Highlights From Our First 20 Years

Over the years, the SSTI Digest has covered every aspect of the innovation economy, touching on entrepreneurship, high-tech research, STEM education, economic trends, global competitiveness, federal, state and local policy, and much more. We have striven to achieve a balance between news and analysis, bringing our readers everything they need to understand the evolving state of tech-based economic development.

To celebrate our second decade, SSTI has assembled some of the most important articles of our past 20 years.

3/1/1996
Our First Issue
The SSTI Weekly Digest kicked off with an impact assessment of the federal Advanced Technology Program and the announcement of a new pilot program at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to help manufacturers access financing. Even though the first issues went out via fax, many of the elements that have driven the Digest through its first 20 years were already in place at launch. Subscribers had access to news, funding opportunities, updates on their peers and important events. See related article for a flashback to the first issue. Read more…

9/6/1996
MEP Reaches All 50 States
NIST’s [Hollings] Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) announced 18 awards in September 1996, officially establishing programs in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. NIST MEP has been a vital partner to SSTI since its inception, and has helped small- and medium-size enterprises grow since 1988.  Read more…

1/2/1997
SSTI on the Web
SSTI’s arrives on the “World Wide Web” at ssti.org, and the Digest begins publication by email. Previously, SSTI’s only presence on the web was hosted by the Colorado Advanced Technology Institute, with digital copies of the faxed publication. Read the announcement…

5/8/1998
OK Launches i2e Predecessor
In 1998, Oklahoma instituted a number of changes in its approach to the high-tech economy, culminating in the launch of the organization that would eventually become i2e, Inc. Together with the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST), i2e has long-represented a strong state model for supporting technology commercialization and entrepreneurship. OCAST announced the launch of the Oklahoma Technology Commercialization Center in May 1998, contracting with the Oklahoma Technology Development Corporation (OTDC) for its management.  OTDC, founded in 1997, later became i2e, Inc. That year also saw the launch of OTDC’s Technology Business Finance Program.  Read more…

8/20/1999
MI Commits $1B to Life Sciences
Capitalizing on the recent availability of tobacco settlement funds, Michigan became one of the first states to use those funds to make a massive investment in the high-tech economy. Gov. John Engler approved a $50 million appropriation in FY 2000 as a first installment in a 20-year, $1 billion investment in the life sciences. Many other states would follow suit with investments in innovation and economic development, including Arkansas, Connecticut, Georgia, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Virginia and others. SSTI checked in on the status of these programs in 2005. Read more…

3/17/2000
SBIR FAST Approved
Congress approved legislation creating the Federal and State Technology Partnership (FAST) in 2000. FAST partners, which include state and local economic development entities, provide SBIR assistance to innovative small companies, with an emphasis on socially and economically disadvantaged firms. SSTI played a role in shaping the FAST program and, in the leadup to its 2008 authorization, took a look back at its impact. Read more…

5/4/2000
VC Bubble Bursts
SSTI’s tracking of state-by-state venture capital activity has proven to be one of the most popular Digest features over the years. In 2001, SSTI reported on the sudden collapse of the industry in the midst of the dot com crash. In the ensuing years, the Digest followed the industry’s recovery, the second collapse in 2007-2008, and the 2014-2015 resurgence. In 2016, SSTI examined the 2010-2015 recovery, investment by metro area, and California’s continued dominance of U.S. venture investment. Read more…

1/11/2002
University Proof-of-Concept Centers Emerge
In a short item in 2002, SSTI noted a $20 million gift to MIT’s School of Engineering intended to support research on novel technologies in collaboration with the high-tech and venture-capitalist communities of New England. The Deshpande Center became one of the first and best-known university proof-of-concept centers, along with the von Liebig Center at the University of California San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. Read more…

7/12/2002
VentureLab Expands Statewide
The Georgia Research Alliance (GRA) expanded its VentureLab effort to the state’s research universities. GRA, launched in 1990, has been a leader in the field of technology-based economic development since its inception. The program began with a pilot at the Georgia Institute of Technology to provide a one-stop center for moving laboratory innovation into the marketplace. VentureLab was the first winner of the SSTI Excellence in TBED Award in the category Commercializing Research. In 2008, SSTI recorded an interview with Susan Shows about VentureLab and its impact. Read more…

4/11/2003
Sustaining Results for 20 Years
With party majorities and funding environments in a state of constant flux, getting a state's General Assembly to continuously support an economic development initiative through the long haul takes strong gubernatorial and legislative leadership across terms, administrations and parties — and results worthy of the increased public funds. Pennsylvania's Ben Franklin Technology Partners (BFTP) – which began in 1982 – is an example of such a program, where $311 million in public investments, resulted in a 23 to 1 return on the public investment, or a $7.9 billion impact on the Pennsylvania economy (in constant 1996 dollars) according to an independent analysis released on its 20th anniversary. Read more…

3/7/2005
States Respond to Call for Innovation
The year 2005 was a banner year for technology-based economic development, with increased funding for organizations such as the Georgia Research Alliance, the Maine Technology Institute, New York's Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR), Ohio's Third Frontier, the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST), Pennsylvania's Ben Franklin Technology Partners, and the development of the Utah Science Technology and Research Initiative (USTAR). Later in the year, Washingtonannounced its intention to use $350 million from its tobacco settlement to support the Life Sciences Discovery Fund, and Oregonrecognized the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute (ONAMI) as the state's first Signature Research Center. Read more...

