SSTI Digest

SSTI encourages its member organizations to sign onto a letter to Congress organized by NDD United, a broad coalition advocating for parity under sequestration for non-defense discretionary (NDD) funding and defense funding. The current leadership in Congress has made clear its priority to increase defense department spending at the expense of nondefense domestic spending, which includes programs under the EDA, SBA, NIST, NIH, NSF, the Department of Education, and more. Should this happen, many of the federal programs that TBED organizations rely on could be cut. NDD United is bringing together organizations from across the domestic funding space—from education to the sciences to transportation to housing—to ask Congress to protect non-defense domestic spending. SSTI encourages you to join us and hundreds of other organizations in signing on. View the full text of the letter here.

The U. S. House of Representatives wasted no time at the start of the new Congress, passing seven bills Tuesday that had been approved by the chamber in a previous session but had not received consideration in the Senate. Four of these bills with particular relevance to the innovation community are the HALOS Act, TALENT Act, Leveraging Emerging Technologies Act of 2017  and Promoting Women in Entrepreneurship Act.

The HALOS Act (H.R. 79), introduced by Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH), directs the Securities and Exchange Commission to provide a clear exemption for demo days and similar activities from Regulation D. Exempted events would not have to screen investor qualifications of attendees so long as securities are not advertised or sold at the events.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) released a solicitation committing up to $8 million to support between one and seven Innovation Corps (I-Corps) Nodes. The nodes are part of I-Corps’ National Innovation Network that builds upon fundamental research with the goal of dramatically reducing the period of time necessary to bring a promising idea from its inception to widespread implementation. NSF will support new or previously funded Nodes that will foster understanding on how to:

The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF) and the Brookings Institution recently proposed 50 ideas to bolster American innovation and technology transfer. Join SSTI’s president and CEO, Dan Berglund, at an ITIF and Brookings Institution event on January 11 from 10-11:30 a.m. in Washington, DC, to discuss how the incoming administration and Congress can make these improvements. Other speakers include Brian Darmody from the University of Maryland, Anthony Green with Ben Franklin Technology Partners and Kathleen Kingscott from IBM Research. Staff from dozens of congressional offices will be in the audience. The event is free of charge and registration is available at itif.org.

Across the U.S. people are working to build a more talented, skilled workforce, but often those efforts happen in isolation, separated from larger economic development efforts without engaging community and business leaders. A recently released playbook from the Aspen Institute and Futureworks, Communities That Work Partnership Playbook, aims to change a siloed approach and explores seven regional efforts to develop the local workforce for different industries and occupations. The playbook highlights key takeaways and is intended to provide guidance to others developing talent pipelines.  SSTI also talked with individuals in Milwaukee and Kansas City about their regional efforts to develop the talent pipeline. 

Two states are looking to make college more affordable through state programs aimed at decreasing or eliminating tuition costs. The New York legislature will decide the fate of a new proposal for free tuition at its state universities for middle income earners there, while in Kentucky students may be eligible for financial aid through the Work Ready Kentucky Scholarship Program.

Artificial intelligence and automation technologies have the potential to alter millions of jobs, yet the positive benefits associated with increased productivity are worth pursuing, according to a December 2016 White House report. The authors – which include staff from the Council of Economic Advisers, Domestic Policy Council, National Economic Council, Office of Management and Budget, and Office of Science and Technology Policy – suggest that responding to the economic effects of this technology will be an important consideration for the next administration, and as a result, policymakers should be prepared for a wide variety of outcomes. Artificial Intelligence, Automation, and the Economy is a follow up to the White House’s October 2016 report Preparing for the Future of Artificial Intelligence.

Two new hubs have been announced in the Manufacturing USA network, one focusing on sustainable manufacturing innovation and the other on tissue biofabrication, bringing the total network of institutes to 13 since its inception four years ago.

Efficiency measures will be the focus of the latest institute, announced yesterday by the Energy Department. The new Reducing Embodied-energy and Decreasing Emissions (REMADE) Institute will be headquartered in Rochester, New York, and be led by the Sustainable Manufacturing Innovation Alliance. It will leverage up to $70 million in federal funding, subject to appropriations, and will be matched by $70 million in private commitments from over 100 partners. Recognizing that manufacturing consumes nearly 25 percent of the nation’s total annual energy use, REMADE will focus on driving down the cost of recycling and remanufacturing technologies and aims for a 50 percent improvement in overall energy efficiency by 2027.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) launched the 2017 InnovateHER: Innovating for Women Business Challenge – a cross-cutting prize competition to unearth innovative products and services that help impact and empower the lives of women and families. The challenge officially kicks off in early 2017 with local competitions to be hosted by over 250 organizations registered to host local competitions including universities, accelerators, clusters, scale-up communities, SBA resource partners, and other economic development organizations. Through these local competitions, the SBA will identify up to 10 finalists who will be invited to the National InnovateHER: Innovating for Women Business Challenge to be held in mid-2017. The finalists will pitch their products and ideas to a panel of expert judges and compete for the top three awards along with $70,000 in prizes provided to SBA through a gift from the Sara Blakely Foundation. Nominations from host organizations are due May 12. 

After a down year for both the number of venture capital (VC) deals and the total dollars invested in U.S.-based startups, analysts remain split on whether 2017 will be a continuation of the downward trend or a rebound year. Those bullish on the market point toward strong fundraising totals in 2015-2016 and a likely uptick in the number of initial public offering (IPO) market. Whereas, those bearish on the VC market are concerned about a congested industry.

2016 by the Numbers

PitchBook reports that VC firms invested just $68.3 billion via 7,966 deals with U.S-based startups in 2016 – a nearly 14 percent decrease from the previous year’s record high of $79.2 billion. This significant decline in VC activity returns total capital invested to levels comparable with 2014, while deal count will likely be at its lowest point since 2012.

This week, we take a look at the top SSTI Weekly Digest stories from 2016 and give you an idea of what to look for in the coming months.

Venture capital market stories are always popular with our readers, and this year you found the January story VC Trends to Look for in 2016 particularly interesting. If you liked that one, you may have also read one of the follow ups that ran later in the year, when Companies Receiving VC Funding Declined for 5th Straight Quarter, or you may have turned to the picture of the global VC market in the story that ran the following week. And you’ll want to check back for more information on what is happening with VC in 2017 in the forthcoming January and February issues.

The National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals (NIIMBL) becomes the eleventh institute in the Manufacturing USA network, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker announced last week. The $70 million award marks the first institute with a focus area proposed by industry and the first funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC). The institute will focus on the complex manufacturing process used to produce treatments for conditions such as cancer, autoimmune disorders and infectious diseases and also seeks to develop manufacturing capabilities for a quick response to pandemics and other biological threats. Each of the institutes has a unique technological concentration and is designed to accelerate U.S. advanced manufacturing as a whole.