federal agency

The FY14 Omnibus Appropriations bill, which the U.S. House of Representatives passed yesterday and the U.S. Senate is expected to pass on Friday, contains $10 million for the Regional Innovation program in the U.S. Department of Commerce’s budget. This is the first time the grant portion of the program was directly funded.  The program was authorized in the America COMPETES Act of 2010 and establishes the program “to encourage and support the development of regional innovation strategies, including regional innovation clusters and science and research parks.”

The first of three new manufacturing innovation institutes will be headquartered in Raleigh, NC, and led by a consortium of 18 companies, seven universities and labs, and the state of North Carolina. The announcement was made today by President Obama. Developing wide-bandgap semiconductor devices and industry-relevant processes is the goal of the Next Generation Power Electronics Institute. Such technologies are used to develop smaller, faster, cheaper and more efficient electronics for personal devices, electric vehicles and renewable power interconnection, according to a press release. The selection process is still underway for two other institutes, with awards expected in the coming weeks.

The federal, cross-agency Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) has proven so invaluable to developing STEM expertise across the country that the word "experimental" should be removed from its name, according to a comprehensive new report from the National Academies. The academies, however, recommend that the program be restructured to create a more rigorous competitive process for research projects and improve project evaluation. Download the report...

Providing students with industry-relevant education and skills is the idea behind the Youth CareerConnect grant program, which will provide $100 million to implement curriculum for high schools to strengthen the talent pipeline. In partnership with the Department of Education, the Department of Labor will award 25-40 grants for individual or multistate projects using revenues from the H-1B visa program. The goals are to integrate both career and academic learning, provide work-based learning opportunities, better engage employers, and elevate industry training.

This week, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) released a wide-ranging roundup of new and ongoing efforts to leverage availability of large, accessible data sets to spur innovation. While many of these efforts were focused on supporting research on the potential of big data, several agency efforts are using the model of open data app competitions to fuel private-sector business creation.

On October 25, 2013, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) voted unanimously to propose rules under the JOBS Act that would permit companies to offer and sell securities to non-accredited investors through crowdfunding intermediary portals (crowdfunding portals). The SEC released a fact sheet that highlights several of the proposed rules for startups and investors who want to engage in crowdfunding that include:

Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker recently announced the first ten winners of the Make It in America Challenge, which provides grants to accelerate regional job creation and encourage business investment. Grantees will receive a total of $20.5 million for projects supporting regional economic development, advanced skills training, greater supply chain access and other projects. Funding for this round of awards is provided by the Economic Development Administration, the Labor Department's Employment and Training Administration, and the Delta Regional Authority.

The Nevada Office of Economic Development, with guidance and funding from the U.S. Treasury Department’s State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI), has launched the Battle Born Venture Program. “Battle Born” is a state venture capital program that makes equity and equity-like investments in early stage, high-growth Nevada businesses.

Under a new set of proposed rules issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, companies will be able to claim the federal research and experimentation (R&E) tax credit on eligible expenditures regardless of any subsequent actions taken by businesses with the purchases. The change would allow businesses to claim the credit on research expenses used to create prototypes, pilot models and process improvements.

Electric vehicles may be gaining momentum.