SSTI Digest

As part of Next Century Cities, a new bipartisan, city-to-city initiative, 32 cities and their elected leaders from across the United States are uniting to recognize the importance of leveraging gigabit-level Internet for economic development. The initiative enables participating cities to work together to learn about best practices in engaging and assisting communities in developing and deploying next-generation broadband Internet so that every community has the resources needed to succeed. Next Century Cities was launched at a co-working space in Santa Monica, CA, featuring remarks from the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and the mayors of Santa Monica, Chattanooga, and Lafayette, LA, and panels featuring leading civic technology and innovation officials. The first group of cities features large municipalities such as Boston, Kansas City, Portland, and San Antonio, in addition to a variety of smaller cities across 19 states.  Read more here… Watch video of the event here…

With Gov. Pat Quinn, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Sen. Mark Kirk, and University of Chicago President Robert Zimmer in attendance, the Chicago Innovation Exchange (CIE), a new startup incubator in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood, had its grand opening last Thursday. The CIE is comprised of 32,000 square feet divided among three buildings across the city’s South Side: the central hub, with incubation and event space, the “CIE Skydeck” an 11th floor conference space, and a third location, set to open in 2015, with fabrication and prototyping lab space and equipment such as 3-D printers, mini-mills, and laser cutters. At the event, Gov. Quinn announced that the state would invest $1 million into the new center to support infrastructure and build-out of the space.   Funded by the University of Chicago, the CIE brings the success of the University’s Booth School of Business’ Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation across the campus, not just the business school, better connecting its resources to the entire innovation landscape, according to John Flavin, CIE’s director and a speaker at the 2014 SSTI Annual Conference. The CIE…

In Q3 2014, venture capital (VC) investments in the U.S. dropped by 30 percent from Q2 totals, according a new report from CB Insights. Q3 VC deal levels also dropped by 10 percent from Q2 totals. The severe drop, however, can be attributed to Q2 being the most successful VC quarter since Q1 2001. The good news is that the first three quarters of 2014 saw the U.S. VC investment total reach $33.75 billion – an increase of 59 percent compared to the first nine months of last year. The initial public offering (IPO) market fell off significantly in Q3 with just 18 U.S.-based, VC-backed companies going public. In comparison, 59 companies went public in Q1 and Q2 combined. CB Insight researchers also found while late-stage deal share remained consistent at about 16 percent with Q1 and Q2, the size of those investments in share of venture capital dollars by series dropped from 35 percent in Q1 to only 22 percent in Q3. Read the report… Ohio Startups Attract $149M in Investments in 2013Investors made $149 million in total investments to Ohio startups in 2013, according to a recent report from VentureOhio. In Ohio VentureReport…

Over the past decade, two ideas have become more and more popular among innovation and economic development leaders. First, that maximizing collaboration between institutions, interest groups, stakeholders and communities is pivotal in building an innovation ecosystem that can succeed and grow over time. Second, that proximity matters, and by focusing on innovation networks at the regional or metro scale, rather than at the national or state level, initiatives can have a real, measurable economic impact. Though they seem complementary, these ideas are frequently in tension. The first suggests that increasing the number of partners leads to more successful initiatives. The second suggests that, at least in terms of geography, there should be some kind of limit on the scope of innovation initiatives in order to tailor them to the needs of a specific region. Several recent studies explore this balance between inclusiveness and specificity. In the Stanford Social Innovation Review, author Pankaj Ghemawat urges those committed to solving global problems to dismiss vague talk about global solutions, which he dubs “globaloney.” These solutions tend to become “…

James A. Anderson, the founder and CEO of Detroit-based retail consulting firm Urban Science, and his wife donated $25 million last week to support the entrepreneurial efforts of Wayne State University’s engineering and computer science faculty and students. The donation will establish The James and Patricia Anderson Engineering Ventures Institute, embedded within the university’s College of Engineering, a center to encourage faculty to commercialize new technologies, secure patents, and establish startup companies, while also providing mentors to young entrepreneurs and teaching best practices in innovation, tech transfer, and commercialization. Crain’s Detroit Business also reports the grant will fund five endowed chairs and several graduate scholarships, with an office set to be open and staffed by the end of the year. The family’s gift is part of Wayne State University’s Pivotal Moments fundraising campaign, which has now received more than half of its $750 million goal amount. Learn more…

