SSTI Digest

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper released his administration’s $27 billion budget request for fiscal year 2017, which includes significant refunds for taxpayers and reductions for higher education, hospitals and state buildings. Reductions for Colorado’s colleges are estimated to be $20 million, with the governor’s office proposing to lift the cap on tuition increases, according to The Denver Post. Though Colorado has long boasted a dynamic and talented workforce for high-tech jobs, tuition hikes could complicate the state’s efforts to build on that advantage. Two recent Colorado studies recommended expansions of programs and partnerships that forge stronger talent pipelines in high-tech industries.

The Research Foundation for State University of New York (SUNY) is seeking feedback regarding the translation of SUNY research and innovation into meaningful startup company formation, acceleration and growth through targeted venture investing. In particular, the foundation seeks ideas on how SUNY could connect research experts to entrepreneurial leaders, advisors, or mentors in order to build upon emerging industry sector strengths. The group plans to use this information to open a dialogue to better understand the breadth of strategies for university-related venture investing that can be designed and implemented. Once completed, this request for information (RFI) RFI may lead to further partnership discussions including, but not limited to, the development of a venture fund committed to developing SUNY technology for both strategic impact and financial return.  Read the RFI...

On Friday, November 6, at 10:00 A.M. ET, the Economic Development Administration will host a conference call for economic development organizations that are interested in participating in Hannover Messe 2016 – the world’s largest trade show for industrial goods, technology, and R&D. The conference call agenda includes information on U.S. Industry Pavilions for SMES/Export Services; the show’s Research & Technology Pavilion; and, a Q&A with SelectUSA, U.S. Export Assistance Centers, Deutsche Messe AG, and Hannover Fairs USA. To register, please e-mail Micah Escobedo (micah.escobedo@trade.gov).

Although the United States remains among the world’s most competitive nations, its ability to effectively deliver quality math and science education hinders its competitiveness, according to the most recent edition of the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index.  New commitments ranging from the White House to the philanthropic sector offer opportunities to increase the capacity for American schools to engage in additional STEM activities.

This week, the National Economic Council and Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) released an update to the White House strategy document on fueling the U.S. innovation economy. A Strategy for American Innovation includes a model of the nation’s innovation engine that sheds some light on how the federal government views its role in research and economic growth. For example, digital government initiatives play a key role, alongside investing in basic research, digital infrastructure and STEM education.  In a related post, OSTP framed the release as the culmination of several weeks of events around the idea of open innovation. The strategy emphasizes the use of crowd-based models and prizes for scientific breakthroughs. Read A Strategy for American Innovation…

In the first three quarters of 2015, U.S. venture capital firms have invested $47.2 billion, more than the year-end totals for 17 of the past 20 years, according to new data from the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). About $16.3 billion was invested in 1,070 deals in the third quarter, bringing the 2015 total to $47.2 billion in 2,239 deals. Investment activity is on track to reach its highest annual level since 2000, and the second highest year since the beginning of PwC’s Moneytree report. Both dollars and deal slightly fell in the third quarter, but still managed to rank as the second most active quarter since 2000.

The GRA Venture Fund LLC, the private investment fund for companies originating from the Georgia Research Alliance's commercialization programs, has added another $25 million in venture capital. This latest round of funding brings the fund's total investment capital to $45 million. The fund currently has 10 portfolio companies. Combined, these 10 companies have collectively raised more than $241 million and have created over 400 jobs in the state of Georgia. To learn more about the GRA Venture Fund, LLC, visit www.graventurefund.org.

Women received significantly less financial support from biomedical research institutions than men early in their careers, according to Sex Differences in Institutional Support for Junior Biomedical Researchers – a study by Health Resources in Action’s Medical Foundation published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association. In the study, researchers found that that employers gave newly hired men researchers a median of $889,000 to purchase equipment and other laboratory costs, compared to $350,000 for women scientists. For individuals with Ph.D., the gap grew even larger with $936,000 in funding for men versus $348,000 for women. Forty percent of men received over $1 million to launch their careers, compared to only 12 percent of women. In addition to this large gap in funding, women are underrepresented at the top levels of biomedical research comprising only 30 percent of funded investigators. Read the study…

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam recently announced a new fund to support economic development in rural parts of the state. While most of the $8 million (approximately $7 million) is designated for shovel-ready economic development sites and tourism projects, the state will commit $600,000 for economic development grants to support entrepreneurship in small towns across the state including $300,000 to support a Main Street Business Incubator Program for downtown business districts. Launch Tennessee will receive $75,000 for AgLaunch – an agritech-focused business acceleration program developed by Memphis Bioworks Foundation. The state also committed $250,000 for a statewide broadband supply/demand analysis. Read the release: http://www.tennessee.gov/ecd/news/18603. 

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced today the addition of three more cluster organizations to the portfolio of communities supported through the SBA Regional Innovation Clusters initiative, raising the total number of awardees in the program to 14.

The three new Regional Innovation Clusters—each receiving $500,000 for the base year of the contract, with four option years to be exercised at the SBA’s discretion, for up to a total of $2.5 million per cluster initiative—are:

• BioSTL Bioscience Cluster, St. Louis, Missouri. Contractor: BioSTL
• Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Cluster, South Kansas and Oklahoma. Contractor: Development Capital Networks
• Wood Products Cluster, Appalachian Ohio Region. Contractor: Appalachian Partnership, Inc.

The three new awardees competed with more than 40 other applicant cluster organizations.  

At more than $456 billion, the value of research and development performed in the United States grew 4.8 percent from 2012 to 2013 according to new data from the National Science Foundation’s National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES). Over that same one-year period, U.S. gross domestic product grew at just 3.7 percent.

Over the five-year period from 2008-2013, R&D increased at a rate of 2.3 percent annually, while gross domestic product increased at a rate of 2.6 percent annually. Over the previous five-year period from 2003-2008, R&D outpaced GDP growth, increasing at a rate of 6.8 percent annually compared to 5.0 percent annually.  According to NCSES, although in recent years data indicate that total R&D is growing faster than GDP, the longstanding trend of this type of growth has yet to return. 

The last decade has seen a rapid expansion and deepening of the types of vehicles that fund startup firms in the U.S. and worldwide, according to The Globalisation of Angel Investments – a new study from Josh Lerner, Antoinette Schoar, Stanislav Sokolinksy, and Karen Wilson. In particular, the authors have seen a growing role for angel groups and other more “individualistic” funding options, such as super angels or crowd sourcing platforms. To support their claim, the authors examine the records of 13 angel investment groups based in 12 countries, with applicants from 21 nations.

In addition to their findings about the globalization of angel investments, Lerner and his colleagues also found that angel investors have positive impact on the growth, performance and survival of the firms they fund. The positive impact of angel financing remains consistent, regardless of the country’s level of venture activity and its entrepreneur friendliness. They also found that angel investors enhance the ability of the funded firms to obtain follow-on financing.