SSTI Digest

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. Companies can use the funds for purchasing equipment, developing new technologies, supporting apprenticeships, and providing access to training and specialized education for workers. The fund also will support an increase in federally funded research efforts at the state’s universities and colleges, according to the governor’s press release. The budget also increases the bond authorization limit for the Manufacturing Assistance Act program by $100 million in FY15. This fund provides incentive-driven direct loans for projects within larger companies that demonstrate strong economic development potential. The 2014-15 budget signed into law in June 2013 authorized $100 million in FY14 for the program, bringing its total to $200 million over the biennium. The proposals were part of Gov. Dan Malloy’s workforce development agenda outlined earlier this year (see previous Digest article).

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. The FY15 budget signed into law by Gov. John Hickenlooper provides $5 million in general funds (the same as last year) for three types of grant programs under the Advanced Industries initiative. This includes proof-of-concept, early stage capital and retention and infrastructure funding. The program is administered by the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, which helps identify eligible companies in the fields of aerospace, advanced manufacturing, bioscience, electronics, energy and natural resources, technology and information, and infrastructure engineering.    Those companies also may benefit from a new angel investor tax credit (HB14-1012), which expands and refines previous…

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. The Vermont Strong Scholars and Internship Initiative was approved as part of a larger economic development bill (S. 220) and will provide tuition loan forgiveness to graduates who stay in Vermont and work in high-demand fields. Lawmakers also added $250,000 to expand internship opportunities, according to the governor’s press release. The approved scholars program deviates from a similar proposal introduced by Gov. Peter Shumlin during last year’s Inaugural address, which targeted only STEM graduates and offered one-year of loan forgiveness over a five-year period. This version broadens the eligible employment sectors, adds an internship component and, in combination with dual enrollment provides the opportunity for high school graduates to attend up to two years for free at a Vermont higher…

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. By increasing its agency…

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. Tom McDonnell, president and CEO of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, has announced he will leave the foundation at the end of the 2014. As part of the transition, Wendy Guillies will become acting president and CEO effective July 1. Kimberly Andrews Espy has been appointed the senior vice president for research at The University of Arizona, effective May 27. Espy has held the position of vice president for research and innovation, and dean of the graduate school at the University of Oregon. 

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. A…

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. Through this program, the SBA hopes to help fill geographic gaps in the entrepreneurial ecosystem space by supporting the development of accelerators and other eligible models in parts of the country where there are fewer conventional sources of access to capital (e.g., venture capital and angel capital investors). Applications also are encouraged from entities that are run by and support women or other underrepresented groups. According to the SBA press release, special consideration will be given to accelerator models that support manufacturing. Applications are due August 2. Read the announcement…

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.

A $150 million fund, formed under the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Rural Business Investment Program (RBIP), will provide equity capital to small businesses in rural parts of the country. The fund will be managed by Advantage Capital Partners, which, along with eight other farm credit institutions, has pledged the backing capital for the effort. USDA has announced that it will accept applications for other new Rural Business Investment Companies to raise funds from farm credit institutions in order to make equity investments. Applications are due July 29. Read the announcement…

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is accepting applications for the Research Evaluation and Commercialization Hub (REACH) program to support proof-of-concept centers (Hubs) that facilitate and accelerate the translation of biomedical innovations into commercial products that improve patient care and enhance health. NIH intends to award approximately $9 million to institutions of higher education to establish three new REACH Hubs. In addition to helping identify innovations appropriate for commercialization, REACH Hubs must provide entrepreneurial educational opportunities to academic investigators about the design and conduct of product definition studies and the commercialization processes required for transitioning a technology out of academic labs to the private sector via a startup venture or a licensing agreement. Applications are due June 26. Read the federal funding announcement…

American manufacturing competitiveness is on the rise, according to a study issued by the Boston Consulting Group and touted by the White House. Only seven of the 25 largest exporting countries in the world have lower manufacturing costs than the United States. The primary gain in U.S. advantage has come from access to cheap domestic supplies of natural gas. Wholesale prices for natural gas have dropped by over 50 percent since 2005 and are expected to decline for at least the next five years. The dropping prices create a significant cost advantage for U.S. manufacturers that have ripple effects through the entire manufacturing value chain. Other contributing factors to rising U.S. competitiveness include lower labor costs than other developed countries, rising domestic productivity, and rising labor costs in the developing world. Global companies are taking note of the systemic advantages that are driving the revival of American manufacturing and are making long-term investments in the U.S., according to the study. Read the study...