The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) recently announced its largest POWER (Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization) grant package to date, investing nearly $46.4 million into 57 projects across 184 counties. The award aims to leverage entrepreneurship, workforce development, and infrastructure to bolster re-employment opportunities, create jobs in existing or new industries, and attract new sources of investment.

The Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation revealed the awardees from its second round of the Defense Manufacturing Community Support Program this week. The office awarded $5 million to each of five organizations to lead partnerships that will strengthen defense manufacturing and related supply chains. The five awards are listed below and available on the office’s website:

The Community Development Financial Institution Fund (CDFI Fund) of the U.S. Department of Treasury recently awarded more than $24.1 million in Technical Assistance Awards to 191 Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs). These awards were distributed through the Community Development Financial Institutions Program (CDFI Program) and the Native American CDFI Assistance Program (NACA Program). The 191 CDFI awardees represented 39 states — as well as Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

The Biden administration announced the 30 members of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) this week. The panel, which is co-chaired by the president’s science advisor and external experts, exists to make science, technology and innovation recommendations to the White House. The administration calls this the most diverse PCAST in its history, which dates back to 1957, including the first women co-chairs. Included among the advisors are two former secretaries under President Barack Obama: Penny Pritzker (Commerce) and Ashton Carter (Defense).

The Small Business Administration (SBA) has announced a combined total of $5.4 million in awards to innovation-focused entrepreneur support organizations with programs to support entrepreneurs researching and developing STEM-related innovations. The 2021 competition included two prize tracks with 84 winners for the Growth Accelerator Fund Competition (GAFC) and eight winners for the new SBIR Catalyst competition, which aims to spur investment in underrepresented communities within the innovation economy.  

Building on takeaways from Appalachian stakeholders that included a preference to grow their own jobs through entrepreneurship and small business development rather than the traditional approach of business recruitment and new job creation, the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) developed a four-year strategic plan.  The Appalachia Envisioned: A New Era of Opportunity plan sets strategic investment goals and objectives to build Appalachian businesses, workforce, infrastructure, culture and tourism, and community leaders.   

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic and recession, most states experienced growth in annual Higher Education Research & Development (HERD) expenditures between 2019 and 2020. Given higher education’s role in generating knowledge that catalyzes innovative new technologies developed by high-growth startups, R&D conducted at institutions of higher education is one of the most important metrics for evaluating an area’s innovation economy.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently released guidance through its Division of Corporation Finance to address the risks of investing in companies that are based in or have a majority of their business operations in the People’s Republic of China. This action continues a trend of expanding regulation of investments related to China, and the SEC’s statement clarifies that the purpose of the disclosures is to protect investors from recently-enacted restrictions by the Chinese government on China-based companies in regard to raising capital from foreign investors.

Loyalty to alma maters matters financially beyond March Madness™ and college sports betting, it turns out — to such a degree that policy makers, venture development organizations and university seed funds hoping to attract equity investments for local innovation startups should pay considerable attention to the educational attainment section of founders’ LinkedIn profiles or resumes.

Since 1990, the United States has produced its own national climate assessment report to, in the words of the project’s director Allison Crimmins, “provide Americans with information on the accelerating impacts, vulnerabilities and responses to the climate crisis.” Work on the fifth assessment is well underway and NOAA has made available for public comment annotated outlines of each of the 32 chapters included in the draft report.

The last of the governors have delivered their State of the State addresses. With 36 gubernatorial elections this fall, many governors appeared to be more conservative in their addresses this year, speaking more about past accomplishments rather than rolling out new programs. This week features comments from California, Louisiana, Nevada and Ohio’s governors as their addresses related to the innovation economy.

