SSTI Digest

In a report of FY 2011-2016 data, the National Science Foundation finds that rate of female participants in its currently-funded Engineering Research Centers (ERCs) may be higher than for overall engineering programs. Specifically, participation among female faculty is better by about seven percent, by about 15 percent among female undergraduates, and a more modest 1-2 percent increase among doctorate students. This seems to be a significant gain in a field in which male Ph.D.-holders outnumber women 6:1 (per NSF data for 2015).

The findings for female participation come as policy and program leaders at NSF and the National Institutes of Health are expressing concern about how their institutions are affecting a field with long-recognized gender disparities.

One of the hottest topics at SSTI’s 2017 Annual Conference centered on helping communities build the investment system necessary for local entrepreneurs and startups to thrive. Led by several panels of experts, the conversations led to sharing many great ideas, thoughtful solutions, and tough realities. This week we continue our series of stories on how TBED organizations can help communities ensure a vibrant investment system. This second installment focuses on effective strategies and ideas for building your organization’s investment team. In our first installment, we discussed the necessity of creating a strong deal flow to stimulate the growth and success of the system. In the next installment of this series, SSTI will cover topics such as the hard necessity of saying no and developing a fund that matches your region.

Through its  2017 Assistance to Coal Communities (ACC 2017) initiative, the Economic Development Administration (EDA) announced $30 million in funding to assist locally-driven efforts to communities and regions severely impacted by the declining use of coal through activities and programs that support economic diversification, job creation, capital investment, workforce development, and re-employment opportunities. In total, EDA will support 35 projects in 16 states. Among the 2017 ACC awardees, several SSTI members received funding including:

Last week, Google announced the launch of several efforts as part of its Grow with Google initiative – a five-year $1-billion plus plan to invest in nonprofits that specialize in training workers and helping new businesses get off the ground. Through this new plan, Google indicated it will work to close the world’s education and opportunity gaps. During the Grow with Google launch event in Pittsburgh, Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai announced several new efforts including: 

Initial public offerings (IPOs) can alleviate financing constraints and help support important activities such as operations, R&D, and expansion. Despite these perceived benefits, new research finds that the transition to public equity – and the financial windfalls that follow – prompt many of a company’s early innovators to depart the firm, which has impacts on both innovation internally and at other firms.  The departures of founders and early employees from post-exit startups presents challenges and opportunities for venture development and entrepreneurial support organizations.

This week we continue our series on state legislation pertaining to the innovation economy that has been enacted this year around the country. This second installment of the States of Innovation 2017 series deals with free tuition.

A number of states took action to increase the education and skills of their workforce by implementing free or greatly reduced tuition programs at either community colleges or state colleges. The move to increase access to higher education while not new, took up increased urgency this year. With Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island and Tennessee all taking action this past year, Maine and North Carolina were among others considering other options but as of today’s publication not moving the proposals forward.

Two recent reports provide good news and bad news regarding innovation in America’s rural areas. Only one in six individuals living in rural areas was self-employed in 2016 — down from one in four in 1988, according to a new issue brief from the Small Business Administration (SBA). This represents a decline of nearly 20 percent over that span of time. Meanwhile, a recent report from the Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (USDA ERS) found that between 2010 and 2014 rural businesses in some nonfarm tradable industries are as likely to be substantive innovators as their urban peers. This is especially true across manufacturing industries with nearly identical rates of substantive innovation between both rural and urban companies.

One of the hottest topics at SSTI’s 2017 Annual Conference centered on helping communities build the investment system necessary for local entrepreneurs and startups to thrive.  Led by several panels of experts, the conversations around this topic led to many great ideas, thoughtful solutions, and tough realities. This week we begin a series of stories on how tech-based economic development organizations can help communities ensure a vibrant investment system. This first installment focuses on the necessity of creating a strong deal flow to stimulate the growth and success of the system. In future installments of this series, SSTI will cover topics such as why it is necessary to say no to a deal and building an investment team.

“It doesn’t matter how much money a fund has or how well it is managed, having access to good deals creates a successful fund.” – Conference speaker

The Federal Reserve System has announced a new initiative intended to invest in America’s workforce and improve outcomes for both employers and workers. To introduce the Investing in America’s Workforce initiative, the System released a new report analyzing information from nearly 1,000 leaders in the field to identify the current state of the field, important challenges, and strategies for improving items such as human capital, access to jobs, and innovative funding for workforce development programs. 

The U.S. House this week passed H.R. 2763, which would amend the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs in several significant ways. Most notably, the bill would extend by five years the “assistance for administrative… costs,” which is used for outreach initiatives and some business and market assistance initiatives across agencies. The bill would extend or implement other activities within SBIR/STTR, nearly all of which would improve the programs’ ability to support commercialization in parallel with technological development.

During the debate before the voice vote, a statement from Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.) said the bill would help more small businesses pursue the awards and help more firms bring their products to market. Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) added that the legislation was important for modernizing SBIR.

States have passed more than 230 bills related to clean and renewable energy to date in 2017, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). Broadly, the legislation can be divided between policies directly supporting energy innovation — through R&D expenditures or targeted economic development initiatives — and policies implementing structural changes —through the regulatory environment, incentives for production facilities, renewable portfolio standards and other requirements. This breadth of activity clearly demonstrates that clean and renewable energy is of high interest throughout the country, but will be challenging to innovators and entrepreneurs planning development over time or across states.

Seventeen venture development organizations (VDOs) from across the country shared in the success from a baker’s dozen exits posted in Pitchbook during the third quarter of 2017.  Information tech companies lead the pack, but seven come from other sectors of the economy including life sciences, vehicle manufacturing, materials, polymers, robotics, and chemicals – demonstrating the important role VDOs may play in broadening innovation’s contributions to regional economies.

Snapshots of all 13, along with two more late Q2 deals, follow in SSTI’s third article looking at the economic development impacts of nonprofit and publicly-backed VDOs. The first two stories are available here (Q1:17) and here (Q2:17).