WASHINGTON—The health of American democracy depends in part on marshaling the science and practice of innovation to bolster faith in the legitimacy of government by improving its effectiveness, according to a new report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), the country’s leading science and technology think tank. In the report, ITIF proposes a detailed set of recommendations for the White House Office of American Innovation to transform the enterprise of government by applying customer-driven innovations to federal processes, services, and organizational models.

As the indoor farming industry has taken off in the last several years–over the next 10 years, indoor farming is expected to account for 50% of leafy green production, and grow to a $42 billion industry–it’s become apparent that it’s as much about technology as it is about agriculture. Bowery, a new startup operating out of an old warehouse building in Kearney, New Jersey, developed a sensor-based proprietary technology, called FarmOS, specifically to support the venture by determining necessary nutrient levels, as well as when crops are ready for harvesting. And in South San Francisco, Plenty is growing produce via a tech-supported vertical farming model that has already received $26 million from tech investors like Bezos Expeditions and Innovation Endeavors.

Image: The FreshBox model centers around shipping containers. (Photo: courtesy FreshBox Farms)

Mayors across the U.S. are investing significant resources to develop what the Brookings Institution calls “innovation districts,” in an attempt to accelerate urban and economic development, catalyze job growth, and shift their cities’ reputations toward being incubators for progress.

These districts are also providing a new type of idea collision space during meetings and conferences for visiting organizations to engage local tech and creative thought leaders in different growth industries.

The federal New Markets Tax Credit program (NMTC) is designed to encourage investment in distressed or low-income communities.  The New Markets Tax Credit Coalition* recently released its 2016 New Markets Tax Credit Progress Report.

The report’s findings are based on a survey sent by the NMTC Coalition to all Community Development Entities (CDEs) receiving an NMTC allocation. 87 CDEs that have received a total of $26 billion in NMTC allocations since 2003 responded. Survey respondents represented 80% of NMTC program activity in 2016.

Over the past few years, Disney’s accelerator classes have been transitioning away from what was once a roughly standard early-stage growth framework. Rather than the “adopt-a-company” models prevalent among most accelerators, it has been leaning hard into how it can create mutually beneficial relationships with companies that run the gamut from well-established to really just beginning.

Image: https://techcrunch.com/ 

What does it take to get a good job in today’s ever-evolving economy? Some people looking for that next position believe that networking is a key to success — whether through social connections or websites like LinkedIn. Others focus on crafting the personal brand they think will appeal to hiring managers. But a lot of those job seekers are way off the mark, says Illana Gershon, who has researched what works best and has reported the results in her book — Down and Out in the New Economy: How People Find and (or Don’t Find) Work Today. Gershon, an Indiana University professor of anthropology, discussed her findings on the Knowledge@Wharton Show, which airs on Sirius XM channel 111. She summed up the pervasive myths and out-of-date techniques, and offered advice for taking the pain out of the job-hunting process.

Sam Pitroda, 75, is best known as the technology whiz who transformed India’s telecommunications industry to make connectivity widespread and affordable some three decades ago. Armed with a veritable carte blanche from Rajiv Gandhi, India’s prime minister in the mid- to late 1980s, he went on to lead technology-focused missions in water, dairy, literacy and immunization, among others.

Today, Pitroda is an evangelist for the global smart-city movement, a role he dons under his nonprofit think tank called The People for Global Transformation. The think tank, with offices in Boston, Paris and New Delhi, is advising mayors and implementing pilot projects in cities in the U.S., Europe, Latin America, India and the Middle East. It was one of the organizing partners of Cities for Life Paris 2016, a global summit on “inclusive, smart and resilient cities” held in Paris in November 2016.

European venture capital firms raised $7.35 billion last year, the largest amount since 2007, according to Invest Europe.

The year saw fund sizes rise, with 13 funds raising more than $115 million. Fund size could rise further this year because of a $459 million European Union-backed fund-of-funds.

Nearly 10 percent of last year’s capital came from North American institutional investors.

A Food and Drug Administration panel opened a new era in medicine on Wednesday, unanimously recommending that the agency approve the first treatment that genetically alters a patient’s own cells to fight leukemia, transforming them into what scientists call “a living drug” that powerfully bolsters the immune system to shut down the disease.

If the F.D.A. accepts the recommendation, which is likely, the treatment will be the first gene therapy to reach the market. Others are expected: Researchers and drug companies have been engaged in intense competition for decades to reach this milestone. Novartis is now poised to be the first, and it is working on similar types of treatments for another type of leukemia, as well as multiple myeloma and an aggressive brain tumor.

