SSTI Digest

SSTI’s 2024 Annual Conference dates & location set: Dec 10-12 in Arizona! Coming off one of its most successful events ever, SSTI is happy to announce the nation’s largest annual gathering of leading practitioners and policymakers working toward regional innovation and growth through technology-based economic development will be held at the Sheraton Grand at Wild Horse Pass in the Gila River Indian Community in metro Phoenix on December 9-12, 2024.

In this week’s continuing coverage of gubernatorial addresses as they impact the innovation economy, the common themes from Hawaii, Massachusetts and North Dakota were addressing the cost of housing. Hawaii and Massachusetts governors discussed addressing climate change, and North Dakota’s governor called for the creation of a new office focused on rural communities. The following highlights have been excerpted from State of the States or budget addresses given between January 17, 2023 and January 23, 2024. Additional addresses and states will be covered in future Digest issues. With the start of the new year, governors have begun to deliver their State of the State addresses, laying out proposals for new programs and discussing the conditions of their states. As states’ revenue levels return to more typical levels, lawmakers, with a few exceptions, are taking a more cautious, or constrained, view of their funding priorities and proposed initiatives. Many governors also appear to be more restrained in their addresses this year, speaking more to the previous year’s successes, suggesting lawmakers tighten their state’s fiscal belts while providing targeted investments…

The NSF Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP) is accepting EArly-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) proposals that will advance the state of the art in assessing place-based innovation's societal and economic impacts. This funding opportunity aims to address gaps in publicly available data and associated knowledge to adequately and appropriately benchmark activities in place-based innovation grounded in integrating research and development, translation, and workforce development. The dear colleague letter  emphasizes the role of cross-sector partnerships in place-based innovation and how to best leverage all of the regional talent to create inclusive and equitable innovation ecosystems. Please note the following deadlines associated with this funding opportunity: February 12, 2024: Concept Outlines must be received via email to either Xueying “Shirley” Han (xhan@nsf.gov) or Rebecca Shearman (rshearma@nsf.gov) by 5 p.m. submitter's local time. The correspondence permitting submission of an EAGER proposal can be expected approximately four weeks after submission of the Concept Outline. April 17, 2024: deadline for…

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted a final rule last night, by a 3-2 vote that would require prospective special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) to disclose their sponsors, compensation, target companies, and conflicts of interest and to require SPAC targets to register with the SEC. As SSTI covered during the pandemic SPAC boom, the vehicle provides private companies with a lower-scrutiny, higher-cost path to enter the public markets by merging with a listed SPAC. Interest in and performance of deals involving SPACs have waned since 2022, but this is also true of the more traditional initial public offering path to the public markets. The impact of the SEC's changes, therefore, may be difficult to determine until more investors are ready to drive private companies to the public markets. See sec.gov for the final rule, comments, and factsheet.

Income inequality in the U.S. has increased from 2006 to 2022, according to American Community Survey (ACS) data. While it’s increased in the nation as a whole, it decreased in North Dakota, Washington, Hawaii, Nebraska, and Montana from 2018 to 2022. New York and Washington, D.C. lead the nation in income inequality. This edition of Useful Stats explores state-level Gini index data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s ACS, analyzed by the State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC) at the University of Minnesota. The Gini index (or coefficient) is a summary measure of income inequality, ranging from zero (perfect equality) to 1 (perfect inequality).[1] Perfect equality, or a Gini index value of zero, represents a situation where everyone receives an equal share of income, while perfect inequality (Gini index = 1) represents a single individual or group receiving all income. Read more about the Gini index in the World Bank’s glossary.   Gini index values by state The U.S. national Gini index has risen from 0.46 in 2006 to 0.486 in 2022, peaking in 2014 at 0.49. An increase in the Gini index value represents a shift towards further inequality.…

A working paper by a team of Harvard-affiliated researchers presents challenging findings for growth equity impact investors. Given the potential alignment between this sector of the market and publicly funded capital access programs (including many venture development organizations and the State Small Business Credit Initiative), this research may find its way into public policy debates. The paper, which has not yet been published in an academic journal, also contains several shortcomings in its approach that should caution any stakeholders from acting on its findings alone. The research contains findings that seem to speak for and against the value of impact investing, but the authors land on a negative overall evaluation of impact investors. On the one hand, the authors provide clear evidence that these investors have portfolios that are different from traditional investors, but on the other hand, they find that these deals generally would have occurred without the impact investors’ involvement. These apparently contradictory findings can be reconciled because the number of impact investments is much lower than the number of traditional investments—i.e., impact…