Earlier this summer, President Obama announced that his administration would be taking executive action to reform immigration policy, working to improve the entirety of the immigration system by tweaking individual components. This week, at a startup incubator in Los Angeles, the President revealed at least one of those components: the H1B system. As part of his remarks at a town hall meeting on innovation, the president declared his intentions to make the H1B system more efficient so that it encourages more people to stay in the United States. Capped at 65,000 visas for private-sector workers each year, the H1B (H-1B) visa program is the main visa used to bring high-skilled, foreign-born, talent into the United States. With the current cap unable to meet employer demand for H1B visas, and recent studies suggesting the United States may be losing competitive advantages as a result, more attention is being paid to the important role these foreign-born, high-skilled workers play in the economy. Since their establishment in 1990, H1B visas are the primary avenue for employers to temporarily hire foreign workers for up to three years in specialty occupations such as medicine…

Australian Minster Tony Abbott announced a $400 million AUD (approximately $352M USD) national Industry Innovation and Competitiveness Agenda focused on building the country’s innovation economy, supporting apprenticeship and workforce programs that address the needs of industry, and promoting science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education.  The centerpiece of the agenda is a $188 million AUD (approximately $165.5M USD) initiative to create industry growth centers in five sectors: food and agribusiness; mining equipment, technology and services; oil, gas and energy resources; medical technologies and pharmaceuticals and advanced manufacturing services. These industry-led centers would provide funding and technical assistance to support the commercialization of products developed via university-industry partnerships. The government also calls for immigration reforms that ease English language and skills requirements to attract more skilled workers. Read the agenda…

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and a coalition of Chicago organizations and private businesses have announced plans to place at least 1,000 workers in manufacturing jobs. The mayor’s 2015 budget proposal, presented this week, includes $200,000 for the effort, with another $750,000 in funds and in-kind contributions from partners. Recent growth in the region’s manufacturing sector has created an urgent need for workers with specific training and apprenticeships, according to the mayor’s announcement. Existing training programs would be leveraged to train participating workers and six local organizations have been tapped to aid in jobs placements. Learn more…

The U.S. Department of Commerce has released the names of the 27 individuals who will serve as the initial members of the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE). NACIE, which will begin work in December, will advise the secretary of Commerce on transformational policies to help communities, businesses and the American workforce become more globally competitive. Subcommittees will explore the council’s three main focus areas: entrepreneurship, innovation and job-driven skills training. The list of council members includes representatives from the private, nonprofit and academic sectors, including several organizations involved in state and regional technology-based economic development. Read the announcement…

North Carolina’s new Economic Development Partnership began operations this week. The public-private partnership will assume many of the economic development operations of the state’s Department of Commerce (as described in an earlier Digest article), with most of its 34 staff members previously working for the department, according to the News & Observer. The partnership will help firms gain access to the state’s research, technology and academic resources, though the NC Office of Science, Technology and Innovation, which administers a number of innovation-focused programs, remains under the Department of Commerce. Learn more…

If a concentration of highly skilled workers is an important leading indicator to more widespread economic growth, which regions are leading the way? Using data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) to compare the educational attainment rates of the nation’s largest labor forces from 2005 to 2013, authors from the Cleveland State University Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs determine where America’s highest-skilled jobs are clustering. In ranking the percentage of labor force with a graduate or professional degree in 2013, the list of top five regions is perhaps unsurprising: Washington, D.C., San Jose, Boston, San Francisco, and New York – considered first-tier metros by nearly all accounts. In assessing the percent point change between the percentage of workers with an advanced degree in 2005 and in 2013, however, “second-tier” metros begin to emerge as leaders. Although Washington, D.C., and San Francisco represented the first and fourth fastest rates of change in the employment of high-skilled workers, respectively, three of the top five fastest-growth metros can be defined as second tier: Providence, Indianapolis, and…

The Department of Defense’s (DOD) SBIR program is meeting three of its four legislative/mission-related goals, according to new study from the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academies – SBIR at the Department of Defense. Those four congressional objectives of the DOD SBIR program are to: Stimulate technological innovation; Use small businesses to meet federal R&D needs; Foster and encourage the participation of socially and economically disadvantaged small businesses; and, Increase the private sector commercialization of innovations derived from federal R&D. While DOD SBIR-funded projects are commercializing at a substantial rate, aligned with the DOD needs, and developing innovative technologies, the DOD has failed to increase the involvement of woman- and minority-owned small businesses in its SBIR program. The authors reported that DOD SBIR-funded projects are commercialized at a substantial rate and are attracting significant amounts of follow-on private investments. Approximately 70 percent of all Phase II projects have reached market, according to data from the DOD commercialization database. Over 45 percent of awarded…