Here we highlight selected innovation related articles from around the world on a daily basis. These articles related to innovation and funding for innovative companies, and best practices for innovation based economic development.
College athletics officials are considering the impact of COVID-19, or the coronavirus, on upcoming intercollegiate conference and tournament play, with some colleges even canceling scheduled basketball games on the West Coast.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association announced it had convened a panel of health experts on March 3 to advise the association’s decision making during a week when the virus led to the cancellation of large national meetings and events.
Dear Chairmen Moran and Serrano and Ranking Members Shaheen and Aderholt:
Thank you for your continued support for the Regional Innovation (RI) Program within the Department of Commerce and for funding the program at $33 million in Fiscal Year 2020.
As recipients of RI awards, we are working in our communities to support innovation and entrepreneurship. We ask you to provide increased funding support as you develop the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2021. Annual funding through the RI Program enables dozens of communities throughout the country to help fully unleash American innovation, supporting entrepreneurs as they increase sales and boost job growth, and transforming ideas into new products and solutions in sectors as diverse as manufacturing, bio sciences, energy, and agriculture.
Two big challenges characterize leadership today. One is the need to juggle a growing series of paradoxical demands (do more with less; cut costs but innovate; think globally, act locally). The other is the unprecedented pace of “disruptive change,” which speeds up the interaction of these demands and simultaneously increases the pressure on organizations to adapt.
We're surrounded by people who are overtly confident and think they're smarter than they really are. But even more common are people who don't realize they're actually smarter than they think.
Is that you? Here are nine science-backed signs that you're not giving yourself enough IQ credit.
Startups and entrepreneurial companies are vital components and drivers of an Innovation Economy. An Innovation Economy is built through an approach called Innovation Based Economic Development (IBED) often also known as technology based economic development.
Innovation Based Economic Development (IBED) contains five core elements:
The news: Honeywell, a US company best known for its home thermostats, has announced that it has built the world’s most powerful quantum computer. While all eyes were on IBM and Google, which last year knocked heads over quantum supremacy, Honeywell has been working quietly on quantum tech that it plans to make available to clients via the internet in the next three months.
Image: https://www.technologyreview.com
In recent years the number of startup accelerators and incubators has increased hugely — in the UK alone the number of start-ups in these programs has grown by 78% each year since 2014.
Accelerators, for the uninitiated, are programs which bring startups and corporates together for a short, but intense period; typically between around 10 weeks and three months. The corporate could be a company which wants to explore how startups could help deliver their strategy, or it could be a consultancy which will connect the startups with their customers.
March Madness” is upon us, and the odds are not in our favor. I’m not talking about college basketball, mind you, but the term immigration lawyers use to reference the yearly scramble to finish clients’ work visa applications before the April 1 deadline. This year, all Bostonians—even those born within the city limits—have cause for concern, as recently enacted visa restrictions are making it increasingly difficult for local tech and biotech companies to hire the highly skilled foreign STEM workers needed to keep our world-class innovation economy from hitting the skids.
A famous adage that many young entrepreneurs know is that there are never enough hours in a day. If you feel like this, the problem is probably not with the day, but with how you utilize the time available to you.
As an entrepreneur, the to-do list is always growing and you need to be able to figure out which elements hold the most importance. Not all time management methods work for everyone, and you may need to get a broader view to figure out what is likely to work and what isn't.
The incubation period for a virus is the time between catching the virus and showing symptoms of disease. For the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, health officials estimate an incubation period of between one and 14 days. Most people start showing symptoms about five days after becoming infected, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Technology Transfer (T2) involves the movement of scientific discoveries and innovative technical knowledge from the federal laboratories to the private sector for commercialization. How do we know, though, that T2 is occurring? Patenting, licensing, collaborative research agreements, publishing and contracting are all examples of T2 activity. While robust T2 activity is necessary and should be encouraged, this activity alone is insufficient to accomplish the Federal T2 mission. So, what is missing?
