McCrory outlined a plan for transitioning the state’s Department of Commerce to a public-private partnership, effective July 1. The move, according to the governor, will allow for more flexibility to support businesses and achieve savings for the state. Several innovation-focused investments also were presented as part of the recommended state budget adjustments for FY15, including matching and incentive funds for early stage, high-tech companies and funding to assist campuses in commercializing technology.
You talk about your program often, tout its success and share with stakeholders your program’s impact. Why not let the entire country in on your good work? Telling your story helps generate buzz about the value of investing in science, technology and innovation to create vibrant regional economies and improve our nation's competitiveness. All you have to do is send us a five-page narrative describing your most successful innovation-focused efforts. Tell us: What you did, How you do it, How it is funded, How it works, and Why you should be recognized. Winners are announced during a special ceremony at SSTI’s annual conference in Chicago, September 14-16 and are provided a forum to showcase their initiative. Applications due June 17. Learn more: http://www.sstiawards.org/.
In 2012, U.S. science and engineering graduate programs saw a small 1.7 percent drop in enrollment by U.S. citizens and permanent residents, according to data from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Enrollment by foreign students, however, rose by 4.3 percent. NSF notes that 2012 is the second year in a row that saw very little increase in citizen enrollment, following five years of growth in the range of 2-3 percent.
The St. Louis Economic Development Partnership, a group created when the St. Louis County Economic Council and the city’s St. Louis Development Corp. merged last year, has released an ambitious economic strategy for the region. Planners are calling for collaboration between the region’s economic development organizations and startup initiatives, such as Accelerate St.
This week, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker announced the first 12 communities to participate in the federal government’s multi-agency Investing in Manufacturing Communities Partnership (IMCP) initiative. The initiative will concentrate federal economic development spending across agencies and departments on key manufacturing regions with strong economic strategies in place.
While it is common for states, regions or cities to develop economic strategies when times get rough, the Valley Prosperity Partnership hopes to capitalize on the unprecedented job growth the Red River Valley has experienced in recent years to build a more innovative economy. A new, five-year action agenda, drafted in partnership with Fourth Economy, offers many possible action items for the region, which includes parts of North Dakota and Minnesota.
Business dynamism, a measure of firm destruction and creation in an economy, has steadily declined in the U.S. over the past 30 years, according to a study released by the Brookings Institution by Ian Hathaway and Robert Litan. Dynamism has long been considered a key element of innovative economies, indicative of entrepreneurship and labor market mobility. The U.S. decline appears to have been consistent across industries and geographic areas.
More than 75 percent of U.S. manufacturers report a moderate to severe shortage of skilled workers, according to a recent study by Accenture and The Manufacturing Institute. While most manufacturers plan to increase their U.S.-based production over the next five years, many report that these plans are being hindered by the lack of skilled, and especially highly-skilled, workers. More than 80 percent perceived that the U.S. has a moderate to severe problem with the availability of highly-skilled labor.
Michigan now has 44 percent more venture capital firms and 86 percent more investment professionals than it did in 2009, according to a report released by the Michigan Venture Capital Association. While the state ranks near the middle of the pack for total venture investment dollars and per capita investment, the size of its venture capital community has shown strong growth over the past five years, led by healthy life science and information technology industries. The total amount of capital under management has also grown, from $1.1 billion to $1.6 billion during that period.
Lawmakers included $30 million in the recently enacted FY15 budget to establish a fund to help smaller manufacturers modernize and grow with priority given to companies located in the state’s 42 communities designated as historic manufacturing hubs. The budget also increases by $100 million the bond authorization for the Manufacturing Assistance Act, a program for larger companies that provides incentive-driven direct loans for projects with strong economic development potential. The proposals were part of Gov. Dan Malloy’s workforce development agenda outlined earlier this year.
Oregon derived about 28 percent of its GDP from information and communication technology (ICT) industries in 2012, according to a new report from the Technology CEO Council, based on Moody’s Analytics data. The report highlights the importance of ICT exports to each state economy. ICT hardware, software and services were the largest U.S. export sector in 2012, generating $272 billion for the U.S. economy.
State agencies in New York spent more on research and development than agencies in any other state in FY11, according to data released by the National Science Foundation. The NSF data provides an overview of state agency investments in R&D, broken down by the source of those funds and the types of organizations that eventually performed the research. Ohio, Florida and California also ranked among the top states for total agency investment. West Virginia and Ohio led in R&D investments as a share of state GDP in FY11.
Arizona is in a better position to emerge as a global player in biosciences that it was a decade ago, according to a new roadmap from the Flinn Foundation. Building on an initial strategic document released in 2002, the updated strategy offers 77 potential actions the state could pursue to support bioscience entrepreneurship, research translation, talent development, institutional connectivity and collaborations.
A $150 million fund, formed under the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Rural Business Investment Program (RBIP), will provide equity capital to small businesses in rural parts of the country. The fund will be managed by Advantage Capital Partners, which, along with eight other farm credit institutions, has pledged the backing capital for the effort. USDA has announced that it will accept applications for other new Rural Business Investment Companies to raise funds from farm credit institutions in order to make equity investments. Applications are due July 29.