Editor's Note
The SSTI Weekly Digest will be taking a two week break for the winter holidays. Publication will resume January 8, 2015.
SSTI News and Analysis
NY Launches $50M Innovation Venture Capital Fund
Last week, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo launched the
New York State Innovation Venture Capital Fund (NYSIVC or The Fund), a $50 million fund that is expected to
leverage at least $100 million in private capital to support early stage companies in high growth areas such as
advanced materials, clean technology, life sciences/biotechnology, and information technology.
Read more...
President Obama Signs Spending Bill, Keeping S&T Funding Stable
This week, President Obama signed off on the continuing resolution omnibus spending package that will
keep the federal government open for another nine months
(see last week’s analysis).The spending bill provides stable funding for R&D and most research agencies,
according to analysis by the
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). About $137.6 billion is appropriated for
federal R&D, a modest 1.7 percent increase over FY14. Most science and technology agencies would receive
small increases, with a few exceptions. Department of Defense applied research funding would decline, funding
for most institutes of the National Institutes of Health would not keep pace with inflation and the Department of
Energy’s Office of Science and ARPA-E would receive flat funding.
Read the AAAS science and technology
summary…
NY, IN Pursue Regional Strategies to Fuel High-Tech Economy
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently announced the fourth round of regional economic development grants to
support tailored approaches to job creation in different areas of the state. The $709.2 million in awards are
part of the state’s ongoing Regional Economic Development Council (REDC) initiative begun in 2011.
Regional strategies have long been a key component of state development policy, enabling policymakers to
encourage institutional partnerships with a focus on the specific needs of local economies. New York’s
approach supports individual projects proposed by regional councils. Other models have been proposed in Indiana
and Kentucky. Read more...
IA Strategic Plan Focuses on Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Industry Clusters
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. The authors concluded that Iowa has made substantial economic progress over the
last decade, resulting in positive trends in Iowa’s top-line measures including increased productivity, job growth,
wages, and per capita income.
To maintain this positive growth, the authors outlined recommendations in four
key areas including: build on the competitiveness and growth of Iowa’s industry clusters; generate and attract
skilled workforce; accelerate the development of the state’s emerging entrepreneurial eco-system; and, advance
physical infrastructure and regional development capacities. The Battelle Technology Partnership Practice was
commissioned to complete the study by the Iowa Partnership for Economic Progress and the Iowa Business Council to
conduct this comprehensive analysis.
Read the report…
Fewer Postdoctoral Researchers Employed at Federally Funded R&D Centers in 2013
In fall 2013, 21 federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) in the U.S. employed 2,613
postdoctoral researchers in 2012, down 6.4 percent from the previous year, according to a recently released
InfoBrief from the
National Science Foundation. Postdocs, who help government agencies meet their
research and analytic needs and in turn receive relevant training and experience, are more than 75 percent male
and more than 50 percent international, according to the brief. Nearly all (95 percent) of the research performed
by FFRDC postdocs is related to science and engineering. For FFRDCs with postdoc programs, most of their funding
comes from the Department of Energy, while most of the funding for FFRDCs without postdoc programs comes from the
Department of Defense.
As Tuition Rates Rose, State Funding for Public Colleges Decrease, According to GAO Report
Funding for public colleges decreased by 12 percent overall from FY03 to FY12, while tuition rates for all public
colleges rose by 55 percent during the same time, according to a
new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Driven in part by the impact of the recent
recession on state budgets, the decline in state funding has had a significant impact on college affordability for
students and their family. The GAO found that a larger portion of family budgets are going towards helping offset
the cost of their children’s college education. In the report, GAO also identified several potential approaches
that the federal government could use to expand incentives to states to improve affordability such as creating new
grants, providing more consumer information on affordability, or changing federal student aid programs. In addition
to the report, GOA also released a web-based interview
to share their thoughts and recommendations of how the
federal government can help states to address the issue of college affordability.
Read the report…
