SSTI Digest

U.S. Department of the Treasury recently awarded $125 million to 43 nonprofits and community-based organizations, including SSTI member University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. The money came via the American Rescue Plan Act- (ARPA-) funded (CRP) Capital Readiness Program. The CRP enables small businesses to access technical assistance through organizations that provide services to underserved businesses. The current award distribution builds upon the $300 million already announced or deployed through the Small Business Administration's (SBA) Community Navigator Program and the Treasury Department's State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI). Administered by the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA), the CRP is also the most significant initiative in the over 50-year history of that agency, according to a fact sheet from the White House. The 43 winning organizations – a mix of nonprofit and community-based organizations, private sector entities, and institutions of higher education – are forming partnerships to assist and train underserved entrepreneurs seeking resources, tools, and support to start or scale their businesses in high-growth, high-…

Health is one of the most pressing issues in the U.S. Now, thanks to National Science Foundation's Type I NSF Engine development awards, teams throughout the U.S. will be focusing on technology-based solutions to this issue. This week we highlight three SSTI members whose NSF Engine Awards concentrate on health. These include Emory University’s project to advance health equity and diagnostic technologies (SSTI member Georgia Tech is also on this team), The Arkansas Center for Health Improvement’s (a health policy center administratively housed within SSTI member The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences) project to promote fair health and economic outcomes in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, and Washington University-St. Louis’ project to advance neuroscience technologies to improve cognitive wellness. A tri-state challenge The lower Mississippi Delta is one of the most left behind areas in the U.S. Parts of the Delta located in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana have the highest poverty levels and worst health statistics of any region. The Covid pandemic intensified the region's health care and food access challenges, and the region has seen less…

The National Science Foundation announced 16 finalists for the first-ever NSF Regional Innovation Engines (NSF Engines) competition, spanning a range of key technology areas and societal and economic challenges highlighted in the "CHIPS and Science Act." The NSF Engines will link up with local and regional partners to expand innovation nationwide and create collaborative and inclusive technology-driven innovation ecosystems. The lead organizations for the 16 teams are: Arizona State University Current Innovation, NFP (IL) FUZEHUB, Inc. (NY) ICAMR, Inc. (FL) Kentucky Science & Technology Corporation Louisiana State University Michigan State University New Mexico Trade Alliance North Dakota State University, Fargo Rocky Mountain Innovation Initiative, Inc. (CO) (NY) SUNY at Binghamton The Industrial Commons (NC) University of Chicago University of Minnesota-Twin Cities University of Texas at El Paso Wake Forest University School of Medicine (NC) NSF anticipates announcing the NSF Engines awards this winter, with each awardee initially…

              The U.S. Economic Development Administration’s leader, Assistant Secretary Alejandra Y. Castillo, will be delivering a keynote address during Coming together for your region’s economic future: SSTI’s 2023 Annual Conference. Under her leadership, EDA has experienced a dramatic expansion in its initiatives, including the launch of Tech Hubs, Recompete, Build Back Better Regional Challenge, and the Good Jobs Challenge. Castillo’s keynote will explain how EDA’s components work together to address all elements of a thriving economy, help participants better understand the role the agency plays in building regional innovation economies, and share her vision for EDA’s future. SSTI’s 2023 Annual Conference features roundtables, workshops, and plenaries that cover the entire field of tech-based economic development (TBED)—one of the new EDA investment priorities added by EDA during this administration. Much of the conference is produced through SSTI’s TBED Community of Practice, which is supported by EDA. To register for the conference,…

SSTI has released a new data tool that defines investment activity, one indicator of the vibrancy of a region’s innovation economy, in each of 18 technology areas. Comprising two interactive visuals and a downloadable data file, this tool includes the number of investment-backed companies, investment deals, and amount of capital invested by state, year (2013-June 2023), and investment stage (e.g., seed, angel, venture) for technology verticals that were selected to align with many of the key technology areas defined in the CHIPS and Science Act and included in the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) Tech Hubs program. Image of the state-level investment data visualization. Viewers can select the metric that the data tool’s visualizations will use to represent investment activity—number of angel, seed, early-, or late-stage investment deals, number of companies receiving investment, or amount of capital invested. Deal count may be the best single indicator, as it shows a breadth of activity without being subject to skewing from a single large investment. By clicking through to the final tier of the visualizations or by accessing the data file…

With a GDP of over $23 trillion in 2021, the United States has the world's largest economy, according to the latest available data from the World Bank. Yet, the U.S. falls behind such countries as Israel and Korea when it comes to how much is spent on research and development (R&D) in proportion to GDP. For example, Israel and Korea spend 5.56% and 4.93% of their GDP on R&D compared to the U.S.’ 3.46%. GDP is the sum of a region’s economic output, measuring economic productivity and innovation capacity. R&D is the process of generating new knowledge to create a novel product, service, or method. This article uses national expenditures on R&D calculated as a percentage of GDP to provide a standardized metric of R&D intensity. Later, a breakdown of the performing sectors of R&D is provided. Exploring these metrics allows for establishing a benchmark of competitiveness. This article uses data from the World Bank and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Data includes GDP, gross domestic expenditure on R&D (GERD) as a percentage of GDP, and GERD by performing sector from 1960-2022 when available. …