Image: Emily Whitehead, 12, with her parents Tom and Kari Whitehead, on Tuesday in Washington, D.C. The family appeared at a hearing for the F.D.A. about a new treatment for leukemia. Credit T.J. Kirkpatrick for The New York Times 

I was getting ready to publish this article as the news broke Amazon was adding At-Home Tech support to their deliverable. This development is important to the future of commodity technologies and how they will be supported whether in the home or the office. As the print equipment becomes less and less expensive, and less and less service intensive. The buyers will be presented options. These new options were unimaginable a decade ago. Today defeat will come quicker to the unimaginative, and to those too “Suborned to Modify”

Yesterday, the White House announced it was delaying and likely eliminating the International Entrepreneur Rule. This rule is the closest we’ve come to a Startup Visa, something I’ve been working on with numerous other people since 2009. Several failed bills in Congress, a failed bipartisan Senate comprehensive immigration reform bill, and an Executive Order later, and we still have nothing.

(Jackson, Miss.) – Innovate Mississippi announced today that it has launched a new “Entrepreneur in Residence” program that is designed to support tech and innovation-based entrepreneurial development throughout the state. Rich Sun, Jackson resident and member of the Innovate Mississippi Board of Directors, was named to this esteemed position.

“The Entrepreneur in Residence position offers an incredible opportunity for Mississippi entrepreneurs to capture insight and guidance from a successful entrepreneur/executive who is willing to share strategic advice based on his experiences and accomplishments,” said Tony Jeff, president and CEO of Innovate Mississippi.

Image: http://innovate.ms 

Patient outcomes are taking over from products and services as the focus of healthcare. But reorienting away from product development toward a holistic approach to patients demands the convergence of data from every part of the healthcare system. In this interview, part of our Biopharma Frontiers series on how the pharmaceutical industry is evolving, Jared Josleyn, global head of corporate development at Alphabet-owned Verily Life Sciences, talks with McKinsey’s Michele Raviscioni about the need to integrate health data and apply it to patients’ lives in ways that achieve enduring impact.

Image: http://www.mckinsey.com 

The latest Statistics Canada data indicates that people are leaving Toronto and Montréal in large numbers since the 2011 census. Even so, both metropolitan areas continued to grow through the 2016 census as a result of net international migration and the natural increase of births over deaths (Figure 1). It turns out that Canada’s urban pattern is much more like that of the US, as well as other high-income countries, than many may suppose.

Image: http://www.newgeography.com 

By the summer of 2100, if carbon emissions continue as usual, the average high temperature in Toronto could be the same as Belize City today. New York City could feel like Juarez, Mexico. Paris could feel like Fez, Morocco. Beijing could be as hot as New Delhi. Abu Dhabi–with a predicted average high of 112.6 degrees Fahrenheit–could be hotter than any city on Earth today.

I’ve been a manager in business for many years, and like most of you, I’ve also had my share of bad managers, as well as a few good ones. As a result, I’m certainly convinced that engaging, retaining, and developing people for maximum performance is one of the toughest jobs you will ever have. I’m also convinced that the conventional wisdom for best practices isn’t always right.

Image: http://blog.startupprofessionals.com 

College is a great investment—if you choose the right school. Find your best college with rankings that combine educational quality, affordability, and alumni success.

Read the full methodology here. Sources: U.S. Department of Education, Peterson's, PayScale.com, MONEY/College Measures calculations.

The geographic footprint of innovation is changing dramatically as research and development programs become more global. An overwhelming 94 percent of the world’s largest innovators now conduct elements of their R&D programs abroad, according to the 2015 Global Innovation 1000 study, our annual analysis of corporate R&D spending. These companies are shifting their innovation investment to countries in which their sales and manufacturing are growing fastest, and where they can access the right technical talent. Not surprisingly, innovation spending has boomed in China and India since our 2008 study, when we first charted the global flows of corporate R&D spending. Collectively, in fact, more R&D is now conducted in Asia than in North America or Europe.

Innovative and forward-thinking companies are successful because they have new, exciting, and useful products or services before others and consumers take notice of companies regularly producing the next big thing. These companies are more effective and they can grow more rapidly because their company culture encourages innovation among their employees. A company of “intrapreneurs” can quickly become a successful and noteworthy company.

In 2010, world-renowned education and innovation expert, Sir Ken Robinson released a short animated film, titled Changing Education Paradigms. In the video, Robinson argues that our current education system stifles and anesthetizes creativity while it lowers the capacity for divergent thinking.

Robinson states, “Divergent thinking is not the same thing as creative thinking, but that it is an essential capacity for creativity." He also refers to a paper clip study in the book Breakpoint and Beyond: Mastering the Future Today, by George Land and Beth Jarman. The paper clip study followed 1,500 kindergarten students through elementary, middle and high school.