SSTI Digest

A proposed Department of Homeland Security (DHS) rule could herald significant changes to the H-1B specialty occupation worker program. These proposed changes would bring about a revised definition of “specialty occupation,” install what DHS says would be a more equitable selection process, allow entrepreneurs to sponsor themselves for an H-1B Visa, and open more non-lottery options for nonprofits. The H-1B nonimmigrant visa program allows U.S. employers to hire international workers temporarily. These positions must require a bachelor's degree plus specialization or their equivalent. Sixty-five thousand of these visas are awarded each year. Congress has described the program's purpose as "filling shortages and creating opportunities for innovation and expansion.” Criteria for specialty occupation positions would be revised to clarify that a position may allow a range of degrees, but that the required degree field and the position's duties must have a direct relationship. The proposed rules also clarify that general degrees, such as business administration or liberal arts, are insufficient to qualify someone for a specialty occupation position; further…

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced last week that it is adopting modified criteria in its grant review process beginning on January 25, 2024. The new system will continue to focus on the scientific merit of proposals (i.e., importance, rigor, and feasibility), while de-emphasizing criteria that may introduce bias into the review. New grant applications will be evaluated for whether the applicant demonstrates sufficient expertise and resources, but without considering the reputation of the institution or the investigator. In its press release, NIH says the changes will help reviewers focus on the potential for the proposed research to advance scientific knowledge and improve human health. Reviewers will be able to focus on a proposal’s scientific merit because administrative responsibilities will be handled by NIH personnel. The possibility of reputational bias is something NIH has grappled with for many years due to concerns over fairness and fears of new investigators dropping out of a system that favors established scientists at prestigious institutions. As SSTI previously reported, various approaches to reducing reputational bias have been…

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) announced the designation of 31 Tech Hubs in regions across the country and 29 Strategy Development Grants. This announcement marks the first phase of the new Tech Hubs program, an economic development initiative authorized in the CHIPS and Science Act and designed to drive regional innovation and job creation by strengthening a region’s capacity to manufacture, commercialize, and deploy technology that will advance American competitiveness. These Tech Hubs are located across 32 states and Puerto Rico and represent a cross-section of urban and rural regions. According to an EDA press release, the designation is an endorsement of the region’s plans to supercharge their respective technological industries to create jobs, strengthen U.S. competitiveness, and protect national security. The Tech Hubs announced today focus on industries ranging from autonomous systems, quantum computing, biotechnology, precision medicine, clean energy advancement, semiconductor manufacturing, and more. The 31 designees will now be eligible to compete for Strategy Implementation Grants. The Phase 2 notice of…

The administration recently announced that seven regional clean hydrogen hubs have been selected to receive $7 billion in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding. The hubs are located in California, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Washington and West Virginia. The hubs aim to produce more than three million metric tons of clean hydrogen per year, achieving nearly one-third of the 2030 U.S. clean hydrogen production goal. The seven Hydrogen Hubs are expected to eliminate 25 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions from end uses each year—roughly equivalent to the combined annual emissions of over 5.5 million gasoline-powered cars. The seven selected regional clean hydrogen hubs are expected to catalyze more than $40 billion in private investment and create tens of thousands of well-paying jobs, bringing the total public and private investment in hydrogen hubs to nearly $50 billion. Roughly two-thirds of the project investment is associated with green (electrolysis-based) production within the hubs. Several hubs were developed in close partnerships with…

This week’s announcement of seven regional hydrogen hubs and $7 billion in federal money significantly increases spending in a technology that has seen modest private sector investment in hydrogen-related companies. Since 2013, investors—including angel, seed, and early- and later-stage VCs—have invested across $7,849.59 million across 366 deals with 340 companies related to the hydrogen industry sector, according to an SSTI analysis of Pitchbook data. Figure 1 below shows deal counts and capital invested by investment stage, 2000-2023 Q3. Figure 1: Deal counts and capital invested, by investment stage, 2000-2023 Q3 So far this year, investors have made 46 deals with hydrogen companies. Also this year, as reported by PitchBook, the U.S. saw its first hydrogen unicorn: Electric Hydrogen became the first green hydrogen electrolyzer startup to reach unicorn status, closing a $380 million Series C with backing from investors including BP, United Airlines, and Microsoft. The number of companies receiving investments has gradually increased since 2000. The number of companies nationwide was in the single digits until 2012, when 15 startups…

SBA has recently announced four contract awards to small businesses and entrepreneur support organization (ESO) partners, expanding the SBA’s Regional Innovation Clusters (RIC) to 16 hubs nationwide. Two contract awardees are new to the program in 2023, while two others are returning awardees, positioned with new contracts to continue and expand work in their respective regions. SBA’s RIC Initiative launched in September 2010 to promote and support clusters, which are geographically concentrated groups of interconnected businesses, suppliers, service providers, and associated institutions in a particular industry or field across the U.S. The RICs act as a networking hub to convene several resources to help navigate the funding, procurement, and supply-chain opportunities in a specific industry.   New awardees: NTouch-BCT Strategies and the New Jersey Cybersecurity Regional Cluster. NTouch-BCT Strategies will grow the New Jersey Cybersecurity Regional Cluster. The cluster focuses on providing cybersecurity assessments and supporting the growth of small businesses building cybersecurity technologies and services across five counties in…

