SSTI Digest

Economic conditions across the country continue to improve, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis’ (BEA) latest release of gross state product (GSP) data. GSP is derived as the sum of the gross domestic product originating in all the industries in a state. The period between 2008 and 2009, where the U.S. GDP decreased by 2 percent, marked a transition for many states, where their gross state product either decreased from the year before or where their growth rate was subdued. Since then, however, every state has experienced at least a 10 percent increase in gross state product from 2009 to 2014. During this time, the U.S. GDP has increased by 20.8 percent, roughly 3.8 percent per year.

While speaking in Detroit last week, Vice President Joe Biden announced the creation of an Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IAMCI)  location in Detroit, aimed at creating better composite materials for wind turbines, compressed gas storage, and in particular, the automotive industry. Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, Michigan State University will serve as the primary academic partner for the IAMCI consortium, which consists of 122 members across six states: Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee. According to a press release from Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, the IACMI’s open-access pilot manufacturing test facility and technology development and demonstration programs will be driven by major industry participation.

While most state legislative sessions ended over the summer, a number of states only recently approved spending for FY16. Governors in Alabama, North Carolina and New Hampshire have approved budgets in the past few weeks, each after months of tense negotiations. SSTI reviews budgets in each of these states for spending related to technology-based economic development. For past articles in this series, visit ssti.org/tags/state-budget.

Alabama
Last week, Gov. Robert Bentley signed Alabama FY 2016 General Fund Appropriations bill (HB1, Second Special Session 2015) following a second special session of the legislature. Funding for many state agencies was reduced by 5.5 percent, and $80 million in use tax revenue from the state’s Education Trust Fund was moved to the General Fund.

Last week, the Treasury Department released guidance recognizing foundations may make investments with a wider range of return and risk expectations so long as they are not jeopardizing or compromising their charitable missions.  Proponents for the change expect the guidance to open the doors to more mission-related investments (MRIs), impact investing and innovative finance approaches to dealing with the growing array of societal and environmental issues confronting the globe. This should also create opportunities for new partnerships with forward-thinking venture development organizations and tech-based economic development initiatives. 

On the heels of the IRS guidance release, the Kresge Foundation, which has already supported a number of Michigan-based economic development initiatives, announced it expects to increase its impact investing portfolio to $350 million by 2020.  

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez has released the state’s first comprehensive energy plan since 1991. Her administration characterizes the plan as an “all of the above” approach with an emphasis on improving infrastructure, creating new incentives and streamlining regulations. Though the plan does not feature support for energy technology R&D, it prioritizes reducing fresh water consumption and improving workforce training for energy jobs.  In Vermont, a recent report notes that the state has grown clean energy employment by more than 6 percent in the last year.

The New Mexico plan outlines a strategy to leverage the state’s position as the fourth highest net-energy supplier to the United States into new jobs and energy independence. Pillars of the plan include funding for infrastructure projects, such as rail lines and electric transmission, incentives for natural gas, a low-carbon energy portfolio standard and the removal of regulatory barriers.

The Department of Energy (DOE) announced it will commit up to $70 million in funding for the Manufacturing Innovation Institute for Smart Manufacturing to support R&D efforts to develop, demonstrate, and transition to industry advanced sensing, instrumentation, monitoring, control, and process optimization as well as modeling and simulation technologies for industrial automation. The Innovation Institute on Smart Manufacturing will be the third DOE-funded facility as part of President Obama’s National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI) institutes. As with the DOE-led NNMI institutes, those eligible to apply for the federal funding announcement (FOA) as the prime recipient include state and local governments and nonprofit and for-profit organizations. A mandatory concept paper from all applications is due by November 4 with applications due January 29, 2016. Read the FOA….

Five North Carolina communities have been selected to participate in InnovateNC, a two-year economic development initiative centered on sharing knowledge, tools and resources between partner regions. Asheville, Greensboro, Pembroke, Wilmington and the city and county of Wilson were chosen from the 18 applicant regions. The initiative is spearheaded by NC State University’s Institute for Emerging Issues with nine partners and supported by a grant from the Kenan Creative Collaboratory. The selected communities will create local innovation councils and develop tailored local innovation strategies in an effort to expand the benefits of the innovation economy to parts of the state that have not experienced the same boom as the Research Triangle and Charlotte. Find more information at: http://iei.ncsu.edu/emerging-issues/innovation-reconstructed/forumnextsteps/innovatenc/.

Since the establishment of the Tennessee Promise in 2014, the first statewide free community college effort, community college systems and states are outlining their own strategies to make a two-year education free for students in their region in attempt to create an educated, qualified workforce that addresses the needs of industry and promotes economic prosperity. While it may remain too early to judge the benefits and the costs of these programs – lawmakers and educational professionals remain divided on the issue. 

In Wisconsin, Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC) announced a plan to offer tuition-free enrollment to low-income, academically qualified high school seniors starting in the fall of 2016. Called the MATC Promise, the privately funded program is intended boost MATC’s enrollment and create a pathway to receive a college degree for students from families who otherwise could not afford to send their kids to college.

The STEM Funders Network (SFN) announced that 27 communities will pilot the national science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) Ecosystems Initiative. Launched at the Clinton Global Initiative, the program is intended to nurture and scale effective preK-16 instruction best practices in STEM learning. The new initiative focuses on cultivated cross-sector partnerships with industry, institutions of higher education, government, and foundations to develop specific programs that address the gaps in the community’s current STEM education system. SFN leadership intends to use these 27 communities and future participant communities to develop a platform for a national and regional peer-to-peer professional learning network for communities to share information, expertise and best practices in preK-16 STEM education through meetings, conference calls, web-based meetings, and other web-based methods. Read the announcement…

Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto announced the launch of the Pittsburgh Roadmap for Inclusive Innovation, a strategic plan that is intended to support economic growth and the equitable access to technology, city resources, and information. The roadmap includes three primary goals that include:

• Bridge the digital divide and facilitate residents’ participation in the new economy;
• Improve the city’s capacity to serve the public in the digital age; and,
• Increase Pittsburgh’s resilience in the digital age by strengthening the clean tech and local business sectors.

Under the proposed strategic plan, the city of Pittsburgh and its partner organizations intend to undertake over 100 Initiatives and projects including:

German leaders are debating the future of a program intended to help its elite universities compete in research with the likes of Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge. The 11-year, €4.6 billion (USD$5B) Excellence Initiative was launched in 2006, and has provided funding to support clusters of excellence, international graduate schools and strategies to strengthen the institutions as a whole. Since the program began, Germany’s universities have greatly increased their research publication output and their number of highly-cited articles. However, an analysis by Nature finds that much of that increased output has come from second- and third-tier schools that received less support through the initiative. In a similar study, academics found that China’s 985 Project to boost research competitiveness had a great effect on output at lower-ranked universities.

Six states received A's for the health of their manufacturing sector in a new study from Ball State University (BSU) – Conexus Indiana 2015 Manufacturing and Logistics National Report.