SSTI Digest

As a wave of new freshmen begins to enter the halls of college campuses, a new trend is emerging – students staying. While the idea of students staying an extra year or two might make some parents cringe, in reality, college towns have proven to be an ideal environment not just for young people, but for young companies as well. Student entrepreneurs are becoming a critical component of regional innovation ecosystems, and as a result, universities and their respective cities throughout the country are focusing not only on growing and cultivating their companies, but also on retaining them.

Recent memoranda issued by the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Science and Technology policy include the support of lab-to-market technology commercialization as a key pillar of cross-agency spending for the upcoming fiscal year.  The White House instructs agencies to explain how resources are being redirected from low priority efforts to multi-agency collaborations in specific fields, including advanced manufacturing, clean energy, earth observation, global climate change, information technology, life sciences, homeland security and research policy-making. The memos encourage the expansion of efforts to boost the economic impact of federally funded research. Read the memos…

About 70 percent of 2011 U.S. business R&D spending occurred in 10 states, according to a report from the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES). California leads the country in overall business R&D, and nearly every top industry.  Both the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland and Los Angeles-Long Beach area rank in the top three areas for business research.  Other top states include Washington, with high spending on software R&D, and Texas, a leader in semiconductor and mining research. Read the InfoBrief…

To compete in the global world market, regions must continue to evolve and better understand how best practices support their regional industries, including defining the benchmarks of a successful industry cluster. In a recent academic article from Harvard researchers, Mercedes Delgado, Michael Porter, and Scott Stern unveiled a new algorithm tool that generates and assesses sets of cluster definitions. The new algorithm will be integrated into the U.S. Cluster Mapping Project to help researchers and policymakers cultivate more successful regional clusters.

Funded by a grant from the Economic Development Administration, authors announced the tool – a new clustering algorithm that generates and assesses sets of cluster definitions – in a new research study that includes details on the tool, the findings of study, and recommendations for the tools use.

In one of his first appearances at a national economic development conference, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development Jay Williams will address SSTI's Annual Conference on September 15 in Chicago.

As the Administrator of the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration (EDA), Williams is charged with leading the federal economic development agenda by promoting innovation and competitiveness, preparing American regions for growth and success in the global economy.

Prior to joining the Department of Commerce, he served as the Executive Director of the Office of Recovery for Auto Communities and Workers and served as the Mayor of Youngstown, Ohio, from 2006 to August 1, 2011.

Global investors are more confident investing in the U.S. than anywhere else in the world, according to a recent survey from Deloitte and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA).  Confidence in the U.S. macroeconomy and U.S. investments has now grown for the third straight year and continues to lead among the 12 countries included in the study. Respondents, however, indicated that they had a negative opinion of the country’s investment policy environment. U.S. investors have the lowest confidence of any country in their government’s ability to enact policies favorable to domestic investment.

The 2014 Deloitte/NVCA survey incorporated data from 331 venture capital, private equity and growth equity general partners in 17 countries, polled in May and June 2014. About one quarter of participating investors were based in the U.S. Respondents were asked to assign a one-to-five rating to their confidence level on a number of investment-related topics, including global economic trends, national economic prospects, and industry sectors.

The National Governor’s Association (NGA) announced that it will provide grants, technical assistance and opportunities to align education and training systems with private sector needs in 14 states. Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia have been selected to receive support to build industry and education partnerships and optimize their workforce-oriented incentives. Example uses of the support include the launch of the Washington STEM Education Innovation Alliance and continued support for Iowa’s workforce development programs.

Learn the details…

To revitalize the U.S. manufacturing base, states and private organizations are turning their attention to support university-led, manufacturing Research and Development (R&D) partnerships that reduce the cost of manufacturing domestically and equip U.S. manufacturers with cutting-edge technologies. Responsive to the needs of industry, these partnerships are intended to not only spur innovation, but also support economic prosperity in regions across the country. The Walmart Foundation and Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett announced new funding for university-led manufacturing partnerships. In Arizona, the Arizona Commerce Authority (ACA) recently ended its 2014 application period for a program that provides small grants to fund university-industry partnerships that develop innovative manufacturing-related, tools and technologies for use aerospace and defense manufacturing industries.

Within the past few months, several indices have been released that attempt to rank states based on their entrepreneurial activity. From the perspective of economic development agencies, these indices are particularly helpful in assessing where each state stands according to the numerous ways to measure entrepreneurship. These indices, however, should be taken with a grain of salt; issues can arise when too much importance is placed on these lists for the sake of competition or the need for press. According to a report in the Journal of Applied Research in Economic Development, “the connection between these indexes and actual economic growth and performance has been found to be ambiguous.”

The Federal Communications Commission announced a round of funding for rural broadband experiments in price cap areas that will deploy new, robust broadband to consumers. The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration released a series of reports on its broadband grant programs.

As summer internships come to a close, dorm room furniture begins to go on sale, and the smell of football season permeates the air, one thing is for certain – a new college school year is fast approaching. Over 22 million students are expected to attend American colleges and universities this fall, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, which is sure to shake up many college towns throughout the country where summers fare on the quiet side. In honor of the upcoming semester, this Digest article examines the college town and its impact on regional economic development.

The Angel Resource Institute (ARI), Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and CB Insights released the Halo Report for the first quarter (Q1) of 2014. The national survey of angel group investment activity reported encouraging results as both investments and valuations climbed in Q1— median round sizes increased to $980K per deal up from 2013 averages, and pre-money valuations rose to $2.7 million from $2.5 million in Q4 of 2013. The climb was driven mostly by investments in Internet-related companies that jumped significantly. In Q1, angel groups in the Great Lakes invested more dollars than any other U.S. region, including California, and closed 17% of all the deals, tying California for the lead. Read the report…