In this week’s continuing coverage of gubernatorial addresses as they impact the innovation economy, New Mexico Governor calls for $170 million to bolster hydrogen, geothermal and next-generation battery storage. Rhode Island Governor proposes building a new life science school at the University of Rhode Island and cybersecurity bond to grow Rhode Island College’s cybersecurity program. Meanwhile, West Virginia’s governor proposes increasing spending to attract people to move to the state. With the start of the new year, governors have begun to deliver their State of the State addresses, laying out proposals for new programs and discussing the conditions of their states. As states’ revenue levels return to more typical levels, lawmakers, with a few exceptions, are taking a more cautious, or constrained, view of their funding priorities and proposed initiatives. Many governors also appear to be more restrained in their addresses this year, speaking more to the previous year’s successes, suggesting lawmakers tighten their state’s fiscal belts while providing targeted investments into key or signature programs, as well as previously proposed initiatives, rather than…

The workforce is growing older, and that’s very likely a good thing for U.S. productivity. Various statistics reveal the active workforce over 65 is more likely to have higher education levels than historically, working at a 0.75 full-time equivalent rate on average, and is working for lower wages on average than younger workers. This growth toward an aging workforce is readily apparent within the 75-and-older age group. Since 1987, the number of 75 and older workers has more than doubled, from 4% to 9%, according to a study from the Pew Research Center. And the ranks of the employed are filling up among those who are a few years younger, too: 19% of the nation's 11 million 65 and older population is employed, nearly twice as many as were employed 35 years ago. These older workers are delaying retirement due to evolving trends in the work world, such as financial need and changes in education, retirement policy, healthcare, and the knowledge economy. Older workers with higher education levels are more likely to be working than their less-educated peers. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), 63,230,000 people with bachelor's, master's,…

Artificial intelligence (AI) is already well integrated into the American workforce; in 2022, 19% of American workers were in jobs identified as most exposed to AI, compared to 23% in the least exposed jobs, according to a study by Pew Research. Jobs identified as most exposed are those in which the most critical responsibilities can either be replaced or assisted by AI. In contrast, the least exposed jobs cannot currently be replaced or assisted. A recent study identified U.S. cities at risk of losing jobs to AI, finding more than 10 million jobs at-risk within those cities. Looking into the future, AI is expected to be adopted by 80% of global organizations over the next five years, according to a 2023 World Economic Forum (WEF) survey, with an estimated 83 million jobs automated by 2027. The same survey found that despite this job displacement, there will be a net positive job creation caused by the technology. WEF projects the largest losses in administrative roles, alongside traditional security, factory, and commerce roles. Within these, surveyed organizations predict a net decline of 26 million fewer global jobs by 2027 in administrative and record-…

NSF recently released updates on two ways of profiling trends in science and engineering at the state level: Science and Engineering State Profiles and Science & Engineering Indicators. The Science and Engineering State Profiles is an interactive website providing access to state-level data on science and engineering (S&E) personnel and finances and state rankings. State Profiles displays up to seven selected state profiles. Data are available from surveys sponsored by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics within the National Science Foundation on employed S&E doctorate holders; S&E doctorates awarded, including by major S&E fields; S&E graduate and postdoctoral students; federal research and development obligations by agency and performer; state government agency R&D expenditures; total and business R&D performance; and higher education R&D performance, including by major S&E fields. Data available from other sources include population, civilian labor force, per capita personal income, federal expenditures, patents, small business innovation research awards, and gross domestic product. All data are available…

United States venture capital activity not unexpectedly slowed down in 2023, cooling off after multiple years of record-high deals and values during 2021 and 2022, according to the PitchBook-NVCS Venture Monitor Q4 2023. Pitchbook-NVCS estimates a total deal count of 15,766 (13,608 actual + 2,158 estimated) for 2023– exceeding the values of 2020 and prior years but falling several thousand short of the last two years. Between these deals, just $170.6 billion was invested, a drop of $71.6 billion from 2022 and $177.4 billion from 2021. It is important to note that PitchBook continuously identifies new deals and updates their datasets, often leading towards an increase in deals and values over time. Thus, older datasets are often more complete, which may cause direct comparisons between more recent and older years to not provide an accurate picture of the venture landscape. This edition of Useful Stats will explore 10-year trends in venture activity by stage and state using the Venture Monitor report data.   Venture activity by stage Data as of December 31, 2023, show a decline from prior years in the proportion of pre-seed and seed…

Since 1980, billion-dollar climate disasters in the United States have increased an astonishing 749%, from averaging 3.3 throughout the 1980s to 28 in 2023 alone. These data from the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information include floods, wildfires, droughts, severe storms, tropical cyclones, and winter storms. The finding is consistent with the Fifth National Climate Assessment, released last year, that concluded the rise is due to a combination of increased exposure (i.e., more assets at risk), vulnerability (i.e., how much damage a hazard of given intensity—wind speed, or flood depth, for example—causes at a location), and the fact that climate change is increasing the frequency of some types of extremes that lead to billion-dollar disasters. Because climate change will only get worse given its current trajectory, it is reasonable to expect the number and severity of disaster events will continue to grow. Research shows TBED, systems-based planning, and conventional economic development have roles to play in mitigating future risk. A recent report from the First Street Foundation, Climate Abandonment Areas, uses the NOAA data to show that these…