SSTI Digest

The National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program recently awarded $2.5 million for five pilot projects to improve small U.S. manufacturers' supply chain competitiveness and foster their readiness to adopt advanced technologies. The projects will be led by MEP centers and bring together teams of experts in specific technology areas. MEP centers in California, Georgia, Oregon, Texas and Wisconsin each will receive approximately $500,000 for the pilot efforts, which, in most cases, involve partners in other states. Read the announcement…

Los Angeles County (CA), New York County (NY) and Cook County (IL) topped the list of places where people older than 25 with graduate or professional degrees moved to between 2007 and 2011, according to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s County-to-County Migration Flows Tables. Middlesex County (MA) and Fairfax County (VA) also ranked among the top destinations for highly educated transplants. The Census report provides data on domestic migration at the county level, including data on income and educational attainment. The report reveals that large flows of educated workers move both into and between these top counties. Read the Census report…

Several bills aimed at supporting startups, advancing research and improving the workforce have been introduced with the start of the 2014 sessions. Some of the proposed legislation offers a glimpse into the investment priorities of governors and lawmakers in the wake of economic recovery. Providing innovative companies with access to startup funds is a continued theme from previous years. Some states are seeking to expand tax credits for angel investors or offer new tax credits to encourage emerging industries. Other bills focus on generating more skilled workers quickly and positioning universities to enhance regional economic competitiveness.

After hitting an all-time high in 2012, California’s dominance of the nation’s venture capital activity receded a bit last year. California continues to receive about half of the country’s venture investment dollars and about 40 percent of its dealflow, but in 2013, the state’s share of dollars fell from 53 to 50 percent, according to data from the PricewaterhouseCoopers/National Venture Capital Association (PwC/NVCA) Moneytree survey. Massachusetts, which has been host to about 10 percent of national venture activity in past years, also saw its share of total U.S. activity decline. Gains in second tier venture capital states appear to account for the shift, including upticks in Florida, Maryland, New York, Texas and Virginia. Massachusetts continue to lead the country in terms of dollars and deals per capita, though for the first time that lead was threatened by the rise of Washington, D.C., as a venture capital hotspot.

The California Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development is preparing to launch four new Innovation Hubs (iHubs) across the state. iHubs, strategically placed within existing clusters, serve as centers of collaboration for regional economic development agencies, venture capitalists, incubators, and higher education to develop joint programming for entrepreneurship (see the September 4 issue). The program is supported by public, private and federal funding and, with the recent expansion, now hosts 16 centers across California. Three of the new hubs will serve specific regions, including the San Joaquin Area, Kern and Ventura Counties and Inland Southern California. The fourth hub will offer a statewide network of manufacturing support. Read more...

The field of technology-based economic development strives to provide opportunities and support for budding entrepreneurs and technology-based startups in hopes of strengthening our economies. But, policymakers and governments have much to gain directly from the pool of talented tech entrepreneurs. Technology startups are tapping into the $142 billion public sector market and are helping governments reduce costs and improve their services through innovative web applications and, in some cases, total system overhauls.  Late last week, the city of San Francisco launched an Entrepreneurship-In-Residence program for the city in partnership with the White House, the first of its kind.

The Stanford Technology Ventures Program has launched a new program for Ph.D. students that provides training in entrepreneurship and innovation. But unlike other entrepreneurship programs the Accel Innovation Scholars Program takes a holistic approach, training students to prepare for roles that support regional innovation ecosystems.

The year-long program, housed within Stanford’s School of Engineering, was created to service doctoral program students who are eager to learn how to evaluate the commercial availability of new technology and bring commercially viable products to the marketplace. Stanford’s engineering students traditionally graduate into careers in large companies. The program is designed to provide students with a strong background in entrepreneurship and innovation to contribute to the dynamic growth of large companies or encourage them to join or launch their own startups.

New legislation passed by the California legislature would expand the state’s Innovation Hub (iHub) program, which supports commercialization and entrepreneurship at a regional level. The program initially was launched in March 2010 through the state’s Business, Transportation and Housing Agency. Under the new bill, administration of the current 12 iHubs and any future hubs would formally be moved to the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, which has informally overseen the project in more recent years. The updated legislation also allows the office to issue proposals to designate new hubs, including hubs that would overlap current hubs as long as they have a distinct focus on separate industry sectors. A new state treasury account also would allow the iHubs program to collect funds from private sources. Governor Jerry Brown now has 30 days to sign or veto the bill. Read the legislation...

Electric vehicles may be gaining momentum. In 2013, Tesla has outsold other luxury car makers in California and received high safety ratings from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.  To help support this growing industry, ARPA-E has granted a total of $36 million to 22 projects at national laboratories, universities, and private companies around the country as part of its new Robust Affordable Next Generation Energy Story Systems (RANGE) program. RANGE will work to harness this network of research to improve electric vehicle energy storage systems, therefore increasing driving range, through new chemistry and design.

With additional funding directed to higher education as part of the FY14 budget, the California State University (CSU) and University of California (UC) systems announced efforts to boost access to online courses for current full-time students this fall. The goal is to overcome space shortages in classrooms and help graduate more students on time. Meanwhile, a bill that would require the state’s colleges and universities to grant credit for online courses taken through for-profit groups, including providers of massive open online courses (MOOCs), is considered dead in the legislature for now. The bill’s main backer, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said he is waiting to see the results of the new online efforts by the state’s public higher education systems before moving forward, reports Inside Higher Ed.

The city of Los Angeles is working with a consortium of public and private partners to redevelop unused docklands into space that will support new industry cluster development. The project highlights a trend of high-profile projects across the country, with cities like Brooklyn and Philadelphia repurposing dockside warehouse space to seed tech startups and advanced manufacturing.

A 100-year old dock in Los Angeles is being developed as an urban marine research and business park. The development is a public-private collaboration between the Port of Los Angeles, the Annenberg Foundation, and a host of regional universities. The development will be used to focus on an untapped niche in ocean science, turning the LA waterfront into a global center for the study of the effects of climate change on coastal cities, according to the publication Nature.

A number of states recently have taken action to expand R&D tax credits and other legislation that would support innovation, commercialization and manufacturing. Hawaii, California, Maryland, Texas, and Florida have signed into law tax incentives and R&D tax credits and an R&D tax credit in New Hampshire went into effect.  The Maine legislature also passed a capital tax credit that will begin in 2014.

In late June, the Maine Senate and House passed LD 743, which will extend the Maine Seed Capital Tax Credit. The original tax credit program was created in 1989 with a $30 million cap. This extension will provide an annual cap of $5 million in tax credits to qualifying investors, beginning in 2014. “A tax credit certificate may be issued to an investor other than a private venture fund in an amount not more than 50 percent of the amount of cash actually invested in an eligible Maine business in any calendar year,” according to the bill. The business invested in must be “a manufacturer or a producer of a value-added natural resource product.”