SSTI Digest

The most recently-passed federal legislation to address COVID-19 included funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to accelerate testing. The provision, added by Sens. Roy Blunt and Lamar Alexander, was envisioned to take an approach similar to TV’s “Shark Tank.” NIH is implementing the funds as a three-phase, “Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx),” challenge with up to $500 million in prizes. Teams with COVID-19 testing solutions will submit proposals, which will be evaluated by experts from the five hubs of NIH’s Point-of-Care Technologies Research Network. Finalists will receive assistance from experts before the final selection is made.

Last week, the U.S. Department of the Treasury published new guidance for how state and local governments can use the $150 billion in relief funds provided by the CARES Act. The guidance provides some flexibility to recipients to address “second-order effects” of the COVID-19 pandemic. On a long, but “nonexclusive” list of eligible expenditures, Treasury included expenditures related to small business grants to reimburse costs from related interruptions and costs related to a payroll protection program. State, territorial and tribal governments, as well as municipal governments with populations greater than 500,000 were eligible for these relief funds, which had to be requested by April 17. Generally, funds can cover necessary expenses incurred between March 1 and December 30 that were not part of the government’s budget in effect on March 27, 2020.

In this week’s edition of Useful Stats, we take a look at NIH’s SBIR/STTR program by state, including the success rate of applications, the share SBIR awards make up of NIH funding to for-profit companies by state, and the total number of awards by state. It should be noted that SSTI was able to prepare this information because of the excellent transparency of information that NIH offers on its website, a model that should be replicated by other federal agencies.

In Pennsylvania, the Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) announced last week that new funding is available to help technology-based companies impacted by COVID-19. In recognizing that the state’s tech companies have been stepping up to provide innovative ways to produce personal protective equipment and other supplies, DCED Secretary Dennis Davin said in a release that “we must make sure they remain in a position to provide those critical services and ideas in our response to this pandemic.”

The Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority (BFTDA) approved the disbursement of $1 million in funding to each of the four Ben Franklin Technology Partners (BFTP), which will then match that funding with $1 million. Each BFTP will identify eligible projects and will provide capital to existing startup clients experiencing hardships due to the impact of COVID-19.

New projections from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) of key economic variables reveal an expected sharp contraction in the economy in the second quarter with the unemployment rate projected to average 15 percent during the second and third quarters of 2020 and remaining as high as 9.5 percent by the end of 2021. CBO projects GDP will decline by about 12 percent during the second quarter. Federal debt held by the public is projected to be 101 percent of GDP by the end of the fiscal year, up from 79 percent at the end of FY 2019, but below the all-time high of 106 percent in 1946 following World War II.

After finally beginning to find their footing following the Great Recession of 2008 and having built up their state rainy day funds, states are now finding that it’s not just raining — they are facing a tsunami. With their two main sources of revenue, the income tax and sales tax, both seriously impacted by the historic levels of unemployment claims and shuttered businesses, states are just beginning to try to manage a budgetary storm that could have lasting impacts on their economies. And while some lessons from the most recent recession may help in their recovery, the continuing unknowns from the pandemic will be difficult to measure.

The last three recessions indicate that it will take a considerable amount of time just to get back to pre-recession revenue levels.

Image source: NASBO

Although uncertainty and fear about the state’s fiscal situation continue to grow, New York’s 2021 budget stands strong in its commitment to deliver a green economy and resilient communities, preserve natural ecosystems and ensure access to clean drinking water. The State of New York has recently approved its budget for the fiscal year of 2021, which includes investments focusing on environmental resilience, conservation, green energy, and carbon-free transportation.

Last week, $6 million in funding was approved by the Michigan Strategic Fund for startup companies in the state. The $3 million Pre-Seed Fund III granted by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation will be administered by the Michigan State University Foundation and will support early-stage startups. The other half of the total funding ($3 million) as announced by the MEDC and Detroit-based ID Ventures, will support the newly-established Tech Startup Stabilization Fund which will focus on sustaining technology-based startups affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.

The Pre-Seed Fund III will be deployed across Michigan to provide support to entrepreneurs and technology startups as well as offer capital support, coaching, assistance with grant funding, and more. The list of companies eligible for the funding include companies involved in advanced automotive, manufacturing, information, IT, software, and alternative energy.

Earlier this week, the United Kingdom announced a £1.25 billion ($1.6 billion) initiative to support the country’s startups. One program within the initiative provides £500 million in the form of loans up to £5 million that are matched by private funders to companies that have raised at least £250,000 in the last five years. The remaining £750 million will be managed by Innovate UK and provide loans and grants to R&D-focused companies. The U.K.

SSTI’s Innovation Advocacy Council has sent letters to congressional leadership outlining emergency actions needed to support tech- and innovation-driven businesses and recovery-focused programs to leverage American ingenuity for economic stimulus. The letters call for expanding SBA’s technical assistance to startups, leveraging EDA’s Build to Scale program, catalyzing new programs for equity investment and commercialization, and incorporating innovation into any infrastructure initiative.

Additionally, SSTI responded to a request from the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology with a letter recommending items from this list that fall within the committee’s jurisdiction.

The recommendations in the letter to congressional leaders are reproduced below, or download the Senate leadership, House leadership, and House science committee letters.

Expand emergency technical assistance to small businesses

Last week,  U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced that more than $6 billion of the roughly $14 billion in funding for higher education through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act would be made available to colleges and universities to provide direct emergency cash grants to college students whose lives and educations have been disrupted by the coronavirus outbreak. Those disruptions reflect just a piece of the larger upheaval the coronavirus has inflicted on the entire higher education community. Institutions across the country are wrestling with ways to stem the damage from the pandemic, from easing admission standards and furloughing employees to delaying a return to campuses and possibly even closures. And some are saying that the funds that have been provided, just a fraction of the $50 billion the higher education community had sought, won’t be nearly enough.

In early April the Department of Labor announced a $42.5 million grant opportunity for the Youth Apprenticeship Readiness Grant Program. The program is to support the development of new or expanding registered apprenticeship programs (RAPs) for youth, including quality pre-apprenticeship programs that lead to a RAP. The grant program supports the president’s executive order and the Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration’s goals to promote pre-apprenticeships, to develop a strong youth apprenticeship pipeline, and to expand access to youth apprenticeships. Such programs provide both a pipeline of educated workers for industries, as well as greater opportunities for youth exploring career options.