SSTI Digest

The Distressed Area Recompete Pilot Program (Recompete Pilot Program)—authorized by the CHIPS and Science Act— will invest $200 million toward interventions that spur economic activity in geographically diverse and persistently distressed communities nationwide. The program will support economic revitalization in distressed communities across the country. Specifically, this program targets areas where prime-age (25-54 years) employment significantly trails the national average and is intended to close the gap through flexible, bottom-up strategy development and implementation investments. Applicants should demonstrate how benefits from the program are shared equitably across all affected populations.

On May 30, 2023, FCC released a broadband map that had been updated to reflect states' challenges to the availability data for more than 4 million locations throughout the U.S. Seventy-five percent of those challenges had been resolved in the new map. The new map reflected a net increase of more than one million new serviceable locations that had not appeared on the previous map. Background on the original map and SSTI’s call for states to pay attention to the map can be found here.

When the National Telecommunications and Information Administration announces its allocations for broadband funding based on the FCC map, some states will receive more money than they would have based on the older map since more broadband-needy areas showed up on the revised map. For others, the new map showed fewer broadband-needy areas, resulting in less money from NTIA.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) have all made recent announcements on new funding provided either through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law or the CHIPS and Science Act. DoE is accepting applications for an $80 million program focused on benefiting small and medium-sized manufacturing firms. USDA and MEP announced more than 170 awards to expand innovative uses of wood and to address supply chain issues.

In a recent installment of SSTI’s federal funding video series, SSTI program director Jerry Coughter conducted a two-part interview with Amanda Kosty, management and program analyst with the Economic Development Administration’s Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Their discussion focused on the Build to Scale (B2S) program’s two competition tracks: the Venture Challenge and the Capital Challenge. These interviews offer a comprehensive overview of each funding track and its alignment with technology-based economic development (TBED) strategies. They also provide valuable advice on crafting competitive applications, emphasizing understanding and directly addressing the specific challenges your community faces as part of your proposal.

As states continue to grapple with the effects of low unemployment and a tight labor market, lawmakers and workforce development organizations also continue to explore how to increase labor participation among nontraditional or marginalized workers – including several states which relaxed child labor laws during this year’s legislative sessions – to address areas or sectors that are experiencing workforce shortages.

While bringing more children into the labor market may ease some market stress, it is not an optimal solution, and other strategies can be employed to alleviate the labor crunch. Over the past few years, states have proposed and implemented policies and initiatives that are designed to better align businesses and workforce needs with public or higher education, increased the opportunities and incentives for apprenticeship programs, and established programs to assist the formerly incarcerated back into the labor force as a means to lessen recidivism rates and fill jobs.

On June 14, 2023, NSF announced 34 semifinalists for the first-ever NSF Regional Innovation Engines (NSF Engines) competition. The NSF Engines will be led by universities, nonprofits, businesses, and other organizations from across U.S. states and territories. Each NSF Engine could receive up to $160 million over 10 years; actual amounts will be subject to a given NSF Engine's status and overall progress, as assessed annually. Congratulations to the SSTI members that are finalists—including FuzeHub, Kentucky Science & Technology Corporation, Louisiana State University, Ohio State University, Rocky Mountain Innovation Initiative (Innosphere) and Virginia Tech—and the many members participating as partners across the awards.

Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Director Laurie E. Locascio announced five leaders joining the CHIPS Research and Development Office within CHIPS for America.

The CHIPS R&D Office is responsible for four integrated programs that will generate innovations to make American semiconductor manufacturers globally competitive: 1) the National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC), 2) the National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program, 3) up to three new Manufacturing USA institutes dedicated to semiconductors (more info here), and 4) the CHIPS R&D Metrology Program.  

The new CHIPS R&D Office leaders, three of whom are internal hires from within the NIST lab system, are:

The upshot of the debt ceiling deal recently approved by Congress is that all nondefense discretionary spending will remain at its current level of $638 billion in FY 2024, which begins October 1. Additionally, some funds were marked for recission, including $150 million from the State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI). All jurisdictions that have been approved or have applied for SSBCI funding will not see a decrease in their funds, according to an email from Treasury regarding SSBCI. SSBCI incentive allocation funds and Formula Technical Assistance (TA) Grant Program allocations for Tribal governments, states, territories, and D.C. also will not be affected by the legislation. More complicated is the impact the deal will have on funding for research, innovation, and education.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has released its plans to invest $2.6 billion in coastal resilience funded by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). These funds will support communities on the frontlines of climate change, restore marine resources, improve weather and climate data and services, strengthen NOAA's research airplane and ship fleet, invest in critical infrastructure, and more. Of particular interest to Digest readers will be funding for ocean-based climate resilience accelerators and climate-ready workforce.

The $2.6 billion in climate investments will support coastal communities’ resilience to changing climate conditions through funding and technical assistance for capacity building, transformational projects that help protect communities from storms and flooding, the creation of quality climate-related jobs, and improved delivery of climate services to communities and businesses. These programs include:

Republican dissatisfaction with colleges and universities has been growing for some time. The Pew Research Center detected growing discontent with colleges and universities in 2012 and found that from 2015 to 2019, the number of individuals saying colleges and universities have a negative effect on the country went from 37% to 59%. This increase happened among Republicans, while Democrats and independents who lean Democratic remained largely stable and overwhelmingly positive. This trend is now apparent from recent legislation and political direction from conservative Republican states. Anti-DEI bills have been signed into law in North Dakota and Tennessee, and Florida has signed two anti-DEI bills into law. Texas has final legislative approval on two bills.

NSF designed the recently awarded NSF Engine Type 1 development awards to bring technology-based solutions to bear on many critical challenges facing our nation. These challenges include climate change and sustainability, and this week we are highlighting three SSIT members whose NSF Engine proposals focus on sustainability. SSTI member-led projects related to sustainability include the University of Texas at Austin’s project to research and develop energy and train the next-generation energy professionals (SSTI member Sandia National Laboratories is on this team), The Water Council’s project to advance water and energy technologies for the manufacturing and utilities sectors (SSTI member Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation is a partner), and the University of Hawai’i’s project to create a climate-resilient food innovation network.

Of 44 NSF Engine awards, nonprofits lead 11. The Water Council is one of them.

Corporate laboratories were hotspots for U.S. innovation for most of the twentieth century. Large firms, such as DuPont or Bell Labs, acted as epicenters for research and development activities, driving investment in frontier technologies underserved by university researchers at the time. By the 1980s, however, many of these powerhouses of industrial research began to cut back on their research programs, paving the way for universities and startups to emerge as new centers of innovation.

A recent research summary from the National Bureau of Economic Research, “The changing structure of American innovation,” describes this rise and fall of industrial innovation in the United States and a growing division of innovative labor between university-based research institutions and development-focused corporations.