SSTI Digest

More than 75 percent of U.S. manufacturers report a moderate to severe shortage of skilled workers, according to a recent study by Accenture and The Manufacturing Institute.  While most manufacturers plan to increase their U.S.-based production over the next five years, many report that these plans are being hindered by the lack of skilled, and especially highly-skilled, workers. More than 80 percent perceived that the U.S. has a moderate to severe problem with the availability of highly-skilled labor.   Read the study…

Business dynamism, a measure of firm destruction and creation in an economy, has steadily declined in the U.S. over the past 30 years, according to a study released by the Brookings Institution by Ian Hathaway and Robert Litan. Dynamism has long been considered a key element of innovative economies, indicative of entrepreneurship and labor market mobility. The U.S. decline appears to have been consistent across industries and geographic areas. In an update to the original article, Hathaway and Litan clarified that their study was not proposing an explanation for the trend, which other sources had linked to the rise of the retail and service sectors or to specific government policies. Read the report…

In a field where talent, resources and funding have become increasingly competitive, practitioners must find creative ways to stand out from the crowd. Since SSTI introduced the Most Promising TBED category as part of our annual awards program, three innovative programs have been recognized for a creative approach in design or implementation. From a co-working network embedded in the Greater Phoenix public library system to a funding model for bioscience startups in Arizona based on philanthropy rather than traditional venture funding, and a grassroots approach to cluster development in Northeast Ohio, these initiatives are transforming their regions.

This could be your year to stand out. If your organization fits the criteria, please consider sharing your story by applying for the 2014 awards. Applications are due June 17.

Lawmakers included $30 million in the recently enacted FY15 budget to establish a fund to help smaller manufacturers modernize and grow with priority given to companies located in the state’s 42 communities designated as historic manufacturing hubs. The budget also increases by $100 million the bond authorization for the Manufacturing Assistance Act, a program for larger companies that provides incentive-driven direct loans for projects with strong economic development potential. The proposals were part of Gov. Dan Malloy’s workforce development agenda outlined earlier this year.

Through last year’s passage of the Advanced Industries Accelerator Act, Colorado lawmakers established three grant programs designed to leverage state assets and grow the number of companies in seven key sectors. In further support of the initiative, lawmakers recently provided level funding of $5 million and approved an angel investor tax incentive specifically geared toward companies operating within those seven advanced industry sectors.

A scholarship program enabling graduates to attend up to two years of college for free and increased funding to encourage more startup companies to launch or grow in Vermont were among the 2014 legislative accomplishments touted by lawmakers. The legislature also created a $4.5 million fund to attract and retain companies with substantial economic impact.

State agencies in New York spent more on research and development than agencies in any other state in FY11, according to data released by the National Science Foundation. The NSF data provides an overview of state agency investments in R&D, broken down by the source of those funds and the types of organizations that eventually performed the research. Ohio, Florida and California also ranked among the top states for total agency investment. West Virginia and Ohio led in R&D investments as a share of state GDP in FY11.

New York’s Foundation for Science, Technology and Innovation, Department of Health and Energy Research and Development Authority led the state’s agency-based research investments. New York state agencies spent $182.7 million on R&D in FY11, equal to about 0.016 percent of state GDP. Investments were nearly equally distributed between research at academic institutions and private researchers. New York has been a national leader in agency investments for many years, but still managed to increase those investments over the 2006-11 period. Agency R&D spending grew by 76.4 percent during that time.

Oregon derived about 28 percent of its GDP from information and communication technology (ICT) industries in 2012, according to a new report from the Technology CEO Council, based on Moody’s Analytics data.  The report highlights the importance of ICT exports to each state economy. ICT hardware, software and services were the largest U.S. export sector in 2012, generating $272 billion for the U.S. economy. Oregon, Colorado and Washington were the country’s most ICT-focused economies in terms of GDP, while Virginia employed the largest share of its workers in ICT industries. Read the report…

Jay Williams has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate as assistant secretary of Commerce for Economic Development.

William Kirwan, chancellor of the University System of Maryland since August 2002, announced that he will step down from his position. 

RoseAnn Rosenthal, president & CEO of Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania, was presented with the Legend Award for Lifetime Achievement at the Greater Philadelphia Alliance for Capital and Technologies’ 2014 Enterprise Awards.

Arizona is in a better position to emerge as a global player in biosciences that it was a decade ago, according to a new roadmap from the Flinn Foundation. Building on an initial strategic document released in 2002, the updated strategy offers 77 potential actions the state could pursue to support bioscience entrepreneurship, research translation, talent development, institutional connectivity and collaborations. Risk capital plays a key role in the updated strategy, which challenges Arizona to attract an annual share of national venture capital investment equal to its share of population by 2025.

The Flinn Foundation, an Arizona-focused, philanthropic organization, collaborated with Battelle to produce the first roadmap in 2002. At that time, the authors focused on the need to build a stronger research base in the state through its universities, hospitals and private research institutions. Arizona also lacked a critical mass of non-hospital bioscience firms of sufficient size to catalyze a vibrant life sciences industry. Secondarily, the Flinn Foundation suggested that the state would need to secure public and private investments in bioscience businesses.

The Small Business Administration (SBA) announced a $2.5 million funding competition for accelerators and other entrepreneurial ecosystem models to compete for monetary prizes of $50,000 each to fund operating budgets. The Growth Accelerator Fund Competition is open to business accelerators, incubators, coworking spaces, shared makerspaces, and other entrepreneurial ecosystem models from across the country.

Registration is LIVE for SSTI’s 2014 Annual Conference, Regional Prosperity Through Innovation, and we want you to be there! For a limited time, we are offering an early registration rate of only $575 for members, $520 for multi-member and $675 for all others. With rates like these you can bring your whole team to Chicago for the conference on September 14-16. Register Today! Registration fees will go up after June 15.