SSTI Digest

The Manufacturing Institute announced that it is accepting applications for the 2015 STEP Awards program, a national awards program to honor women who have demonstrated excellence and leadership in manufacturing. Part of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Production (STEP) Ahead initiative, STEP Awards aim to recognize women at all levels of manufacturing. These awards illustrate the widespread impact women have on shaping the industry, whether they are running the company, designing the next big product, or testing innovations on the shop floor. In 2014, the STEP Awards program honored 160 women from over 110 companies for their achievements. To nominate a peer or colleague for this national honor, go to https://mi.onlineapplications.net/applications/.

On August 1, the Massachusetts lawmakers enacted a comprehensive economic development bill (H.4377). The bill currently awaits Gov. Deval Patrick’s approval. Per state law, Gov. Patrick has until August 14 to sign the bill, 10 days after he received it. The approved bill that received unanimous approval by the Massachusetts state Senate was passed as a comprise package between two bills proposed in the Senate and House. Through the bill, Massachusetts policymakers intend to invest more than $80 million to spur economic growth with a significant emphasis on strengthening Massachusetts’ innovation industries. Tech-based economic development efforts will focus on emerging industries, investments in workforce development and education, and promoting targeted regional growth. A major point of contention, language dealing with non-compete agreements, did not survive in the final bill.

In an SSTI Digest article last month, SSTI detailed the most recent MoneyTree reports from National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC). Halfway through FY 2014, U.S. venture capital investments reached $22.7 billion, the highest first-half total since 2001. Using halves of fiscal years as the unit of analysis, this Digest article examines each state’s share of venture capital dollars and deals since 2010. Since Q1 2010, nearly $109 billion has been allocated to companies across 17,292 deals.

More than 60 organizations have signed on to an SSTI-initiated letter urging Congressional leaders to fund the Regional Innovation program at $20 million for FY2015. 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 FY2014, and the solicitation for that funding is expected to be issued any day. The Senate has approved $20 million for the program for FY2015, while the House did not provide any funding for the program. Organizations signing on to the letter include the Association of University Research Parks, the Angel Capital Association, the National Business Incubation Association, and more than 45 state, local, university and nonprofit organizations. The more organizations that sign increases our chances to secure funding. The deadline for signatures to this letter is Friday, August 15. To read the letter, learn how to sign on, and see those organizations that have already signed on Read more…

Between 2000 and 2010, about one-third of U.S. manufacturing employment – approximately five million jobs – were lost as a result of new technologies in the manufacturing process or competition from abroad, according to The Brookings Institution. “The decoupling of innovation from manufacturing,” as described by Harvard Professor Venky Narayanamurti, where “Americans brought great ideas to light, but then left the execution – manufacturing, and jobs – to others” has left the United States in a job crunch throughout the supply chain. In recent years, however, U.S. companies are increasingly moving their manufacturing stateside.

The Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) released federal funding opportunity award competitions for the operation of MEP state centers. States up for competition include Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Michigan, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. The objective of the MEP Center Program is to provide business and technical services to small- and medium-sized manufacturers within the state of operation. MEP anticipates funding 10 MEP Center awards, each with an initial five-year funding commitment. MEP will hold an information webinar on August 21 at 2:00 P.M. EDT for organizations that are considering applying for awards. Applications are due October 15. Visit the MEP State Competition website…

The Office of Science and Technology Policy announced a public comment period that will assist in the development of an upcoming update of the Strategy for American Innovation. Via a notice of Request for Information (RFI), individuals and organizations have the opportunity to provide input on one or more of nine topic areas:

• Overarching questions;
• Innovation trends;
• Science, technology, and R&D priorities;
• Skilled workforce development;
• Manufacturing and entrepreneurship;
• Regional innovation ecosystems;
• Intellectual property/antitrust;
• Novel government tools for promoting innovation; and,
• National priorities.

Comments are due by September 23. Read the RFI….

Driven by large-scale efforts like the U.S. government-funded Human Genome Project, genomic medicine has gone from an aspirational term only 10 years ago to a rapidly growing, cutting-edge industry that is starting to produce economic benefits for regions, both domestically and abroad. To benefit from this rapidly growing trend, policymakers in New York and Canada recently announced significant funding to support genomic medicine initiatives.

New York
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced approximately $105 million in funding has been approved to establish the Genomic Medicine and Big Data Center (GMBDC), a public-private  partnership to support research collaboration between the University at Buffalo and the New York Genome Center. GMBDC will link supercomputing capacity at the University at Buffalo (UB) and medical researchers at Roswell Park Cancer Institute with the medical, academic and industry partners of the New York Genome Center (NYGC).

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced a new round of competition for the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Consortia (AMTech) program — a competition that will award two-year planning grants to establish new and strengthen existing industry-driven consortia to solve high-priority technology challenges and accelerate the growth of advanced manufacturing in the United States.

NIST anticipates awarding a total of $5.6 million to support multiple awards of up to $500,000 each. Program eligibility is restricted to U.S. states, local governments, institutions of higher education and nonprofit organizations. Applications are due October 31. For more information about the AMTech announcement, NIST will host webinars on August 7 and 14, beginning at 2pm EDT. Read the announcement…

In 2011, U.S.-located companies spent $29.6 billion for extramural (purchased and collaborative) research and development performed by mostly domestic organizations, according to a National Science Foundation (NSF) InfoBrief. Approximately $24 billion in R&D spending was purchased R&D. The additional $5.6 billion was payments to R&D collaborators. Extramural R&D exceeds 10 percent of all R&D expenditures by businesses in 2011, up from an estimated 4 percent in 19991. NSF researchers credit the growth in relative size of domestic extramural R&D by industry to differing rates of growth in total R&D spending among industries and of changes in the importance of external partners within industries. The findings were taken from NSF’s Business R&D and Innovation Survey. Read the brief…

As the Great Recession wanes, an increasing amount of research has been conducted to assess its impact on entrepreneurship in the United States. Authors with the Kauffman Foundation found that firm formation in the United States is remarkably constant over time, although the death rate of companies rises during recessions. Others found that despite the Great Recession causing many businesses to close their doors, the rapid rise of unemployment also drove an increase in entrepreneurs. Still, others argue that increased entrepreneurial activity was found to be related to unemployment only in those states that had already established strong levels of entrepreneurship prior to the recession.

In an increasingly globalized marketplace, the ability to penetrate the ultra-valuable U.S. market is still an end goal for companies throughout the world. Since the early 2000s, foreign governments have opened accelerators as one mechanism to provide funding, mentorship, and additional support for young firms hoping to enter the U.S. market. Although many of these accelerators feature common characteristics, each has its own strategy for best reaching the needs of its young and promising companies.