January 31, 2019 | Volume 23, Issue 5
SSTI

Startup Act reintroduced, would expand federal innovation support

Senators Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.), co-signed by Senators Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), re-introduced the Startup Act today. The bill would enact an array of innovation policies, including reauthorizing Regional Innovation Strategies, creating a new commercialization grant program, and implementing a startup visa. SSTI has endorsed the bill and hopes to see the legislation passed by the 116th Congress. Read more  | 

Useful Stats

NSF SBIR Success Rates by State (2008-2017)

The National Science Foundation (NSF), the fifth largest distributor of SBIR awards among federal agencies, received more than 20,000 proposals over the decade long period from 2008 to 2017, approving more than 3,600 (16.8 percent), according to an SSTI analysis of NSF data. NSF SBIR awards are the least concentrated of all federal agencies, as measured by share of awards going to firms with more than 10+ awards. An SSTI analysis found that New Hampshire (28 percent success rate), Wisconsin (26.7 percent success rate), and Louisiana (24.7 percent) were the most likely to convert their NSF SBIR applications into awards.  Read more 

Racial wealth divide: Why being neutral is not enough

How likely would you be to leave your current job to form a startup if you had $3,600 in the bank? Would your interest increase if you had $147,000? While neither amount is enough to scale a business, the latter case obviously affords more cushion to learn the ropes or absorb the impacts of a few missed paychecks. These amounts are the median wealth for black and white households, respectively, according to a new report by the Institute for Policy Studies. While the report does not directly look to entrepreneurship as a factor — nor, notably, as a solution — the implications for regional innovation economies are clear.  Read more

Tech Talkin’ Govs part 4: Opportunity Zones, workforce development, tech hubs, and more in governors plans to build economies

Governors are reaching into their toolkits to build tech-based economies, utilizing Opportunity Zones, tax credits, broadband infrastructure and workforce development initiatives among other things. This week, as we continue to review their state of the state addresses for TBED news, we see some governors still trying to reshape their states’ struggling economies while others are building on past successes and proposing new initiatives.

Arkansas wants to become a technology hub and is proposing a Technology and Innovation Council to help achieve that goal. Delaware is hoping to build on its Angel Investor Tax Credit and utilize Opportunity Zones to spur development. Energy and climate change are on the agendas for many governors, and this week we see it called out by governors in Delaware, Hawaii, New Jersey, New Mexico and New York. Tools for rural development are on the radar in Georgia, while workforce development and education are just part of the plan in New Jersey and New York. Read more 

Legislative & Federal News

The administration re-nominated several TBED-related officials who were not considered by the Senate during the 115th Congress, including John Fleming for EDA Director and Christopher Fall for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

The Innovations to Entrepreneurs Act of 2019 has been introduced in the House (Reps. Dan Lipinski & Frank Lucas) and Senate (Sens. Todd Young & Chris Coons) to require NSF to create a “Phase II” I-Corps program and to allow SBIR/STTR recipients to participate.

The Congressional Budget Office’s latest Budget and Economic Outlook projects that real GDP growth will slow to 2.3 percent in 2019 and continue slowing to an average of 1.7 percent through 2023.

State News


Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker recently signed an Executive Order to join the United States Climate Alliance, aligning with 17 other governors to reduce carbon emissions consistent with the Paris Agreement.

New Jersey lawmakers reached an agreement to raise the state's minimum wage to $15 by 2024, even though Gov. Phil Murphy and Democratic lawmakers disagree over which employees should be included in the wage increase.
 
Connecticut lawmakers have recently proposed a series of measures to develop a state-backed bank to lend money for community development, to create a Connecticut bank for transportation infrastructure funds, and another measure to authorize a study on whether to extend the concept to include New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

The idea by some states (California, Colorado, Michigan, New Jersey and Washington) to create a state-run public bank to handle cannabis business accounts is not likely to happen anytime soon. An independent report commissioned by the State of California panned the idea, concluding that a public marijuana bank would pose too great of legal and financial risk to the state.