11/14/2005
Issuing Bonds for TBED
Ballot issues and bond proposals fared particularly well during the 2005 election, highlighted by a $2 billion bond package supporting Ohio's Third Frontier Initiative. During that same election, Maine voters passed four of the five ballot proposals within Gov. John Baldacci's $83 million bond package, including $20 million for jobs and economic growth. Two years later, Texasvoters authorized the issue of $3 billion in bonds to support cancer research at the Texas Cancer Prevention and Research Institute, while Californiavoters authorized the same amount for stem cell research at the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. Read more...

5/14/2007
When TBED and Smokestack Chasing Collide
Tax incentives and subsidies have long been used to attract plant locations and company headquarters, but in the early 21st century some states launched a new focus: attracting research and development institutes. Perhaps the most notable example of this came in 2007, when SEMATECH, the semiconductor industry's research consortium, announced it was moving its headquarters from Austin to Albany. In 2006, Florida introduced the Innovation Incentive Program to attract biomedical research centers – complementing the Scripps Research Institute, which it attracted with a $310 million subsidy in 2003. The success of Florida's strategy remains to be seen. Read more...

8/8/2007
Federal Innovation Benefits From COMPETES Act Funds
Although President George W. Bush's administration largely sought to remove the federal government from economic development activities, one exception was the America Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education and Science (COMPETES) Act. Signed by the president in the final year of his administration, COMPETES authorized over $43 billion in new federal spending over the next three years, supporting U.S. math and science education and doubling the budget authorizations of the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Science, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) laboratory activities. Read more...

11/5/2008
Obama Election Marks TBED Expansion
During his first presidential campaign, now-President Obama frequently reiterated his support for TBED-related initiatives and plans to increase funding for research and innovation, pledging to double the current level of funding for basic research over the next 10 years at federal science agencies and to fully fund the America Competes Act, signed by then-President George W. Bush, at $5.9 billion annually. Many of Obama's proposed innovation initiatives have since come into fruition, a drastic change in how the federal government has approached technology-based economic development compared to the previous administration. Read more...

5/13/2009
The Difference a Year Makes
Throughout the first decade of the 21st century, the federal government was ideologically opposed to taking an active role to support economic development, even tech-based economic development, beyond increases for university and federally funded basic research — leading to substantial cuts in numerous notable programs. Filled with programs rooted in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, President Obama's first budget marked a change in the trend of slashing funding for important programs by increasing investments in virtually every federal program focused on innovation, community development, and economic development.Read more...

9/29/2010
SBA Pledges Support for Clusters
While initiatives supporting clusters as an economic development tool have been around for years, when the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced its intent to support these public-private partnerships that bring together businesses, academic institutions, economic development organizations and other local actors to lay the foundations of sustainable growth and economic competitiveness in 2010 it was a first for the federal government. A reportanalyzing the SBA's pilot initiative suggests that there is a significant correlation between regional cluster initiative activity and higher than expected levels of economic growth, innovation, and new business formation. Read more...

8/15/2012
First NNMI Winner Announced
President Obama first announced his proposal to create a National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI) in March 2014, bringing together industry, universities, community colleges, nonprofits and government to invest in industrially relevant manufacturing technologies. The pilot institute for the NNMI — the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute (NAMII) — represents a regional network of initiatives in the TechBelt region, encompassing northeast Ohio, western Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia. Subsequent NNMI institutes have been announced in Knoxville, Raleigh, Rochester, Chicago, and Detroit, among others. Read more...

1/22/2015
NY Gov. Prioritizes Regions
One year after his Buffalo Billion initiative drastically changed the economic development prospects in Western New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the Upstate New York Economic Revitalization Competition, offering awards of $500 million to three of seven Upstate regions. The awardees — Central New York, Finger Lakes, and the Southern Tier — were announced in December 2015. Read more...

4/2/2015
Commerce's EDA Backs Regional Innovation
In 2011, SSTI united a group of organizations to make the Regional Innovation Strategies (RIS) Program at the U.S. Department of Commerce a viable funding stream for the tech-based economic development (TBED) community.  Designed to advance innovation and capacity-building activities in regions across the country through grants supporting strategy, seed capital, and research park development, the Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration announced the first awardees of the RIS program in April 2014 after more than three years of effort and coordination. Additional awardees were also announced in August 2015and February 2016. Read more...

12/10/2015
Bipartisan Support for Innovation
In late 2015, a survey conducted for the Innovation Advocacy Council, an initiative of SSTI, by a bipartisan research team found that an overwhelming majority of voters across the nation support a comprehensive initiative designed to bolster the United States' innovation economy. After learning about the new Innovative Science & Technology for Economic Prosperity (iSTEP) initiative, 89 percent of voters said they would support the effort, which would convert scientific and medical research into new businesses and jobs, bringing the benefits of the innovation economy to the American people. Read more...