SSTI Digest

Women as business owners may be an underutilized resource for economic development and growth in the state of Wisconsin, according to a recent study from researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison) – Women Business Leaders Across Wisconsin, 1990-2011. The researchers found that women-owned or managed more than 80,000 Wisconsin-based businesses (nearly 19 percent of all businesses) in 2011. Those businesses employed over 550,000 workers and earned $45 billion in sales. The authors found that the number of women-owned or managed businesses more than tripled between 1990 and 2011, growing significantly during the 1990s and then stabilizing between 2000 and 2011.The study also cites research that women-led businesses are more effectively led, financially honest, have more customers, increased sales and greater profits.

Veolia, The Water Council, and the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation have reached an agreement to launch the emPowering Opportunities in Water (POW!) program – a two-year national competition to support entrepreneurship and economic development while fostering sustainability efforts in the field of water. Sometime this year, Veolia, a leading water and wastewater treatment company, and The Water Council should issue a nationwide challenge to fast-track water-related ideas by entrepreneurs and startups revolving around specific areas of interest.  Startups that have the highest likelihood of solving the challenge, will be chosen to enter the program that will be housed at The Water Council’s Global Water Center located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  Read the announcement…

This week, governors in Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Wisconsin unveiled their budget proposals. Included in the governors’ recommendations are several cases of agency restructuring and funds for workforce development, innovation tax credits, and other TBED-relevant issues.

The U.S. Small Business Administration has announced four new Regional Innovation Clusters that will be included among its portfolio of high-performing regional networks. Awardee clusters will receive $500,000-$550,000 for mentoring, counseling, pitch development and other small business support programs. The new members of SBA’s cluster portfolio include Milwaukee’s Water Technology Cluster, Southeastern New Mexico’s Autonomous and Unmanned Systems Cluster, a Retail, Supply Chain and Food Processing Cluster spanning the Ozarks region and a Marine Industries Cluster in several Gulf Coast states.

Investments and policy to support innovation-focused agendas have flourished with the close of the 2014 legislative sessions in several states. Crowdfunding legislation, incentives for attracting talent, higher education affordability, punishing patent trolls, and encouraging greater accountability are some of the areas where lawmakers focused their efforts.

A bill providing $35.4 million in workforce training grants to expand Wisconsin’s Fast Forward program was signed into law on Monday by Gov. Scott Walker. Funding will be available in the form of grants to technical colleges to reduce waiting lists for enrollment and for programs and courses that train students in high-demand fields. The funds also will support collaborative projects among school districts, technical colleges and businesses and for employment opportunities for people with disabilities. The measure, Act 139, was approved during a special session, which convened in January.    

In an effort to help spur economic prosperity, several universities recently have unveiled new initiatives to connect potential entrepreneurs with university resources and help integrate the entrepreneurs into their region’s innovation ecosystem. The Blackstone Charitable Foundation also announced it will expand LaunchPad, a university-led entrepreneurship program, to a partnership that includes three universities in Southern California.

Between FY2007-12, research and development (R&D) spending at U.S. universities grew 27.5 percent, from about $51.6 billion to $65.8 billion, according to the latest edition of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) survey. The survey provides a look at R&D spending at U.S. universities, with data broken down by state, institution, research area and funding sources. California remained the leader in university R&D spending, but spending in the state grew at a slightly lower rate than the national average. Most of the other top 20 states experienced gains that exceeded the national average.

The National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program recently awarded $2.5 million for five pilot projects to improve small U.S. manufacturers' supply chain competitiveness and foster their readiness to adopt advanced technologies. The projects will be led by MEP centers and bring together teams of experts in specific technology areas. MEP centers in California, Georgia, Oregon, Texas and Wisconsin each will receive approximately $500,000 for the pilot efforts, which, in most cases, involve partners in other states. Read the announcement…

University-focused initiatives that help bring new technologies and products to market help drive regional economic development and encourage an entrepreneurial culture on campuses. SSTI’s latest Trends in TBED report featured a number of commercialization efforts launched in 2013, including university-based funds to support ideas from faculty, staff and alumni. So far, 2014 also has proven active in this area with the announcement of several new initiatives to support university technology startups.

Crowdfunding was poised to make a major splash on startup financing in 2013, aided by the passage of the 2012 JOBS Act, a projected explosion in the number of crowdfunding portals and the adoption of state crowdfunding exemptions. However, the crowdfunding industry did not have the anticipated gamechanging impact on startup financing.

Several bills promoting skills development through Wisconsin technical colleges were passed as part of Gov. Scott Walker's workforce agenda introduced in September (see the Sept. 26, 2013 issue of the Digest). A measure to create a tuition reimbursement program for apprentices or businesses that employ them passed with near unanimous support in hopes of bridging the skills gap reported by employers. Another bill, SB 336, increases funding to expand the Youth Apprenticeship program. To help better prepare students for in-demand careers, SB 331 provides a $1,000 per student incentive payment for school districts to encourage students to earn industry-recognized certificates before graduating high school.