SSTI and the Small Business Technology Council circulated a letter to Congress calling for reauthorization of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs. The letter has been signed by more than 100 organizations, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Angel Capital Association, Association of University Research Parks and dozens of SSTI members. Without congressional action, the programs will expire at the end of the current fiscal year.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is accepting applications to operate Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) centers in Kentucky, Nebraska, Rhode Island and South Dakota. The NIST Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership funds 51 centers in all 50 states and Puerto Rico which provide experts who enhance the performance of local manufacturers. Funding awards will include almost $19.8 million to support small and medium-sized manufacturing companies in the four listed states.

The U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) announced the eight winners of its STEM Talent Challenge, a national competition to receive funding for programs developed to train talent in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This challenge encourages a resilient workforce to amplify the United States as a competitive force in STEM.

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) National Defense Education Program is seeking to strategically fund science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education at 2-year institutions and community colleges through a consortium approach. DoD is planning five awards ranging between $5 million to $11 million with an aim to enhance the STEM workforce through regional consortia that will develop and encourage STEM ecosystems between 2-year institutions and/or community colleges and 4-year institutions, industry, local education agencies, and others in STEM education.

More than 40 percent of Indiana’s manufacturing companies successfully implemented Industry 4.0 technologies in 2021, more than doubling the number that had reported that a year earlier, according to a recent Conexus Indiana report. The advanced manufacturing and logistics (AML) industries are considered the backbone of Indiana’s economy. Indiana manufacturers account for more than $100 billion of the state’s economy and employ 17 percent of the state’s workforce.

The Convergence Accelerator, a program developed by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to invest in research towards developing high-impact solutions for societal issues, requests topic ideas for the 2023 cohort in a Dear Colleague Letter Request for Information (DCL/RFI). This program follows a three-tiered process, including topic ideation and convergence research phases one and two.

Earlier this week, House Democrats released its version of a wide-ranging innovation policy bill.

The U.S. Department of Commerce and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have published a request for information (RFI) to inform the planning and design of potential programs surrounding the semiconductor industry within the United States. Historically, the U.S. accounted for 40 percent of the global semiconductor manufacturing.

Recognizing that the era of total U.S. dominance in the global science and engineering (S&E) enterprise is over, a recent report from the National Science Board (NSB) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) on the State of U.S. Science and Engineering 2022 indicates that the U.S. must focus on strengthening international research and development (R&D) collaboration and developing domestic STEM talent to maintain its leadership on the global S&E stage.

Attracting investment to a coal-dependent region with a state-of-the-art AgriTech research and development center is under consideration in Kentucky while Rhode Island is proposing greater investment in developing its blue economy. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Rhode Island Gov. Daniel J. McKee have both targeted new innovation initiatives to grow their state’s economy in their recently proposed budgets.

This week’s edition of Useful Stats examines the contributions to county-level GDP in 2020 by industry group. Specifically, this analysis identifies the industries that contributed the most to the economic output of each county in 2020, as well as examining the annual percent changes in industry contribution to county GDP over the previous year. Most industries experienced declines brought on by the economic recession of 2020, although some experienced growth.

Earlier this month, California Gov. Gavin Newsom released his proposed FY 2022-2023 budget, which he said “reinforces our role as the global leader in climate protection, innovation and job creation.” The budget focuses on new investments and “positions the state as a global leader in innovation and solutions to both mitigate and adapt to the changing climate.” The proposal includes billions in one-time funding from various sources over five years to advance the state’s climate and opportunity budget and provide equitable climate solutions.

Broadening participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is vital for encouraging innovative advancements in scientific research and developing a diverse STEM workforce that engages citizens from all backgrounds. The Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science and Engineering (CEOSE) 2019-2020 Biennial Report to Congress outlines plans to broaden participation in STEM by focusing on "Making Visible the Invisible."

South Carolina’s innovation economy is benefiting from funding and support to academic institutions and tech startups from the South Carolina Research Authority (SCRA). According to its annual report, SCRA produced an economic impact of over $1 billion in the state in 2021, an increase of about 5.4 percent from 2020. SCRA is a nonprofit corporation chartered by South Carolina to develop the state as a top innovation destination. SCRA and its affiliates provide loans and investments to South Carolina-based companies.