Search

Editor's note: The Senate appropriations subcommittees were formally updated after this article originally published. They have been updated to reflect new assignments.

The Economic Development Administration (EDA), the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), and the Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA) have announced $38.8 million in funding as a part of the Obama administration’s Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization (POWER) Initiative – a coordinated federal effort to align, leverage and target a range of federal economic and workforce development programs and resources to assist communities negatively impacted by global transition away from coal. In addition to $38.8 million in federal support, the federal partners anticipate that POWER investments will help coal-impacted communities leverage an additional $67 million from other public and private partners.

The U.S. National Science Foundation announced a new $60 million investment led by NSF's Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships — the Accelerating Research Translation, or ART, program. The program will build capacity and infrastructure at higher education institutions that are needed to strengthen and scale the translation of basic research outcomes into impactful solutions and practice.

This week, the U.S. Department of Commerce updated its timeline for funding opportunities that support semiconductor and related manufacturing, as well as relevant R&D facilities. The department still intends, as first stated in its strategic plan last fall, to make funding for chip fabrication facilities available later this month.

Although freshman enrollment in higher education increased 4.3% in fall 2022 compared to the previous year, total enrollment declined by 0.6% and still remains below pre-pandemic levels. Total enrollment of both undergraduate and graduate levels is down about 1.11 million students (5.8%) compared to fall 2019. Freshman enrollment in community colleges, which had taken a greater hit during the pandemic, is up 6.1% over fall 2019.

The Employment Training Administration (ETA) released solicitations for a total of 12 ApprenticeshipUSA Single Industry Intermediary Contracts and ApprenticeshipUSA Multiple Industry Intermediary Contracts to become national ApprenticeshipUSA partners and have a leading role in the Sectors of Excellence in Apprenticeship (SEAs) in several key industries.

The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employment and Training Administration (ETA) announced the second phase of the ApprenticeshipUSA program – a $175 million national effort intended to help states and regions provide pathways for workers to acquire the skills and knowledge needed for good-paying jobs in fields such as information technology, healthc

The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employment and Training Administration (ETA) released a federal funding opportunity (FFO) for the America’s Promise Job Driven Grant Program.

The Department of Labor (DOL) announced that it will commit up to $90 million for the newly established ApprenticeshipUSA initiative with the intent to double and diversify the number of apprenticeships by 2018. Through the ApprenticeshipUSA program, the DOL will coordinate efforts with industry and education leaders, nonprofits, and local governments to accelerate and expand state apprenticeship strategies and grow the use of apprenticeships in new industries.

On Tuesday, Feb. 1, SSTI’s new TBED Community of Practice hosted its first webinar as part of a multi-year effort to build capacity among Economic Development Administration (EDA) grantees to achieve greater impacts and strengthen the overall practice of technology-based economic development (TBED). Webinar participants learned about new funding sources and how they can support regional innovation economies.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) requests input from stakeholders on place-based innovation activities leveraging research institutions, such as (but not limited to) DOE’s national laboratories and sites. Feedback collected as part of this RFI will inform DOE’s future program planning and development efforts. The RFI is an opportunity to provide input on how DOE can catalyze and sustain place-based ecosystems across the country.

This past December, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) sent out letters of encouragement, or discouragement, to applicants in the competition for up to $7 billion in federal funding to support the development of regional hydrogen hubs. Of the 79 original applicants, 33 were advised to move forward with writing a full application.

From 2002-2021 (the last 20 years for which data is available), the total U.S. real gross domestic product (GDP adjusted for inflation, or Real GDP) increased by approximately 45%, from $13.5 trillion to $19.6 trillion in chained 2012 dollars. On a per capita basis, county-level real GDP increased by an average of 36% over the past 20 years, with a range of growth from -77% (Brooks County, Texas) to 3,950% (Culberson County, Texas).

The South Carolina Research Authority (SCRA) had an economic impact of over $1.15 billion in FY 2022, through follow-on funding, grants awarded, investments made by affiliate SC Launch Inc, job support and more,  according to their annual report. This total is an increase of almost 15% from their economic impact in FY 2021. The report was compiled by SCRA with assistance on the economic impacts provided by the University of South Carolina Darla Moore School of Business. 

Five SSTI member organizations — Conductor, Nebraska Business Development Center, University of Louisville, University of South Alabama, and Verge — were awarded micro grants by SSTI to host policy meetings with state and local officials in their regions about the needs of innovation-driven entrepreneurs. The awards were made possible thanks to a project with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. In total, the seven meetings held by these groups connected dozens of entrepreneurs and support organizations with federal, state and local elected officials, program administrators and staff.

Microbusinesses (businesses with 1-9 domestic employees) spent $7.5 billion in both domestic and foreign R&D expenditures or costs in 2020, of which $6.7 billion was in the U.S. Of this total, $5.6 billion was performed by microbusinesses themselves, according to the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) and data from the Annual Business Survey (ABS). The $5.6 billion performed by U.S.

A previous Digest article gave a broad overview of the most recent survey of Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) for FY 2021 (the most recent data available), including a breakdown of what field of studies receive the most R&D funding.

The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) announced approximately $100 million in grant funds for the TechHire partnership grant program. The ETA anticipates that it will make up to 35 grants to support  pilot and scale public-private workforce development partnerships that can rapidly train workers for and connect them to well-paying, middle- and high-skilled, and high-growth jobs across a diversity of H-1B industries such as Information Technology (IT), healthcare, advanced manufacturing, financial services, and broadband.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund released a file and map summarizing core economic data for each census tract. Policymakers and practitioners should be aware of these changes for both what the data reveal about local economic trends and the impact the changes could have on future program eligibility.

The U.S. Department of State established a new office intended to develop and coordinate critical and emerging technology foreign policy, including biotechnology, advanced computing, artificial intelligence, and quantum information technologies.  The Office of the Special Envoy for Critical and Emerging Technology began operations Jan. 3. The office will offer policy expertise in technology, diplomatic leadership, and strategic direction for the department.

This edition of Useful Stats takes a high-level look at the United States’ change in Real Gross Domestic Product (RGDP, which is GDP adjusted for inflation) on a per capita basis for each of its counties, boroughs, parishes, etc. (hereon referred to as “counties”). Looking at RGDP per capita allows for an inflation adjusted, population standardized metric for comparing counties over time.

On Wednesday, President Obama launched a new National Strategic Computing Initiative (NSCI) by executive order. The multi-agency effort will seek partnerships with academia and industry to build high-performance computing systems capable of exascale processing and more than 10 times as fast as existing supercomputers.

SSTI is excited to announce staffing changes that are helping us build on our mission to strengthen initiatives to create a better future through science, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship. Over the past few months, SSTI has added five new staff members — Casey Nemecek, Jerry Coughter, Jonathan Dillon, Lisa Clayton and Sobia Saied — strengthened our student interns/assistants program, and promoted Mark Skinner to executive vice president and Jason Rittenberg to vice president.

Recent SSTI staff additions:

In larger VC firms with more assets under management (AUM), women at all levels received pay in line with what men received, with the median total cash for female general partners above that of the men. However, women at smaller AUM firms received significantly less total cash compensation than men, particularly at the managing general partner level, according to a survey on professional compensation in venture capital firms conducted by First Republic Bank recently and J. Thelander Consulting, Inc.