Member News:

The Wilson Foundation provided a $4.5 million follow-up award to Launch New York, following a 2016 award to catalyze its seed fund.

Massachusetts Life Sciences Center’s P3 initiative, MassNextGen, has more than $400,000 available in its second year to help fund women-led life sciences companies.

As of December 2018, JumpStart has invested more than $50 million in 114 companies, with 35 percent led by women and 15 percent by African-American or Latinx entrepreneurs.

Maine Technology Institute provided more than $57 million through 175 projects in FY 2018, including $45 million from a voter-approved R&D infrastructure bond.

Tech Launch Arizona reported 112 executed licenses and 16 launched startups in 2018, all records for the organization.

Recent Research

Identifying peer states for technology-based economic development

While competition between states over business incentives and headquarters attraction is often derided, new research published in the Journal of Technology in Society suggests that competition in technology-based economic development is hardly a zero-sum game. In Persistent peers and the rhetoric of state economic competition, author David Schwarzkopf from Bentley University uses cluster analysis to track state progress across 53 TBED measures published by the NSF through its Science & Engineering Indicators series. Over a 12-year study period, Schwarzkopf finds that all 50 states improved on more than half of the variables used, with more than 60 percent of the states moving in the same direction on 80 percent of the measures. He argues that although states clearly compete, more focus is needed on how each state is making progress while also working to improve on their deficiencies.    Read more 

SSTI member videos highlight success stories

 
A key element of SSTI's Annual Conference is highlighting successful programs in the innovation economy. This past year, a number of our members responded to our call for videos that help tell the story of how these programs positively impact their local economies.

We invite you to explore the different ways our members are making a difference by viewing our library of videos here. To become a more involved member of the innovation community, we also invite you to become a member of SSTI.  

Learn more about SSTI membership here.

Job Corner

Executive Director - Fulbright Austria

The Executive Director of Fulbright Austria has comprehensive responsibility for the planning and management of the oldest and most prestigious bilateral academic exchange program between the United States of America and the Republic of Austria. S/he is an employee of one of the fifty binational educational commissions that form the historical, philosophical, institutional, and financial foundation of the Fulbright Program and reports to a binational board of governmental and non-governmental appointees.
 
Bilateral exchanges, binational governance, joint decision-making, and public/private funding and partnerships are the signature attributes of the Austrian-American Educational Commission (AAEC), which is committed to creating opportunities, facilitating partnerships, and serving communities of teachers and learners in both countries in the spirit of mutual understanding and international cooperation.
 
More information is available here.

Read more job postings

This week's Staff Picks:


Fortune: VC funding for female founders stalled in 2018
U.S. female founders raised $2.88 billion last year split across 482 teams, according to data from PitchBook and All Raise, which represented just 2.2 percent of the $130 billion total in venture capital money invested over the year — the exact same percentage that Fortune reported for 2017. Read more

IndustryWeek: Generation YouTube learns to love manufacturing
A program designed by the Manufacturers Resource Center in Pennsylvania to educate young students about the manufacturing industry has become wildly popular and spread to 11 other states.  Read more

Harvard Business Review: One way to finance tech startups outside of superstar cities
The author proposes the use of Local Innovation Bonds (LIBs), a financial instrument that would connect risk-averse local investors with cash-starved local entrepreneurs. Read more

Reuters: China fast tracks new foreign investment law as US talks loom
China’s parliament is expected to vote in March on a new foreign investment law that will ban forced technology transfer and illegal government “interference” in foreign business practices. Read more

Center for American Progress: Climate deniers in the 116th Congress
There are 150 members of the 116th Congress that do not believe in the scientific consensus that human activity is making the Earth’s climate change, according to new analysis from the left-leaning CAP. The number of climate deniers has decreased by 30 members since the previous Congress, in part because 47 former deniers retired, resigned, or were defeated in their 2018 re-election contests. Read more
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