The U.S. Department of the Treasury has made multiple announcements about the State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) in recent weeks, including new program approvals, providing an update on uses of funds through the first two years of the program, and highlighting venture capital success stories, and releasing a database of participating lenders. In addition to covering these updates below, SSTI is collecting Treasury’s resources in revised SSBCI tracking pages.

The U.S. Department of Defense released requests for information regarding a new loan program for critical technologies that will be launched through the Office of Strategic Capital.

Significant differences between the House and Senate versions of the FY 25 budget numbers for science and the quadrennial election cycle might explain the increased language one hears concerning national security, competitiveness and global economic conditions. Data presented in a July issue brief by the National Science Board (NSB), however, should help raise the issue to encourage honest discussion about how the federal government will take on the challenges to U.S. leadership in innovation. Additionally, a new paper from the Aspen Strategy Group et al.

The U.S. Department of Commerce and Natcast, the operator of the National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC), recently announced the site selection process for the first three CHIPS for America Research and Development (R&D) facilities for the NSTC and National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program (NAPMP).

The U.S. Department of Commerce has announced a new $25 million Good Jobs Challenge Notice of Funding Opportunity for investment in high-quality, locally led workforce training programs that lead to good jobs.

The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP) has released a new pilot map with data on over 3,300 awards nationwide managed by TIP starting from fiscal year 2023.

The Economic Development Administration’s (EDA) Regional Technology and Innovation Hubs (Tech Hubs) and National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Regional Innovation Engines (Engines) programs require regions to advance a critical technology area that already has traction in their region.

NSF has released data on nearly 300 letters of intent (LOIs) submitted to the NSF Regional Innovation Engines program by lead organization applicants. The data is meant to enable applicant teams to connect and potentially collaborate before the preliminary proposal deadline on Aug.

The five-year-old NSF Convergence Accelerator, which has funded nationwide research projects to address major societal challenges, is adding 10 “anchors” to focus on regional challenges. The regional anchor organizations will engage in the same solution development for underserved, underrepresented organizations and communities as the current national program. However, as part of the regional expansion, NSF aims to reach more local communities to help solve challenges that are especially meaningful to a particular region.

A Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for a new artificial intelligence-focused Manufacturing USA institute is now available on Grants.gov. The U.S.

On Aug. 1, Massachusetts lawmakers ended their 19-month formal session.

The positive impacts of addressing any single priority for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emission could be of only marginal benefit without simultaneous efforts along other key priorities, warns the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). DOT Report to Congress: Decarbonizing U.S.

Note: This brief quasi-book review/book synopsis is the first item in an experimental new section of SSTI’s newsletter, potentially joining other regular sections such as Useful Stats, Fed/Leg News, State News, Member Updates, and Recent Research. Its periodic continuation after the contributions we present over the summer will depend on feedback from our members and Digest readers. Comments may be shared with skinner @ ssti.org

This year’s legislative sessions saw a handful of governors and lawmakers proposing noteworthy reforms or other changes to their states’ institutions of higher education—from system overhauls to the expansion of tuition-free community college programs—all in efforts to align their state’s education investments with current and future workforce needs, as well as address future costs under tightening budgets.

Restructuring higher education systems

Following its announcement of implementation awards to 12 Tech Hubs regions, the U.S. Economic Development Administration made Consortium Accelerator Awards of $500,000 to each of the additional 19 Tech Hubs designated regions.

In a recent State of the Science address, National Academy of Sciences President Marcia McNutt called attention to what she sees as an alarming trend: the federal contribution to basic research is stagnating while industry funding is rising. The federal share of U.S. spending on basic research, she said, was down from about 60% in 2011 to 40% in 2021.

The Distressed Area Recompete Pilot Program, a program authorized by the CHIPS and Science Act, targets areas where the share of prime-age (25-54 years) employment is significantly lower than the national average.

Congress authorized $10 billion over five years for regional tech hubs to improve America’s competitiveness and regional economies. To date, Congress has appropriated only $541 million for the program—just 5% of the authorized level—of which a $459 million downpayment was provided though the FY 2023 disaster supplemental.

Manufacturing industries accounted for approximately $372 billion, or 54%, of all domestic business enterprise R&D (BERD) expenditures in 2022, up 36% from $274 billion in 2018. Despite this increase of nearly $100 billion over the past five years, the share of BERD expenditures in manufacturing industries has decreased eight percentage points from its 2018 value of 62%.

A new White House national security memo (NSM) builds on last year’s Executive Order on AI and cal

The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) awarded $33.5 million to 12 collaborative, multi-state projects designed to drive large-scale economic transformation.

Whether one calls them transformational or disruptive, challenging or exciting, topics like generative AI, Big Tech, climate change, and geopolitical/economic issues will have significant influences on the future focus and efforts of every organization employing readers of this newsletter. There hasn’t been a forum for the field to talk about all of it openly and honestly—until December, that is. 

The U.S. National Science Foundation Regional Innovation Engines (NSF Engines) program announced that 71 teams are advancing to the next stage of the second NSF Engines competition.

As business R&D expenditures continue to increase nationwide, disparities between states deepen, an SSTI analysis of new Business Enterprise Research and Development (BERD) survey data reveals.

As a part of the State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI)’s Technical Assistance (TA) Program, the Treasury Department has announced 14 Small Business Opportunity Program (SBOP) awards to 12 states and two Tribal governments, each ranging from $1.6 to $10 million, totaling $75 million. SSBCI’s TA program is divided into two major programs: the TA Grant program and SBOP.