Indiana Gov. Gary Holcomb announced two new workforce development grants program as part of the state’s Next Level Jobs initiative. Through this new initiative, the state will commit more than $20 million over the next two years to help state residents find careers in high-demand, high-wage jobs as quickly as possible.

Numerous foundations are investing in and partnering with anchor institutions to support inclusive and equitable community and economic development, according to a new report from the Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Community. The report, Anchored in Place: How Funders Are Helping Anchor Institutions Strengthen Local Economies, stems from a study by the Anchor Institutions Funders’ Group (AIFG), a working group established by the Funders’ Network. The report also includes case studies on how funders are working with anchor intuitions in Albuquerque, Baltimore, Chicago, Denver and Minneapolis-St. Paul.

The U.S. Small Business Administration has granted 16 organizations up to $125,000 each and five organizations up to $200,000 in FY 2017 as part of the Federal and State Technology (FAST) Partnership Program.

Bloomberg’s U.S. Startups Barometer for August 21, 2017 highlights an environment ripe for startups to attract venture capital (VC). The weekly index tracks the overall health of the business environment for private technology companies based in the U.S. Driven by the number of VC financing deals, the barometer set a new record high for the second consecutive week with a nearly 65 percent increase from last year’s index score.

Arizona schools are taking a different approach to developing the next generation of STEM workers and leaders with the Chief Science Officer position, now in 120 schools across the state. The students, from grades six to 12, are elected by their peers and participate in training events where they learn about STEM activities and careers and can advocate for STEM education in their schools.

In a recent report from The Century Foundation, assumptions about the value of a renewed commitment to manufacturing are examined and its importance to the nation’s economic future are reviewed.

Recognizing the growing need for a skilled workforce in the increasingly digital manufacturing sector, a new report from the public-private effort of DMDII and ManpowerGroup aims to capture the changing technology and business interactions, and the job roles that are having an impact on the sector. The year-long body of work attempts to answer, among other questions, how workforce roles and job structures flex to accelerate the succession of a transforming global economy.

The White House Office of Management and Budget released a memorandum on R&D priorities that directs agencies to prioritize basic science and lower costs in their FY 2019 budget requests. R&D investments should be made in military superiority, security, prosperity, energy dominance and health. The memo repeatedly encourages officials to identify, and divest of, research areas where industry is ready to make their own investments toward commercial development.

Some states are better positioned for success in the data economy than others, but all have opportunities for growth, according to a recent report from the Center for Data Innovation. To determine The Best States for Data Innovation authors Daniel Castro, Josh New, and John Wu use 25 indicators across three dimensions: data availability, digital infrastructure, and human and business resources. The authors suggest that all states are capable of improving their capacity for data-driven innovation. To do so, they recommend that state policymakers: make their data accessible and transparent; develop infrastructure items such as broadband Internet and smart connectivity; and, support the use of data to make existing industries more competitive.

The U.S. Department of Treasury released its final annual report for the State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI), which provided funding to states for lending and investment programs. “Venture capital” programs, often structured for pre-seed (13 percent of funds), seed (27 percent) or early stage (45 percent) investments, attracted $4.2 billion in immediate private financing against $327 million in federal dollars.

With a focus on improving health, driving economic growth, and expanding the country’s research capacity, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world. Because of NIH’s central role in supporting science, technology, and innovation, a better understanding of the agency’s footprint may be helpful to the technology-based economic development practitioner community.

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.

Foreign investors expended $373.4 billion in 2016 to acquire, establish, or expand U.S. businesses — a 15 percent decrease (approximately $66.2 billion) from $439.6 billion in 2015 — according to an infobrief from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). Of that $373.4 billion, approximately $5.6 billion was deployed to support the creation of new businesses.

SSTI encourages organizations dedicated to serving entrepreneurs to participate in the creation of a new primary data set on the impacts resulting from your efforts. The deadline for participation is August 16.

There are numerous opportunities for leaders at community colleges to collaborate with the private sector around combatting the skills gap and making workforce development programs more effective for students, according to a new report by Elizabeth Mann of Brookings’ Brown Center for Education Policy.

On the heels of delaying the International Entrepreneur Rule (IER), the White House has endorsed a bill that would grade candidates for immigration. A total of 60 organizations, including SSTI and many of our member organizations, stated their opposition to the move in a new letter. It is not clear why the IER’s standard of investible businesses would not fit into the legislation’s merit-based system.

In partnership with the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced the Innovations in Food and Agricultural Science and Technology (I-FAST) prize competition.

After arduous processes in both Kansas and Rhode Island, the states have newly-enacted budgets in place that have retained some funding for TBED initiatives. Kansas was able to fund programs that will focus on a skilled workforce and research and development, while Rhode Island will see the creation of a pilot program for free tuition at community colleges through a scaled-back version of the governor’s proposed RI Promise.

Kansas 

Over the last several months, economic development organizations, universities, and their partners have announced new efforts to create the building blocks for entrepreneurial development in rural communities. Examples include i2e announcing new efforts to expand entrepreneurial support services to rural communities in Oklahoma and three Indiana universities partnering to support startup growth in rural regions across the state.

Proposed under previous South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, the state’s FY 2017-2018 budget request calls for approximately $3.5 billion to be spent on K-12 and higher education funding including:

A recent study by the W.E. Upjohn Institute finds that the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Program generates a substantial economic and financial return on investment for the federal government. The $130 million invested in MEP during FY2016 by the federal government generated more than $1.1 billion in increased federal personal income tax, a ROI of roughly 8.7:1, according to Upjohn.

State budget season shifts from the proposal stage to legislative approval. Over the coming months, the Digest will cover funding of relevant programs. Our first look includes $2.5 million in Wyoming for the Economically Needed Diversification Options for Wyoming (ENDOW) program and $4.6 million in South Dakota for the Office of Research Commerce.

The U.S. House Science Committee released a letter last week reasserting the majority party’s interest in setting R&D priorities for federal science agencies and supporting appropriation levels that generally align with the White House’s budget blueprint. The letter notes priorities for most of the $42 billion in R&D budgets within the committee’s purview.

Once again, more than three-quarters of U.S. venture capital (VC) dollars went to companies in California, New York and Massachusetts in 2016, according to data from the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)/CB Insights’ Moneytree Report Explorer. Approximately 53.3 percent of all VC capital went to California companies, down nearly 4.4 percent from the states peak in 2014 (57.7) and down 3.9 percent from 2015.

Through Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s proposed budget, the country’s 2017 Innovation and Skills Plan will provide significant support for efforts intended to attract talented immigrants to the country, encourage investments in clean tech, and make the government procurement process easier for small, emerging technology firms.