SSTI Digest

Building on previous SSTI analysis showing that Higher Education Research & Development (HERD) expenditures increased across the U.S. despite the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, this edition of Useful Stats examines the distribution of R&D spending among the various fields of research at the nation’s colleges and universities. Specifically, this analysis examines 2020 HERD expenditures by state and field of research, finding that the life sciences continued to dominate academic R&D activity, accounting for 57.5 percent ($49.6 billion) of total HERD spending. Engineering was the second most funded research field in 2020, accounting for 15.9 percent ($13.7 billion) of the national total. The third most funded research field was physical sciences, accounting for 6.6 percent ($5.7 billion) of total U.S. HERD expenditures.

Adding to the debate about whether smaller or larger businesses play an outsized role in the nation’s economy, a new Census Bureau report finds that the concentration of both older and larger firms has continued to increase in the U.S. economy over the last several decades, giving these firms an overall greater impact on employment and job growth than younger and smaller firms. Specifically, the report indicates that decreases in the national share of startup firms over the last several decades lead to an increased concentration of older firms, which in turn has had a greater impact on national employment and job creation than an increase in larger firms over the same period.

President Biden delivered his first State of the Union on Tuesday, March 1, and innovation policy was addressed early and often during the speech. Biden gave the most attention to semiconductor manufacturing incentives but also talked about ARPA-Health, college affordability, clean energy technology and supply chains for advanced industries. The message included a specific request that Congress pass one of the SSTI Innovation Advocacy Council’s top priorities.

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has awarded almost $54 million in grants to 13 projects to conduct research and develop testbeds in response to challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic. The American Rescue Act provided the funding for these awards, which will support projects at eight manufacturing institutes within the Manufacturing USA network. The awarded manufacturing institutions anticipate producing personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical equipment; creating sustainable domestic supply chains; increasing the resiliency of existing supply chains; producing novel COVID-19 tests; providing shared equipment and facilities; producing health alert systems; and, training a new generation of manufacturing workers.

The awarded projects include:

The U.S. Department of Defense is envisioning a public private partnership of regional innovation hubs that would help support and expand the microelectronics industry in the United States. The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E)) is seeking input from the domestic microelectronics community through a Request for Information it issued last week as it works to “foster a pipeline of innovation ideas and talent residing in university labs and small business R&D teams” through what it is calling a Microelectronics Commons.

The RFI notes that U.S. research and development “kick-started the enormous semiconductor industry and continues to lead the world in developing the next generation of disruptive technologies including: new materials, devices, circuits, architectures, and design tools,” but says that in recent years that innovation has been threatened as emerging hardware technologies have become more reliant on offshore sources for manufacturing, prototyping and investment.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced a new organizational structure in response to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Energy Act of 2020. The new organizational structure intends to facilitate the implementation of clean energy investments from these new laws more efficiently and introduces two new leadership positions: the undersecretary for infrastructure and the undersecretary for science and innovation. The undersecretary for infrastructure will also lead three new offices: the Grid Infrastructure Office, the State and Community Energy Program, and the Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains.

Additionally, a new Clean Energy Corps is currently hiring industry experts to research and develop solutions to climate change. DOE expects these changes to help achieve its goals for carbon-free electricity by 2035 and a net zero economy by 2050 while also providing high-paying jobs in the clean energy sector. 

A new $113 million grant program intended to strengthen and modernize the Registered Apprenticeship Program (RAP) will designate up to $50 million for equity partnerships and pre-apprenticeship activities. The U.S. Department of Labor announced the new grant program to enable more workers to earn while they learn and find reliable pathways to the middle class. Using a coordinated investment strategy, the Apprenticeship Building America grant program will bring the RAP model to new sectors and industries.

Eligible applicants include nonprofits, labor organizations, public and state institutions of higher education, and county governments. Applications are due by April 25. Finalists will receive awards from $1 to $8 million. More information is available here.

Missouri has a new tool to support the advancement of entrepreneurship and innovation across the state. The Missouri Technology Corporation (MTC), in partnership with TEConomy Partners LLC., identified strategic recommendations and actions to drive innovation and entrepreneurship in Missouri developed under the Missouri Innovation and Entrepreneurship Strategy Steering Committee. The report says that MTC has had significant impacts on the state's economy, revealing that its total program portfolio has generated an economic activity return of $100.74 back to the state for every $1 invested.

Two separate reports provide evidence of nearly $100 billion in donations to 864 U.S. institutions of higher education and 8,635 nonprofits in FY 2021, according to articles in the most recent Philanthropy News Digest. The $52.9 billion directed to universities represents a 6.9 percent increase from the previous year, while the $46.4 billion donated to nonprofits represents a 9 percent jump. The largest contributors to the academy were foundations, accounting for 33 percent of receipts. Meanwhile, nonprofits in the environmental sector saw the largest annual increase, 19.3 percent, yet the sector remains one of the smallest of 11 classifications.

To mark the anniversary of its executive order on supply chains, the White House released a fact sheet this morning outlining past and future actions to strengthen American competitiveness. The release includes several initiatives that have not been discussed widely before, including that: the Export-Import Bank of the U.S. will vote this spring on an initiative to finance exports of semiconductors, biotech and energy products; the 16 Manufacturing USA institutes will begin holding roundtables on scaling technology and promoting workforce initiatives; and, the Small Business Administration will institute a new committee of industry leaders to advise the agency on startups’ innovations and challenges, as well as host a new America’s Seed Fund (i.e. Small Business Innovation Research) Start-up Expo.

This edition of SSTI’s Useful Stats explores Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the nation’s urban areas and the top industry contributors to GDP in these areas. Specifically, this analysis explores both metropolitan area (defined by the Office of Management and Budget as areas with an urban core of more than 50,000 population) and micropolitan area (defined as areas with an urban core of between 10,000 and 50,000 population) GDP in 2020, as well as the top contributing industry to area GDP.

METROPOLITAN AREAS

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) supported the development of 99 drugs from 1996-2020 — a total that includes 16 percent of all such treatments that made a “significant” advance over available medicines. This finding is just one of the impacts that the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) attributes to the program in a new report.

To put the NIH SBIR/STTR program’s contributions to drug development in context, SBIR/STTR is less than four percent of NIH’s extramural R&D budget. Further, NIH R&D is just part of total U.S. spending on drug-related research, which is also funded by foundations and businesses (for example, the National Science Foundation recorded nearly $5.9 billion spent on R&D by biotech businesses in 2018 alone).