NIH recently announced awards for five Research Evaluation and Commercialization Hubs (REACH) to accelerate the creation of small businesses and the transition of academic research discoveries into products that improve patient care and enhance health. These new REACH hubs will support innovators from diverse personal, educational, and professional backgrounds across 76 non-profit research institutions spanning 12 states. The new hubs are: Chicago Biomedical Consortium Hub of Innovative Technologies for Entrepreneurship and Science (CBC-HITES) led by Northwestern University University of Maryland, Baltimore Life Science Discovery Accelerator (UM-BILD) University of Montana’s L.S. Skaggs Institute for Health Innovation (SIHI-REACH) Gulf Coast Consortia led by Texas A&M Health Mid-South REACH Hub led by Vanderbilt University

The third quarter of 2023 continues the venture capital market’s recent two-year decline in investments, investors, and initial public offerings. This puts a squeeze on startups. How helpful investment funding will be to startups in the rest of 2023 and beyond likely depends on whether the downward trends settle in alignment with pre-pandemic activity or continue into a VC-specific recession. Regardless, there could be dire consequences for many companies. According to the 2023 Q3 PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor, the total observed investments in the U.S. through Sept. 30 were 9,962. Due to more recent deals being harder to observe (particularly true of smaller deals), PitchBook estimates that nearly 12,000 investments have taken place this year, putting the country on track for nearly 16,000 investments in 2023. This expected level of almost 16,000 deals is below the approximately 17,500 observed in 2022 and 19,000 in 2021 but still well above the roughly 13,600 deals in each of 2019 and 2020. 2023 is on pace to be only slightly below the 16,500 deals that a linear trendline of the past decade’s activity would suggest for 2023 (and exactly on pace if 2021 were removed…

The 2021 BERD dataset reveals the highest level of business R&D spending on record. Since 2015, R&D expenditures have increased by 69% from $356 to $602 billion, representing an average annual growth of $41 billion or 9%. But what industries are contributing the most to this trend? The growth of business R&D in nonmanufacturing industries has far outpaced that of manufacturing industries since 2016, with an average growth of 15% per annum, compared to 6% for manufacturing industries. Nonmanufacturing R&D expenditures have been driven by massive increases in the information sector, among other industries, while chemicals—specifically pharmaceuticals and medicines—have led manufacturing. While nonmanufacturing industries have higher growth rates in their R&D expenditures, they still lag behind manufacturing industries in actual expenditures, but the gap is rapidly closing. The Business Enterprise Research and Development (BERD) survey is conducted annually by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Census Bureau to collect data on R&D expenditures by businesses in the United States. The survey covers various industries, broken down by…

Latino- and Latina-owned businesses represent the fastest growing demographic in the U.S. business ecosystem, growing revenues and creating jobs for all Americans, according to the Stanford Graduate School of Business. The number of Latino/a-owned businesses grew by 34% from 2007 to 2019, while existing businesses grew at a median rate of 25% between 2019 and 2022. Even at these rapid rates, there is still room to grow. Estimates from McKinsey show the potential for Latino/a owners to generate an extra $2.3 trillion in economic benefits, given equal funding opportunities.[1] Latino/a entrepreneurs and funding A 2023 Stanford report revealed that although more than 10% of all Latino/a-owned businesses were in technology fields, they received less than 1% percent of all VC funding in 2021. A more current McKinsey report found Latino/a founders to have received a slightly higher 1.5% of all VC funding in 2022. These numbers are even more lopsided when broken down by gender. Only 0.1% of VC funding went towards Black and Latina women founders, meaning that Latina women founders received under a tenth of a percent of VC funding. Latino/a-owned businesses…

Last week, a Senate committee heard Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and National Science Foundation Director Sethuraman Panchanathan discuss CHIPS & Science Act program implementation (similar to a September hearing in the House). Both agency leaders affirmed rapid progress toward making funding announcements on major programs and reminded the committee that more funding is needed to meet the vision Congress defined in its legislation. Several notable statements that Raimondo made about Tech Hubs to the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation included the following (all quotations per the transcript provided by C-SPAN): Tech Hubs Phase I awards will be made “This fall. As soon as possible,” and later, “I hope Tech Hubs will be in the coming weeks.” On the subject of the number of awards that will be made: Commerce “will do a minimum of 20 Tech Hubs, and possibly more.” However, the department will “only be able to make maybe five or six sizable grants.” Each of the 20 Tech Hubs is “probably worthy of maybe $100 million.” “Every bit of the $10 billion [authorization] we could put to work to stimulate high-quality tech hubs.” …

How do you explain your work to others? Explore this important and challenging topic with your peers during a TBED Community of Practice webinar. SSTI will share findings about public perception and interpretation of common TBED activities, such as that people think tech transfer means moving files to a new device, and facilitate a discussion with experienced state leaders and the audience about effective strategies to build public awareness and stakeholder support. You’ll log off with new ideas for communicating your work to partners, funders, legislators, and even your family.