A report from ITIF warns that China is catching up with the U.S. in private R&D funding. If this trend continues, China could surpass the U.S. in innovation in nine critical advanced technology sectors: aerospace and defense, electronic and electrical equipment, general industrials, industrial engineering, pharmaceutical and biotechnology, software and computer services, technology and hardware equipment, alternative energy, and automobiles and parts. Looking at the numbers from 2021, when U.S.-headquartered firms spent twice as much on R&D as the global average in these sectors combined, the nation could be confident in its leadership position in innovation. However, when the authors compared the performance of firms in each country with the global average after adjusting for the size of each country’s economy, they found that China is increasing its R&D spending at an accelerated rate and could catch up to the U.S. by 2034. The authors created location quotients (LQs) that reflect the differences in wages between the U.S. and China. These adjusted numbers show that China is already close to the global average of R&D spending in relation to GDP…

In 1862, during the Civil War, Congress passed the Land-Grant Agricultural and Mechanical College Act of 1862 (a.k.a. the Morrill Act of 1862). This legislation extended educational opportunities for many White working-class Americans. But it did little to extend education to Black people. The Morrill Act of 1890 passed 28 years later created new land grant institutions to address the issue of Black peoples’ access to higher education. But racial inequities between the two land-grant systems have persisted into the present day. And as noted in The Century Foundation’s (TCF’s) paper, “Nourishing the Nation While Starving; The Underfunding of Black Land-Grant Colleges and Universities,” even though the 1890 universities have many proud accomplishments, the cumulative damage from unequal treatment between the 1862 and 1890 universities is significant. The inequitable treatment of the 1862 vs. the 1890 universities originated in the language in both Morrill Acts. The first Morrill Act funded the nationwide system of universities by granting federal lands to each of the states. The states could either cash in on the value of the property or hold on to the land as an…

Representatives from leading AI companies (Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Inflection, Meta, Microsoft and OpenAI) gathered at the White House on July 21 for the announcement of their voluntary commitment to “help move toward safe, secure, and transparent development of AI technology.” According to a White House statement, the companies have made commitments to ensuring products are safe before introducing them to the public, building systems that put security first, and earn the public’s trust. Among the steps they will take are: 1) Internal and external red teaming of models or systems. Red teaming is a procedure where systems are tested for vulnerabilities without the knowledge of the team that created them, thus testing the creators' effective response to the attack. This method of ensuring safety is critical for national security. It also protects from bio, chemical, radiological, and societal risks, such as bias and discrimination. To further help ensure the safety of AI, the companies committed to advancing ongoing research and publicly disclosing their red-teaming and safety procedures. 2) Work toward information sharing among companies and…

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is implementing a final rule, effective Aug. 17, that adds a category of Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) that will make the program a better-fit for early-stage investment strategies. The most significant change in this direction is the creation of an accrual funding mechanism that enables licensed SBICs to receive a loan from SBA that is repaid only upon distribution events or at the end of a 10-year term. Additional changes include allowing fund investment strategies through a reinvestor SBIC license, modifying license fees, clarifying elements of nonprofit participation, and attempting to reduce program paperwork. The SBIC program both licenses companies and offers loans, called debentures, to eligible licensees—a structure that parallels the Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) Fund’s model of certifying CDFIs and offering financial assistance awards. For most of the past 20 years, the debentures available from SBA entailed regular interest payments, requiring participating SBICs to have access to consistent cashflow. Some SBICs have made venture capital investments, but either as a small portion of…

The White House has released a new report, Building the bioworkforce of the future: Expanding equitable pathways into biotechnology and biomanufacturing jobs. The five core recommendations in the report are intended to help propel continued investment in the bioeconomy and maintain the U.S.’ leadership in this sector. The report follows an Executive Order President Biden signed in September 2022. Recommendation #1 calls for expanding and diversifying the talent pool for biotechnology and biomanufacturing jobs and careers to promote innovation and advance equity. One action step for achieving this recommendation is to “expand and diversify the bioworkforce by increasing support for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), and Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) and the students they serve.” Recommendation #2 is to strengthen worker-centered sector strategies and other partnerships between employers, labor organizations, community colleges, and other training providers to grow and diversify the bioworkforce. “These partners collaborate to analyze their regional labor market, anticipate future job and…

The "CHIPS and Science Act" authorizes both the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) to implement programs to enable regional technology development and economic and job growth through NSF Regional Innovation Engines (NSF Engines) and EDA Regional Technology and Innovation Hub (Tech Hubs) programs. To officially enable cooperation between the two agencies as they pursue these similar goals, NSF and EDA signed a memorandum of understanding MOU. The MOU allows for coordinating specific projects, programs, and facilities. The coordination may include research and education activities, facilities, centers, data infrastructure and outreach. Ongoing areas of cooperation as well as future areas of potential cooperation could include: Implementing pathways for sustained growth of regional innovation ecosystems. Training and educating diverse technicians, researchers, practitioners, and entrepreneurs based on regional workforce needs. Forming trusted partnership networks across industry, academia, government, nonprofits, civil society, and communities of practice to foster scientific innovation and the exchange of…