SSTI Digest

The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP) has released a new pilot map with data on over 3,300 awards nationwide managed by TIP starting from fiscal year 2023. The directorate, according to its press release, hopes to transform the pilot into a “one-stop hub to find one another, facilitate partnerships, and build regional coalitions and innovation ecosystems” by adding additional data and features over time. With the current pilot, award data can be viewed by either key technology area or TIP program and filtered by the other. Data can be further filtered by year, Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) status, and by whether awards are still active within the selected fiscal year(s). In terms of data, both a high-level summary number on awards and investment amount are available for each of the categories mentioned above. Data on specific awards are available on the map itself by hovering over each point. As with all data pertaining to key technology areas, caution should be exercised when viewing summary numbers, as many awards fall within multiple technology areas and…

The U.S. Department of Commerce recently issued a Notice of Intent (NOI) to open a competition for new research and development (R&D) activities to accelerate domestic capacity for semiconductor advanced packaging.​ As part of CHIPS for America, the National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program plans to invest up to $1.6 billion to fund innovation in five R&D areas related to semiconductor advanced packaging. ​ The program anticipates making several awards of approximately $150 million in each research area. ​Private sector investments from industry and academia are expected. ​The five R&D areas are Equipment, tools, processes, and process integration Power delivery and thermal management Connector technology, including photonics and radio frequency (RF) Chiplets ecosystem (small, modular integrated circuits that perform specific functions) Co-design/electronic design automation (EDA).  The funding opportunity is also expected to include opportunities for prototype developments. According to CHIPS for America, advanced packaging is crucial for advancements in semiconductor technology. It will allow manufacturers to improve…

Natcast, the nonprofit entity that operates the National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC) Consortium, recently launched the NSTC Workforce Partner Alliance (WFPA) program. ​The program seeks to address workforce challenges in the U.S. semiconductor industry by supporting projects that close skills and labor market gaps for researchers, engineers, and technicians in semiconductor design, manufacturing, and production. ​The WFPA will fund between four and ten projects with budgets between $500,000 to $2 million per award. While not required, proposals that include complementary funding or leverage public resources will receive strong preference. Natcast seeks proposals that support Established programs seeking to scale Growing programs seeking expansion or realignment New programs that address previously unaddressed needs. Open to for-profit organizations, institutions of higher education, and other training providers, including state and local government agencies, nonprofits, and unions, the WFPA program encourages evidence-based workforce development strategies such as: Paid work-based learning, including apprenticeships and pre-…

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) recently announced plans to launch a 7(a) Working Capital Pilot (WCP) Program later this year. The program will offer a lines of credit, made by 7(a) lenders and backed by the SBA. It is designed to give greater flexibility than a traditional term loan. This pilot program, according to an SBA press release, will include both a “transaction-based” and “asset-based” model, allowing borrowers to leverage sales or assets to access working capital. Depending on the details of the capital structure that are revealed when the program launches, these models may enable both newer technology companies that have sales but few assets and legacy companies that have assets but insufficient cashflow to invest in new technologies with the opportunity to access financing through SBA’s popular 7(a) vehicle. The 7(a) Loan Program is SBA’s primary small business financing tool and provide loan guarantees to lenders, which work directly with the borrowers. Working capital is already an allowable use of 7(a) loans, but still generally requires that the lender fully secure the transaction with collateral. According to the press release, the new WCP…

House Committee on Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers recently published Reforming the National Institutes of Health: Framework for Discussion. The blueprint calls for reducing the number of NIH institutes and centers (ICs) from 27 to 15, largely by merging some of them. The reorganization and proposed funding levels are illustrated in Figure 1. Figure 1: Proposed reorganization and proposed funding levels for NIH restructuring. Click on the solid bar to the left of the current CIs to view the destination of the CIs. Click on the solid bar to the right of the proposed CIs to view the CI(s) that will be consolidated into it. Click in the center of the horizontal bar to see the proposed change in funding after the restructuring. In addition to consolidating centers, McMorris Rodgers’s proposal includes funding cuts to the successor institute comprised of the current Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBB), and the Common Fund. As shown in Figure 1, the new National Institute on Innovation and Advanced…

Note: This brief quasi-book review/book synopsis is the first item in an experimental new section of SSTI’s newsletter, potentially joining other regular sections such as Useful Stats, Fed/Leg News, State News, Member Updates, and Recent Research. Its periodic continuation after the contributions we present over the summer will depend on feedback from our members and Digest readers. Comments may be shared with skinner @ ssti.org Ethan Mollick, a Wharton professor specializing in entrepreneurship and innovation, knows people are thinking a lot about generative artificial intelligence (AI). He recognizes many are worried, as his introductory chapter “Three Sleepless Nights” of his book, Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI, reveals. Mollick’s opening sentence tells readers those 72 hours are the minimum price he thinks anyone will pay for “really getting to know AI.” Yet another doom and gloom book about the everything-changing platform technology? Not at all. Co-Intelligence presents in accessible language clear looks from both sides—all sides?—of what AI is, what it is doing and not doing to society, and what we can do with and about it. The book…

