SSTI Digest

The fifth installment of SSTI’s Tech Talkin’ Govs series includes excerpts from speeches delivered in Connecticut, Maine, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.

Delaware Gov. Jack Markell outlined a FY15 budget proposal with further detail and funding levels for TBED priorities announced in his recent State of the State address. The budget would provide $1 million to create a faster path to degree or certificate completion in advanced manufacturing and establishes a $3 million cyber workforce initiative. Higher education institutions would be tapped as partners for the new initiatives, and also would receive an additional $2 million for federal R&D matching grants as part of the budget recommendations

In his fifth State of the Union address, President Barack Obama touted the administration’s Institutes of Manufacturing Innovation program as central to its plan to reinvigorate the American economy. The president called on Congress to expand the manufacturing network beyond the two existing institutes in Ohio and North Carolina and the six additional institutes to be rolled out in 2014. He also requested legislative action to undo last year’s sequester-related cuts to basic research, to pass patent reform and to improve U.S. STEM education.

While much of the coverage following the address has focused on the president’s plan to make extensive use of executive orders to enact the administration’s agenda in the coming year, much of his plan to boost American innovation would require additional action from Congress.  Many of the policy options that the president linked to innovation and entrepreneurship in his address, including immigration reform, patent reform and boosting federal funding for research, would require legislative approval and have already met resistance in the House and/or Senate.

The fourth installment of SSTI’s Tech Talkin’ Govs series includes excerpts from speeches delivered in Illinois, Massachusetts and Utah.

Filling the pipeline with skilled workers able to perform the high-tech jobs employers say are sitting vacant has long been advocated by state leaders and policymakers as essential to competing in the global economy. Governors in Florida and Louisiana are stepping up efforts this legislative session with proposed multi-million dollar investments through training and scholarship programs to change the landscape of their states’ workforce.

After hitting an all-time high in 2012, California’s dominance of the nation’s venture capital activity receded a bit last year. California continues to receive about half of the country’s venture investment dollars and about 40 percent of its dealflow, but in 2013, the state’s share of dollars fell from 53 to 50 percent, according to data from the PricewaterhouseCoopers/National Venture Capital Association (PwC/NVCA) Moneytree survey. Massachusetts, which has been host to about 10 percent of national venture activity in past years, also saw its share of total U.S. activity decline. Gains in second tier venture capital states appear to account for the shift, including upticks in Florida, Maryland, New York, Texas and Virginia. Massachusetts continue to lead the country in terms of dollars and deals per capita, though for the first time that lead was threatened by the rise of Washington, D.C., as a venture capital hotspot.

The FY15 budget proposal outlined last week by Gov. Andrew Cuomo would provide funding to continue many of New York’s innovation-focused efforts while investing in new initiatives, including a genomic medicine network and STEM scholarship program.

The third installment of SSTI’s Tech Talkin’ Govs series includes excerpts from speeches delivered in Delaware, Michigan, Missouri and New Mexico.

Ontario officials launched a new fund-of-funds this week intended to boost capital resources for high-tech companies. The Northleaf Venture Catalyst Fund is a privately led initiative, supported by federal and provincial funds. The governments of Canada and Ontario have agreed to make a combined capital commitment of $1 for every $2 secured from the private sector. Current commitments total $217.5 million CAD ($195.4 million USD), but leaders hope to match the government’s maximum match level of $300 million CAD ($269.6 million USD) in a second closing later this year. Read the announcement…

North Dakota has announced it will relaunch its Innovate ND business venture competition as a more expansive suite of services for innovative startups and entrepreneurs. Participants will receive vouchers for up to $2,500 to help pay for coaching and consulting services at an entrepreneurial center, development of a business plan or building a prototype. Education services also will be available, including biannual Entrepreneur Boot Camps.  Read the announcement…

Michigan’s University Research Corridor (URC), an alliance between the state’s three largest higher education institutions, leads its peer clusters in generating high-tech talent and ranks second overall in innovation activity, according to a report commissioned by URC. The corridor, which includes Michigan State University, University of Michigan and Wayne State University, outperforms peer university clusters in Northern California, North Carolina’s Research Triangle region and Massachusetts’ Route 128 Corridor, ranking second only to the universities of Southern California.

Among the report’s findings, the Michigan URC conferred 32,483 graduate and undergraduate degrees, higher than any of its peer universities clusters in 2012. Michigan’s URC also topped the list in medical degrees and ranked second in high-demand degrees.

Several common themes surrounding higher education have emerged as governors across the country unveil investment priorities for the upcoming fiscal year or biennium. In many states, governors have proposed more funding to increase affordability by freezing tuition or creating new scholarship funds. Support for expanding research capacity, technology-related infrastructure and job training in high-demand industries are some of the proposed measures aimed at competitiveness.