Opportunities for successful workforce development partnerships exist across a variety of industries and geographies, according to a recently released report from the Community Development Department at the Cleveland Fed. The report, Addressing Employment Needs through Sector Partnerships, includes five case studies from throughout the Federal Reserve’s Fourth District, which contains Western Pennsylvania, Eastern Kentucky, the panhandle of West Virginia and all of Ohio. Although sector-based initiatives have been around for quite some time, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, whose final regulations became publicly available in June 2016, places a strong emphasis on aligning education and job training with employer needs, according to the report’s authors Kyle Fee, Matt Klesta, and Lisa Nelson.

Venture development organizations are reaching into new territory for funding partners and finding success in innovative models. Two new funds, the San Diego Tech & Life Science Investor Syndicate and Rev1 Fund I in Columbus, OH, have recently opened with less traditional funding sources, testing the waters of crowdfunding and heavy corporate backing, respectively. The San Diego fund, launched by CONNECT, allows anyone wanting to invest $1,000 the opportunity to participate alongside more experienced lead investors.

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) announced a number of grants last week to aid regional innovation and entrepreneurship efforts through infrastructure improvements, the creation of new spaces, and business improvements in regions across the country. The grants fund projects in AR, AZ, CA, ME, MI, and OH.

SSTI’s Tech Talkin’ Govs feature returns as governors across the country roll out their state of the state addresses. We review each speech for comments relevant to the innovation economy, and bring you their words directly from their addresses. In this first installment, we present excerpts from governors in Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Mississippi, New York and Vermont.

A bipartisan group of 17 governors signed the Governors’ Accord for a New Energy Future – a joint commitment to support the deployment of renewable, cleaner and more efficient energy technologies and other solutions to make the U.S. economy more productive and resilient as well as spur job creation in member states.

In response to declining appropriations and the termination of the Space Shuttle program, NASA has had to re-orient its approach to commercial partnerships. Over the past decade, NASA has turned to private partnerships to further the agency’s goals of space research and exploration.

In an effort designed to stimulate economic growth and workforce development in Ohio and New York communities, KeyBank Foundation announced a $24 million grant awarded to JumpStart, Inc. The grant represents the foundation’s single largest philanthropic commitment to date.

Breaking a two-year impasse, legislators in Illinois were able to pass a state budget that reinstitutes an R&D tax credit and implements workforce development programs. In California, the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (Go-Biz) will see a 28 percent increase in funding, while other innovation initiative are receiving level funding. In other states whose budgets SSTI analyzed this week for TBED-related funding, we found that Innovate Mississippi was able to maintain state funding and new funding was appropriated for workforce development at the state’s community and junior colleges; a variety of programs were cut in North Carolina; and, Ohio will not get funding for a state office focused on commercializing research across key industries that the governor had proposed. More findings from California, Illinois, Mississippi, North Carolina and Ohio are detailed below.

SSTI again presents its latest round of Tech Talkin’ Govs, where governors’ comments about TBED issues are excerpted from their state of the state and inaugural addresses. Today’s roundup includes STEM spending and workforce development in Idaho, education in Arizona, manufacturing in Connecticut and a nod to technological change in North Dakota, inaugural addresses from new governors in Vermont and Indiana, and more reports from governors who gave their addresses on the 10th. Next week the Digest will continue with Part II of Tech Talkin’ Govs featuring news from the next round of addresses.

SSTI has analyzed more recently released state budgets for TBED-related initiatives, and this week we present findings from our review of AZ, GA, IA, IN, UT and VA.

Columbus-based State Auto Labs, the innovation arm of the State Automobile Mutual Insurance Company, is collaborating with venture development organization Rev1 Ventures on a $25 million corporate venture fund to support innovation and entrepreneurship in the insurance industry. Through the partnership, Rev1 Ventures and State Auto Labs will help connect InsurTech and FinTech startups with resources such as capital, technologists, and industry experts.

Between 2000 and 2010, about one-third of U.S. manufacturing employment – approximately five million jobs – were lost as a result of new technologies in the manufacturing process or competition from abroad, according to The Brookings Institution.

Minnesota’s economic future may well be rooted in its historic leadership in agricultural production, according to a new report prepared by Battelle, Agbioscience as a Development Driver: Minnesota Agbioscience Strategy.

In Q3 2014, venture capital (VC) investments in the U.S. dropped by 30 percent from Q2 totals, according a new report from CB Insights. Q3 VC deal levels also dropped by 10 percent from Q2 totals. The severe drop, however, can be attributed to Q2 being the most successful VC quarter since Q1 2001. The good news is that the first three quarters of 2014 saw the U.S. VC investment total reach $33.75 billion – an increase of 59 percent compared to the first nine months of last year.

In a new report, the Ohio Board of Regents highlights promising policies to build more competitive innovation economies by tapping into the skills, knowledge and entrepreneurship of women, African-Americans, rural residents and other underrepresented populations.

Uber and the City of London are among the growing number of backers of a nearly driver-free world. Proponents of autonomous vehicles contend that they will lead to large cost savings for both consumers and transportation organizations while delivering a faster, more efficient transportation experience. However, there are still major strides to be made before the technology can be safely deployed in real world settings. Several U.S.

Gov. Terry Branstad announced the release of the findings from the Iowa’s Re-envisioned Economic Development Roadmap  – a year-long effort to set a future strategic direction for economic development in Iowa. During the year-long study, the authors from Battelle examined the current position of Iowa’s economy as compared to the nation and benchmarked states.

Knowing that research universities are integral to the innovation in this country, states continue their efforts to build the economy by supporting efforts to move the research from the labs to the market.

A report on employment trends from hiring firm Robert Half found that 2020 presents greater challenges for employers looking to expand their workforce as the country’s labor market is near full employment and job openings remain at high levels.