SSTI Digest

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear announced the creation a new public-private partnership to support the development of a statewide, fiber broadband infrastructure with a focus on supporting economic and social prosperity across the commonwealth. The ambitious initiative would provide the entire state with high-speed internet – with the first components scheduled to be operational in less than two years. When completed, the more than 3,000 miles of fiber will be in place across the state. Overall, the project is estimated to cost between $250 million to $350 million over the next 30 years, and will be supported by approximately $30 million in state bonds and $15 million to $20 million in federal grants.

Gov. Terry Branstad announced the release of the findings from the Iowa’s Re-envisioned Economic Development Roadmap  – a year-long effort to set a future strategic direction for economic development in Iowa. During the year-long study, the authors from Battelle examined the current position of Iowa’s economy as compared to the nation and benchmarked states. The authors concluded that Iowa has made substantial economic progress over the last decade, resulting in positive trends in Iowa’s top-line measures including increased productivity, job growth, wages, and per capita income.

In fall 2013, 21 federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) in the U.S. employed 2,613 postdoctoral researchers in 2012, down 6.4 percent from the previous year, according to a recently released InfoBrief from the National Science Foundation. Postdocs, who help government agencies meet their research and analytic needs and in turn receive relevant training and experience, are more than 75 percent male and more than 50 percent international, according to the brief. Nearly all (95 percent) of the research performed by FFRDC postdocs is related to science and engineering. For FFRDCs with postdoc programs, most of their funding comes from the Department of Energy, while most of the funding for FFRDCs without postdoc programs comes from the Department of Defense.

Funding for public colleges decreased by 12 percent overall from FY03 to FY12, while tuition rates for all public colleges rose by 55 percent during the same time, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).  Driven in part by the impact of the recent recession on state budgets, the decline in state funding has had a significant impact on college affordability for students and their family. The GAO found that a larger portion of family budgets are going towards helping offset the cost of their children’s college education. In the report, GAO also identified several potential approaches that the federal government could use to expand incentives to states to improve affordability such as creating new grants, providing more consumer information on affordability, or changing federal student aid programs.

A total of $30.8 billion for science and engineering (S&E) was given by federal agencies to 1,073 academic institutions across the United States in FY 2012, according to new research from the National Science Foundation. Although these obligations are 2 percent less than they were the year before, commitments to science and engineering increased more than 9 percent from 2007 to 2012. During that same time, per capita commitments to academic S&E decreased 7 percent. Generally, states clustered on the West Coast and in the Northeast received the most money per capita for S&E at colleges and universities. 

Last week, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo launched the New York State Innovation Venture Capital Fund (NYSIVC or The Fund), a $50 million fund that is expected to leverage at least $100 million in private capital to support early stage companies in high growth areas such as advanced materials, clean technology, life sciences/biotechnology, and information technology.

Administered by Empire State Development (ESD), The Fund will be comprised of two segments: The Technology Commercialization Segment works to facilitate commercialization of university technologies through investments of up to $100,000, while The Seed and Early Stage Co-Investment Segment invests between $100,000 and $5 million directly in seed and early stage companies in strategic industries and locations.

The Fund, as part of Gov. Cuomo’s broader economic development strategy, will be coordinated with New York’s other existing business resources and programs, such as:

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently announced the fourth round of regional economic development grants to support tailored approaches to job creation in different areas of the state. The $709.2 million in awards are part of the state’s ongoing Regional Economic Development Council (REDC) initiative begun in 2011. Regional strategies have long been a key component of state development policy, enabling policymakers to encourage institutional partnerships with a focus on the specific needs of local economies. New York’s approach supports individual projects proposed by regional councils. Other models have been proposed in Indiana and Kentucky.

This week, President Obama signed off on the continuing resolution omnibus spending package that will keep the federal government open for another nine months (see last week’s analysis).The spending bill provides stable funding for R&D and most research agencies, according to analysis by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). About $137.6 billion is appropriated for federal R&D, a modest 1.7 percent increase over FY14. Most science and technology agencies would receive small increases, with a few exceptions. Department of Defense applied research funding would decline, funding for most institutes of the National Institutes of Health would not keep pace with inflation and the Department of Energy’s Office of Science and ARPA-E would receive flat funding. Read the AAAS science and technology summary…

Gov. Terry McAuliffe hopes to increase the commonwealth’s profile in the global life sciences industry through his recently launched Virginia Bioscience Initiative. The initiative will develop cross-agency linkages, as well as public-private partnerships, to support entrepreneurs, use big data to drive new discoveries and speed the commercialization of new technologies. Gov. McAuliffe released a number of other new initiatives in conjunction with his New Virginia Economy Strategic Plan, including a business plan competition that would focus on agriculture, bio-life sciences, cybersecurity, energy and social entrepreneurship, a community small business launch fund and tax incentives for energy companies and green job creators.

Earlier this week, congressional appropriators reached a tentative agreement on spending levels for the 2015 fiscal year just a few days before the Thursday deadline. The continuing resolution omnibus, “cromnibus,” spending package would, if approved by the House, Senate and president, avert a government shutdown and again defer budget negotiations until next September. Under the agreement, most agency budgets would remain at similar levels to those enacted for FY14.

Included in the continuing resolution/omnibus spending bill for FY15 is $10 million for the Regional Innovation program. The Regional Innovation Program was authorized under the American COMPETES Act and is designed to provide funding to support regional innovation activities. The program received its first funding of $10 million in FY14 after extensive work on the Hill by SSTI, its members and others. More than 60 organizations signed a letter urging Congress to fund the program at $20 million (see August 7, 2014 Digest article) for FY15. Last week, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced that the FY14 solicitation had received 254 applications requesting more than $100 million in funding.

Labor Secretary Thomas Perez announced details of a new $100 million grant competition to expand apprenticeship opportunities in high-growth industries. The program will specifically target industries that are using H-1B visas to hire foreign workers.  By investing in collaborative efforts around the country, officials hope the program will help develop clear career pathways through apprenticeship, particularly for underrepresented populations. Labor expects to make about 25 awards, ranging between $2.5-5 million, to public-private partnerships that will register, improve and expand apprenticeship programs around the country. Applications are due April 30, 2015. Read the grant solicitation (FOA-ETA-15-02)…