white house

The White House announced plans to host its first ever Demo Day, a new initiative to empower a variety of entrepreneurs from around the country to launch and scale innovative companies. Unlike a private-sector demo day, where investors watch and react to the pitches of entrepreneurs, the White House Demo Day, to be held this summer, will highlight success stories from entrepreneurs across the country, with an emphasis on best practices for inclusive entrepreneurship. Minority entrepreneurs are the fastest growing entrepreneurial segment in the United States, growing four times faster than their non-minority-owned counterparts between 1997 and 2007, according to a blog post to publicize the event written by Jeff Zients, the Director of the National Economic Council, and Megan Smith, the U.S. Chief Technology Officer. Although details have yet to be announced, the White House Demo Day will also emphasize the following four themes as part of the event: growing local innovation economies; training startup-ready students; expanding on-ramps to entrepreneurship; connecting diverse talent to capital; and, local open gatherings.  Read more…

The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) issued a Federal Funding Opportunity for nonprofit organizations to operate state MEP centers in 12 states – Alaska, Idaho, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Utah, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin. The objective of the MEP Center program is to provide business and technical services to small- and medium-sized manufacturers within the state of operation. MEP will commit nearly $32 million annually for five years across the 12 states – an expected total of $158 million matched at least dollar-for-dollar by $158 million or more of non-federal funding. A public webinar for applications will be conducted on Monday, March 30th, at 2:00 pm ET. Applications are due June 1. Read the announcement…

This week, the White House released details on its ninth planned institute within the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation. The Department of Defense will award $75 million for a new manufacturing hub focused on Revolutionary Fibers and Textiles. Regional manufacturers, universities and nonprofits will soon be invited to compete for the funds, which require a 1:1 cost share. The institute will be the sixth funded through the Defense Department. Three others have received support through the Department of Energy. Read details...

This week, the Obama administration launched TechHire, a new, multi-sector initiative that seeks to educate workers through universities, community colleges, high-quality online courses, and other nontraditional approaches like “coding bootcamps,” with many programs not requiring a four-year degree. To support the program, the administration and the Department of Labor are creating a $100 million H-1B grant competition that funds innovative approaches to training and employing low-skilled individuals with training barriers, such as those with child care responsibilities, disabilities, limited English proficiency, among others.  More than twenty communities throughout the country have committed to using data and innovative hiring practices to expand openness to non-traditional hiring, expand models for training that prepare students in a faster timeframe, and build local strategies and partnerships to better connect people to jobs as part of the TechHire initiative.

On Monday, President Obama released his $4 trillion budget request for FY16. His proposal is again unlikely to find support in Congress, but serves as a useful guide to the administration’s priorities and a source of new ideas. This year’s budget document is being presented as a policy pathway to rebuilding middle class opportunities, embracing “Middle Class Economics for the 21^st Century.” In embracing this agenda, the administration has included several new programs and significant spending increases for STEM education, manufacturing and R&D, though the proposed funding levels for most offices appear similar to those included in the administration’s past budget requests.

President Obama’s proposed FY16 budget would provide $25 million for the EDA’s Regional Innovation program, a key legislative initiative for the technology-based economic development community. The Regional Innovation Program was authorized under the American COMPETES Act and is designed to provide funding to support regional innovation activities. The program received its first funding of $10 million in FY14 after extensive work on the Hill by SSTI, its members and others. A second infusion of $10 million was provided in the December FY15 continuing resolution/omnibus spending bill. More than 60 organizations signed a letter urging Congress to fund the program at $20 million (see August 7, 2014 Digest article) for FY15. The U.S. Department of Commerce announced that the FY14 solicitation had received 254 applications requesting more than $100 million in funding.

President Barack Obama recently announced a pair of initiatives to provide American students better access to two-year degrees and technical training programs. Under the first program, American’s College Promise, the federal government would cover three-quarters of the cost of an average community college education for students who attend at least half-time and maintain a 2.5 GPA. States would be required to contribute the rest of the tuition funds.

This week, President Obama signed off on the continuing resolution omnibus spending package that will keep the federal government open for another nine months (see last week’s analysis).The spending bill provides stable funding for R&D and most research agencies, according to analysis by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). About $137.6 billion is appropriated for federal R&D, a modest 1.7 percent increase over FY14. Most science and technology agencies would receive small increases, with a few exceptions. Department of Defense applied research funding would decline, funding for most institutes of the National Institutes of Health would not keep pace with inflation and the Department of Energy’s Office of Science and ARPA-E would receive flat funding. Read the AAAS science and technology summary…

Earlier this week, congressional appropriators reached a tentative agreement on spending levels for the 2015 fiscal year just a few days before the Thursday deadline. The continuing resolution omnibus, “cromnibus,” spending package would, if approved by the House, Senate and president, avert a government shutdown and again defer budget negotiations until next September. Under the agreement, most agency budgets would remain at similar levels to those enacted for FY14.

President Obama has announced two new competitions for manufacturing innovation hubs as Congress debates whether or not to fund a national network of innovation institutes (see related article). The first hub would foster research and commercialization collaborations around smart manufacturing for the Department of Energy. The second would develop flexible hybrid electronics technology at the Department of Defense. Each institute would receive $70 million or more of federal funding, with a requirement that federal investment be matched by the private sector.  Read the announcement…