SSTI Digest

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) intends to launch a $10 Million Strong Cities, Strong Communities National Resource Network (SC2 Network) — a pilot program to align federal resources and coordinate technical assistance programs to help distressed U.S. communities make more effective local investments. The focus of the SC2 Network will be to strengthen the foundation for economic growth and resiliency in these communities including local technical capacity, comprehensive planning and regional collaboration.

Nonprofit organizations, foundations, anchor institutions, for-profit companies, institutions of higher education or a consortium of these entities are eligible to apply for the cooperative agreement to establish and administer the SC2 Network's centralized portal to connect distressed communities with national and local experts with wide-ranging expertise and skills. Applications must be submitted by January 28, 2013. Read the funding announcement...

In FY11, the top 30 U.S. research universities accounted for over 40 percent (approximately $26.1 billion) of total academic R&D spending in 2011, according to survey data collected by the National Science Foundation. The other 882 universities surveyed accounted for approximately $39 billion of the total academic R&D spending for the 2011 fiscal year (approximately $65.1B billion). The Higher Education Research and Development Survey population also increased from 742 universities in 2010 to 912 in 2011. These universities added approximately $533 million in total R&D expenditures.

The federal government remained the primary funder of academic R&D spending and increased from FY 2010 total. Funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) was responsible for much of the increase, with ARRA-funded expenditures totaling $4.2 billion in FY11. Among the nonfederal sources of funding, only nonprofit organizations and academic institutions themselves contributed more in FY11 than in FY10. R&D expenditures by state and local government, business and other sources virtually were unchanged.

Two small grant programs and a minor reorganization of related functions within the U.S. Small Business Administration are the aims of a bill introduced Nov 26 by Democratic Sens. Mary Landrieu and John Kerry. "Today's Entrepreneurs are Advancing Mentorship Act of 2012," or the TEAM Act (S. 3638) for short, would create an Office of Entrepreneurial Support within SBA to administer the grant programs, oversee online entrepreneurship education and resources, coordinate programs targeting youth entrepreneurship, and host international groups interested in U.S. entrepreneurship. The proposed Entrepreneurial Support grant program would provide funding to develop entrepreneurship curricula and mentoring programs within SBA's network of resource partners, including SBDCs, SCORE, women business centers and other nonprofit organizations. The total authorized funding level would begin at $1 million in 2013 and build to $3 million by 2015. A new Emerging Leaders Program would support specialized training and executive-level mentoring for small business concerns with growth potential, at least one employee and that have been in business for two or more years.

In the aftermath of an election cycle in which manufacturing emerged as a key point of contention in many races, several groups are taking stock of the state of U.S. manufacturing competitiveness. The 2012 edition of the Global Manufacturing Competitiveness Index, based on a survey of senior manufacturing executives, projects that the U.S. will fall from third most competitive nation to fifth over the next five years. In order to stave off declining competitiveness, authors of a McKinsey Global Institute report suggest that manufacturing be viewed as a critical driver of U.S. innovation, requiring flexible federal intervention as the lines between manufacturing and services become blurred.

Based on scant column inches on the topic in blog posts and newsletters, few within the general economic development and innovation circles seem to have noted what expiration of the Farm Bill could mean for agricultural research, energy innovation and rural economic development. Programs supporting regional innovation strategies and R&D grants are caught in the debate over cuts to food stamps, crop subsidies and farmers' safety net after disasters like the nearly nationwide drought of this past summer. The result could mean greater competition for an ever shrinking pool of federal resources.

Programs typically authorized and reauthorized through the massive legislation every five years expired with the beginning of the current federal fiscal year, Oct 1. Titles VI and VII of the act are concerned with Rural Development and Research, respectively. Programs affected include:

Fostering regional innovation is imperative to strengthening our national economy and crafting public-private partnerships (PPPs) are a key strategy for catalyzing regional economic growth. While states should continue to lead regional innovation efforts, the federal government can play a critical supporting role. The Brookings Institution proposes the establishment of a PPP unit within the White House to coordinate Federal assistance. Examples of effective federal-regional PPP units already are active within the Department of Transportation and the White House Startup America Initiative.

Two recent academic research articles found that innovation at institutions of higher education and domestic firms are significantly impacted by an increase in the immigration of skilled and qualified immigrants. An article from Stuen et al. found the quality of immigrant students was the determining factor in their contribution to the production of knowledge at academic science and engineering laboratories. In an unpublished article from Kerr et al., the authors examined the impact of skilled immigrants on the employment structures and innovation rates of U.S. firms. The authors of these articles also provide several recommendations to increase the number skilled immigrants that include making student quality the key criterion for receiving a visa, repealing 2001 legislation that limited the number of student visas and business taking a more active role in advocating for immigrations polices (e.g., H-1B visa reform) that attracted skilled workers to the United States.

SSTI would like to visit your city and bring 350 of our closest friends! Bids for the 2013 conference are due January 14. To request a conference information packet and discuss this exciting opportunity contact Noelle at sheets@ssti.org or 614-901-1690.

With $130 million in funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), seven universities will establish development labs to address global development challenges through science and technology in partnership with agency experts and policymakers. A new discipline of development science that combines math, science and engineering at the University of California-Berkeley and a Social Entrepreneur Accelerator at Duke University focused on health care delivery are among the projects supported as part of USAID's Higher Education Solutions Network. The network has up to five years to achieve its goals, and for every $10 of USAID funding, the universities and their partners are contributing an additional $6.60 to the network.

Each of the seven lead universities will establish a development lab related to their available resources and expertise. They include:

The world's fifth annual Global Entrepreneurship Week kicked off on Monday celebrating and encouraging innovators and entrepreneurs throughout the world. Founded by the U.S.-based Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the UK-based Make Your Mark Campaign, the weeklong program now spans 115 countries with 37,000 activities that reach upwards of seven million people. Activities include a Global Cleantech Open Ideas Competition, Startup Weekend and the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards. More information about Global Entrepreneurship Week 2012 can be found at http://www.unleashingideas.org/.

Rhode Island has released its 2012 Benchmarking the Rhode Island Knowledge Economy, a follow-up to the inaugural report published last year. Produced by the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce and Rhode Island Science & Technology Advisory Council, Benchmarking is a comprehensive report of the state's innovation capacity and a method of measuring over time Rhode Island's innovation economy in comparison to the region and the country. The report looks at 19 categories for overall economic strength, including more traditional measures such as gross state product and per capita income, but also for measures of the state's innovation capacity, like patents issued, R&D performance, and the attainment of science and engineering degrees and their inclusion in the state workforce. Of the 19 metrics, Rhode Island improved their national ranking in 11 areas, including significant improvements in venture capital investments as a percent of gross state product, total R&D performance as a percent of gross state product, and math scores for 8th graders.

Yes, it could happen. SSTI's 17th Annual Conference in 2013will be the first conference since NASVF members became SSTI members expanding SSTI to include more than 350 organizational members nationally. It is our hope that this conference inspires more collaboration, creativity and economic success around the nation. Your organization could host SSTI's 17th Annual Conference during the fall of 2013. The nation's greatest thinkers and practitioners for building tech-based economies could descend on YOUR city to build momentum for and place a spotlight on the work you are doing. Please contact Noelle Sheets, director of membership services, at or 614-901-1690 to request a conference information packet and discuss this exciting opportunity today! Letters of intent are due Jan. 14.