Image: https://www.miragenews.com
To continue supporting technology in regions all over the world from North America to Southeast Asia, Leonid Boguslavsky-founded RTP Global unveiled a new $650 million fund to keep investing in early-stage tech companies. The venture capital firm’s last fund totaled $200 million and was rolled out in 2017, according to reports.
On a cattle ranch in Southern Arizona, Mysty Rusk started her first business at five years old. Miles from town, the ranch hands were a captive market, especially when they headed to lunch in her mom’s kitchen. Mysty captured critters, including a horny toad, a tarantula, and a jack rabbit, and set up a zoo in the direct path from ranch to kitchen, charging the ranch hands a quarter for viewing. When her dad found out, he made Mysty return the money, but the seeds of entrepreneurship were already sown.
Image: Mysty Rusk, Director, The Brink SBDC at University of San Diego Donald Carlton - https://www.sandiegomagazine.com
Successful businesses are all about getting results, not just working hard. As a new business advisor, I hear facts all the time about how hard an entrepreneur is working, but often have a hard time getting them to quantify results. You must never stop looking for ways to get more traction with fewer personal hours, and more productivity, efficiency, and momentum from the team.
Just days after news that the new coronavirus was spreading in the United States, cases have now been reported in 10 states and the death toll is rising. As of March 2, six people — all in Washington state — have died from COVID-19, public health officials confirmed. Globally, more and more countries are reporting their first cases, including Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Senegal.
Image: Two women leave the Life Care Center in Kirkland, Wash., near Seattle, on March 2. Five of Washington’s 18 cases have been among residents or employees of the facility. TED S. WARREN/AP PHOTO
One thing I have learned the hard way in business is that implementing new ideas is usually much more difficult than conceiving the idea in the first place. That’s why I caution my aspiring entrepreneur clients against proclaiming to investors that they are a great “idea” person. The bridge from thinking and talking, to doing, is a long and difficult one for many to get over.
In practicing data analytics for more than 30 years, and leading, advising, interviewing and teaching executives in many industries on data analytics for five years, I’ve observed that their approaches generally fall into one of five scenarios: two that typically fail, two that sometimes work partially, and one that has emerged as best. Let’s take a look at each:
As the world scrambles to monitor and contain the COVID-19 outbreak, drug companies are racing to develop or repurpose treatments to combat the potential pandemic. The death toll continues to climb. The first U.S. death associated with the SARS-CoV-2 virus was reported in Washington state February 29. As of March 2, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University, 3,048 people in 11 countries had died worldwide, nearly all of them (96% or 2,914) in China.
CSSE also reported 89,198 confirmed cases in 67 countries, including 80,026 (90%) in China and 86 in the U.S. Of those confirmed cases, just over half (45,175) have recovered.
Image: Coronavirus from SARS isolated in FRhK-4 cells. Thin section electron micrograph and negative stained virus particles Source: Department of Microbiology, The University of Hong Kong and the Government Virus Unit, Department of Health, Hong Kong SAR China
Is it possible to tell when an employee is on their way out? An extensive study revealed that you don't need psychic abilities to know when receiving a resignation letter is in your future. Researchers at Harvard Business Review asked nearly 100 managers how the behavior of their peers and subordinates shifted in the months prior to their voluntary departures. Additionally, researchers surveyed 100 employees to find out how their own behavior shifted prior to their own voluntary departures. Behaviors listed were whittled down and distributed the survey to additional groups of managers. Here are the top 8 pre-quitting behaviors, according to researchers.
The financial year has just begun, and Beantown startups are already raising multi-million- dollar rounds.
Chief among these were Toast’s $400 million Series F round, DigitalOcean’s $300 million debt financing, Iora Health’s $126 million Series F and Flywire’s $120 million Series E. Local HR startup Globalization Partners also closed on a $150 million minority equity investment
Local VC firms also raised significant capital: Boston- and San Francisco-based tech-focused investment firm Battery Ventures closed two new funds worth a combined $2 billion to continue backing innovative technology companies worldwide in a variety of sectors.
