SSTI Digest

Over 150 heads of state met in Paris this week, the largest group of leaders ever to attend a UN event in a single day, to address global climate change and the need for policies and technologies that will set the world on the path to a low-carbon, climate resilient future. Two major initiatives were rolled out to spearhead the global cooperative effort, according to an Associated Press report.  First, twenty major economic powers, representing 80 percent of global clean energy research and development spending, pledged to double their investments in clean technologies. Second, Bill Gates announced the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, an effort driven by private investors to support early stage technologies emerging from the contributing countries. In the leadup to the event, the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA-E) announced $125 million in investments for transformative energy projects.

In the face of declining state funding and drawn-out budget negotiations, universities are moving beyond traditional budget procedures to secure funding for their economic development activities. Over the past few months, several universities have leveraged new sources of public and private funds to establish seed funds for university technology. These efforts are intended to increase the number of businesses emerging from their respective educational and research programs and spur regional economic prosperity.

Funded through a small tax on extramural research budgets, Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awards are offered by 11 federal agencies with an overall goal of backing innovation by small businesses. With a typical maximum of $150,000 for phase I awards and $1 million for phase II awards, SBIR programs have had varying degrees of success – especially when factoring in their explicit mandate to enhance opportunities for women and minorities. In particular, National Institute of Health (NIH) SBIR awards have struggled to reach underserved audiences, according to a new study by the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Across the globe, the proliferation of innovation-led economic development is typically viewed in an urban context. Despite cities receiving the bulk of the attention, researchers have begun to focus on how to leverage best practices in rural economic development. Just as is the case in nearly all economic development scenarios, practitioners and policymakers working in rural areas benefit from a better understanding of local strengths and opportunities, according to new research from the United States, Canada, and the European Union.

Nearly 10 million people are expected to participate in events during this year’s Global Entrepreneurship Week, launched November 16 by the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN). The first Global Entrepreneurship Week was held in 2008 with representatives from 37 countries. Now in its eighth year, more than 160 countries across the world will hold entrepreneurship-related events during the week. Although activities vary greatly in size and scope, they generally touch on three themes:

To support the growth of Northeast Ohio’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, The Greater Cleveland Partnership (GCP) announced a limited-partner investment in JumpStart's new for-profit $20M venture capital fund. Co-investing alongside other VCs and private-sector investors, the JumpStart NEXT Fund will invest in Ohio-based companies that need to raise $2 million to $8 million in private capital to continue their growth.

GCP is a membership association of companies and organizations in Northeast Ohio, serving as the region’s chamber of commerce for the region. In 2001, GCP helped create Northeast Ohio’s regional economic development system, which includes JumpStart, a venture development organization tasked with supporting entrepreneurs and growing companies.

Governors in Massachusetts and Rhode Island have released details about their plans to boost innovative businesses in their respective states. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker offered a strategic plan to guide his administration’s economic development efforts, with an emphasis placed on fostering a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship. Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo announced the launch of three new incentive programs aimed at research-driven companies.

Opportunities for All: The Baker-Polito Strategy and Plan for Making Massachusetts Great Everywhere avoids specific program recommendations, for the most part, but outlines a number of areas for action to boost the statewide economy. The administration notes that Massachusetts is a nationwide leader in educational attainment and innovation-related employment, but both business formation and job growth have fallen in recent years. New policies are needed to address the growing skills gap for middle-skill jobs and growing regional inequality.

Amazon announced the launch of Amazon Catalyst, a pilot grant program at the University of Washington to fund promising research to address complex global challenges, such as immigration and climate change. Awards will range from “tens of thousands” to $100,000 per grant. Amazon has not set a limit on the number of awards they will make, and will consider research in humanities and social sciences, as well as better funded areas like medicine and engineering. Students, faculty and staff are eligible to apply. There will be no deadlines or competition for the funds. Instead, applicants will meet with a three-person team, to be named by Amazon. Recipients will retain ownership of the research, while Amazon will receive non-exclusive royalty-free licenses. Learn more at: https://catalyst.amazon.com/.

The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) announced approximately $100 million in grant funds for the TechHire partnership grant program. The ETA anticipates that it will make up to 35 grants to support  pilot and scale public-private workforce development partnerships that can rapidly train workers for and connect them to well-paying, middle- and high-skilled, and high-growth jobs across a diversity of H-1B industries such as Information Technology (IT), healthcare, advanced manufacturing, financial services, and broadband.  In addition to targeting H-1B industries, TechHire partnership grants may be used to support job creation in industries which are in-demand and/or high growth to the partnership’s service region.  Applications are due March 11, 2016. Read the announcement…

On November 12, Gov. Jay Nixon announced $1 million in state funding to ARCH Grants to provide entrepreneurial support to St. Louis startups. ARCH Grants is a nonprofit organization that provides $50,000 equity-free grants and pro-bono services to entrepreneurs who locate their early stage businesses in St. Louis. This is Gov. Nixon’s third announcement in two months awarding funds to the state’s regional organizations that make up Missouri’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. In September, Gov. Nixon awarded $1.19 million in grants to three Kansas City organizations to support the region’s startup community. Last month, Gov. Nixon also announced a total of $675,000 in state funding to organizations in Springfield. Read the announcement: https://governor.mo.gov/news/archive/gov-nixon-announces-1-million-arch-grants-support-st-louis-startups

Toyota Motor Corporation recently announced a five-year, $1 billion investment in robotics and artificial intelligence R&D in the U.S. Under the plan, a headquarters for the effort will be located near Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA with a second location near the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA. Dr. Gill Pratt, former program director at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will lead the effort. As reported in The New York Times, the investment is seen as Toyota’s effort to compete with other companies that are embracing intelligent and self-driving automotive technology. Ford, Uber, Google and others have all recently announced investments in the future of the automobile industry that reflect particular visions of how innovative technologies emerge.

In his 1962 State of the Union address, John F. Kennedy said, "The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining."  Despite its foggy reputation, perhaps no region has had the sun shine on them more economically since that speech than California’s Bay Area. Currently, in spite of its strengths as a hub for talent, research, and innovation, the Bay Area lacks a cohesive and comprehensive regional economic strategy for sustaining economic growth, weathering business cycles and supporting shared prosperity. To combat this, A Roadmap for Economic Resilience: The Bay Area Regional Economic Strategy serves as a roof-repair-guide of sorts, offering viable solutions to support regionalism,  facilitate infrastructure investment, address housing affordability, encourage adaptive workforce development, and improve access to transportation options.