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.
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.
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.
The strategic direction of good regional innovation investments, from research through commercialization and production, must be based on the best information regarding the current trends, assets and needs of the regional innovation system. Socio-economic data and asset mapping tools - available through sources like the three EDA-funded sites: Stats America and US Cluster Mapping and the Regional Innovation Acceleration Network (RIAN) – provide good starting points.
Groups in the greater Detroit and Pittsburgh regions recently released reports documenting the progress these metros have made over the past few years in building thriving technology economies. Detroit’s Automation Alley found that tech industry employment in the region grew by 15 percent in 2011, outpacing growth in all of the other 14 regions used as benchmarks in the study.
After the last American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) obligations ran out in FY10, federal obligations for science and engineering at U.S. universities and colleges fell by 11 percent, according to the National Science Foundation (NSF). Between FY2010-11, federal agency obligations fell by $31.4 billion in current dollars, though excluding ARRA funds, obligations actually rose by $1.2 billion. R&D obligations fell 10.6 percent, a decline that had its largest impact on funding for R&D-related equipment, facilities and land.
Los Angeles County (CA), New York County (NY) and Cook County (IL) topped the list of places where people older than 25 with graduate or professional degrees moved to between 2007 and 2011, according to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s County-to-County Migration Flows Tables. Middlesex County (MA) and Fairfax County (VA) also ranked among the top destinations for highly educated transplants. The Census report provides data on domestic migration at the county level, including data on income and educational attainment.
Angel and venture capital firms invested more in seed and early stage companies last year than any time in the past decade (for details see the related Useful Stats article). Seed and early stage companies appear to be generating a great deal of attention from the venture capital industry, even as overall U.S. investment activity remains steady.
Of the 118 university-based startups launched in Illinois between 2006-13, about 73 percent remain in the state, according to the latest issue of the Illinois Innovation Index. The 2013 fourth quarter report of the Index focuses on the recent strides made by the state in building a stronger technology transfer pipeline. During the five-year period of 2008-12, Illinois universities received 47 percent more patents than they did during the 2003-07 period, almost triple the national growth rate.
North Carolina is rich in resources to support a thriving innovation ecosystem. But despite its strengths, several factors are preventing the state from reaching its full potential to fuel and sustain strong economic growth. These and other findings are outlined in a recent report tracking the state's performance in 38 measures related to innovation assets, activities and trends. The fourth in a series of indexes produced over the past 13 years, the report benchmarks North Carolina with six key comparison states, the U.S. overall and leading countries.