The Economic Development Administration today announced $504 million in funding across 12 Tech Hubs, the culmination of a 14-month selection process to choose the first regions funded for implementation projects under the program. The 12 Hubs receiving implementation awards are listed in the graphic below. EDA originally projected making 5-10 implementation awards $50-75 million each. The agency is instead making 12 awards at $19-51 million. The Tech Hubs program was authorized by Congress to bolster America’s national security and economic competitiveness in 2022’s CHIPS and Science Act. While authorized at $10 billion, the program received its initial funding of $500 million with the FY 2023 omnibus, and Congress provided an additional $41 million in FY 2024.  Today’s announcement, which builds upon EDA’s award in October 2023 of strategy development grants, therefore accounts for nearly all the agency’s appropriated funds, pending further congressional action.  SSTI is convening all designated Tech Hubs through the Tech-based Economic Development (TBED) Community of Practice, which is supported by EDA. In addition to…

The Small Business Administration recently released a new solicitation for the Regional Innovation Clusters initiative. Unlike what SBA has done in recent years, and returning to the program’s roots, all nonprofit organizations are eligible to apply alongside for-profit firms. In a change from prior solicitations, proposals must include whether the work will support an emerging or mature cluster. The timeline is relatively tight: submissions are due July 26. In recent years, SBA has only allowed for-profit firms to compete for the awards, despite universities and regional nonprofits having successfully managed cluster organizations since the initiative first launched. This solicitation marks a return to allowing nonprofit and for-profit entities to compete. Restoring the program eligibility has been a priority for the SSTI Innovation Advocacy Council, which also had advocated for growing the program from just $5 million in FY 2020. Last year, SBA moved the program internally to  run under the Office of Investment and Innovation (OII). The clusters initiative is run by the same team that manages the Growth Accelerators competition and is part of the same…

The U.S. House Committee on Appropriations' decision to cut non-defense spending by six percent in its initial FY 2025 spending bills is yielding predictably mixed results for programs relevant to tech-based economic development (TBED). Amidst the overall cuts, flat funding for the Economic Development Administration’s Build to Scale ($50 million) and Tech Hubs ($41 million) might be viewed as positive news. Programs bearing the brunt of budget cuts include the rest of EDA (30% reduction), the Minority Business Development Agency (20% reduction), and the Small Business Administration’s accelerators competition ($0). Meanwhile, the committee is proposing to maintain level funding for the National Institutes of Health but condensing from 27 centers into 15.

Nearly one out of every four workers in the United States is now involved in a STEM occupation, and 41 percent of those STEM workers do not have an associate’s degree or higher, according to data presented in the latest NSF Science & Engineering Indicator report, The STEM Labor Force: Scientists, Engineers, and Skilled Technical Workers.   The NSF S&E indicator report provides policy-relevant details about the representation of demographic groups in STEM, the STEM labor market's earnings, occupations, and industries, the geographic distribution of the STEM workforce, the degree attainment and training of workers in STEM, and foreign-born workers. The statistics may warrant some federal, state, and regional workforce-related TBED initiatives—and their resident innovation-driven companies—to revamp and broaden their approaches to training, job descriptions, employee recruitment, and hiring. STEM education and recruitment into STEM fields, particularly for underrepresented populations should increase for no other reason than the salary difference between STEM and non-STEM occupations presents an opportunity for upward mobility. For evidence, the new…

The CHIPS Research & Development Office (CHIPS R&D), part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, is tasked by the CHIPS and Science Act to invest $11 billion to ensure the U.S. develops and maintains a robust semiconductor workforce. Accordingly, CHIPS R&D anticipates that its Notice of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs) will require applicants to submit an Education and Workforce Plan (EWD). CHIPS R&D recently issued a guidebook for creating an EWD. As described in the guidebook, there are five key elements recommended for an EWD plan: A workforce needs assessment that considers the current workforce by occupation, skill set, wage, and demographics, as well as the pool of available workers with relevant skills, projected workforce needs, and any challenges or barriers to address. Metric and milestone targets that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) to measure the impact of the program. Also, these should be aligned with the objectives, timelines, and resources of the funding opportunity Demonstrated and proven models, curriculum, and pedagogy for training or upskilling workers that align with industry-wide or…

The recently released annual impact report from JumpStart, a Northeast Ohio-based venture development organization celebrating its 20th anniversary this year provides one of the latest examples of the out-sized economic and social benefits states and regions receive by making sustained investments in well-designed nonprofit, public-private TBED initiatives supporting innovation-driven entrepreneurs. The Jumpstart 2023 Economic Impact Report  documents tech startups served by JumpStart and its network of 13 entrepreneurial support providers directly generated $682 million of economic activity in Ohio in 2023 alone. The figure is 35% higher than reported in 2022. The report also notes that those same tech startups created and maintained 4,698 direct jobs supporting 3,175 households across the state last year