As trade tensions rise between the U.S. and China, rare earth minerals are once again in the political spotlight. Today Chinese mines and processing facilities provide most of the world's supply, and Chinese leader Xi Jinping has hinted about using this as political leverage in trade negotiations with U.S. President Donald Trump's administration. But in the long run, many experts say the global market involving these materials would likely survive even if China completely stopped exporting them.

Out of nearly 500 applications, 15 finalists were selected to go head-to-head for a slice of a $1.2 million funding pie at Quicken Loans Detroit Demo Day next week.

Detroit entrepreneurs, vying for shares ranging from $50,000 to $300,000, will get a chance to pitch in front of an audience om June 14 at The Fillmore in Detroit, according to a Tuesday news release.

The finalists will compete for seven awards in the form of grants, interest-free loans or equity investments in three categories: Start, Grow and Scale. One small business per category will land a $25,000 people's choice award, the release said.

Last month, Sen. Marco Rubio convened a reauthorization hearing for the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs, which he described as “programs that provide needed investment in America’s most innovative small businesses.”

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has awarded a five-year $175 million cooperative funding agreement to the University of Maryland for collaborative research in Earth system science.

The agreement funds the new Cooperative Institute for Satellite Earth System Studies (CISESS), a national consortium of more than two dozen academic and nonprofit institutions. CISESS builds on NOAA’s long-term partnership with UMD, which includes the Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites from 2009 to 2019 and the Cooperative Institute for Climate Studies from 1984 to 2009.

On the night of Nov. 8, 2016, there was a surprise announcement on Indian television. In a live telecast to the nation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that the country’s two highest-denomination currency notes (Rs 1,000 and Rs 500) would be withdrawn immediately from the market. The plan, termed demonetization by the press, was planned in secrecy and announced dramatically, as Modi’s masterstroke against black money.

Image: Illustration by amlanmathur - https://www.strategy-business.com

TAMPA, Fla., June 4, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Top 100 Worldwide Universities Granted U.S. Utility Patents in 2018 has been announced by the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) and the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO). The report is created using data from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and it highlights the vital role patents play in university research and innovation.

One of the founders of complexity economics, W. Brian Arthur, joins Azeem Azhar to discuss how artificial intelligence is ushering us into the age of the autonomous economy with radical implications for our society.

5. Tempus $200M Round: Series F Description: Chicago-based Tempus is a technology company that has built an operating system to battle cancer. Founded by Eric Lefkofsky in 2015, Tempus has now raised a total of $520M in reported equity funding and is backed by investors that include Baillie Gifford, New Enterprise Associates, Novo Holdings, Revolution, and T. Rowe Price.

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SAN JUAN – The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has announced the fifth round of its Growth Accelerator Fund Competition to recognize innovative accelerators, including incubators, co-working startup communities or other similar models, to compete for prizes of $50,000 each for a total of $3 million.

“Accelerators provide invaluable resources to small business startups, such as mentoring, business-plan assistance, networking, and opportunities to obtain venture capital, among others. Through this competition, the SBA is looking to support the development of accelerators and their support of startups that have fewer conventional sources of access to capital,” said SBA Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands District Director Yvette T. Collazo.

Image: SBA District Director Yvette T. Collazo - https://caribbeanbusiness.com

Logan is the best small city in the United States for growing new businesses, according to a recent study conducted by Verizon.

From a field of over 300 cities, the study focuses on communities throughout the United States termed “small cities”, or cities with populations between 50,000 and 75,000 people. According to the study, Verizon researchers found that smaller cities often have greater potential for business growth than larger cities.

“We’re thrilled to see Logan once again recognized for the great place that it is for small business,” said Logan City economic development director Kirk Jensen. “It’s a credit to our hard-working, visionary entrepreneurs that have an eye for opportunity and a willingness to take measured risks.”

Image: https://usustatesman.com

LifeBridge Health and CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield are partnering to open a new business incubator to support growing digital health startups.

The two are looking for space, ideally near CareFirst or LifeBridge sites in the Baltimore area, to set up the incubator, also being referred to as an “innovation center.” Michael Batista, director of Healthworx at CareFirst, said the incubator is expected to open later this year, and will likely be able to support up to 20 small digital health businesses at a time.

Henrique Dubugras and Pedro Franceschi know financial technology, but you wouldn’t have guessed that  as true if you'd looked at the fledgling idea the two young entrepreneurs brought to Y Combinator’s 2017 accelerator program.

Their idea? A virtual reality startup. Turns out, neither of these men knew all that much about virtual reality, and building the product they'd envisioned proved much harder than expected.

The summer college baseball season is in full swing. If you've never heard of college summer baseball, you're not alone--the games aren't usually well attended.

It's a different show in Savannah, Georgia--literally. How baseball became the family event of the season in town is a master class for anyone who wants to turn customers into raving fans.

The onslaught of digital distractions is taking a big toll on businesses. A new survey from Udemy finds that it’s a special  challenge for Millennials and Gen Z workers, 36% of whom report spending two hours or more each workday “looking at their phones for personal activities.”

As they lose time to all the distractions around them, employees are “stressed, unmotivated, and feeling bad about themselves, their jobs, and their careers,” the poll found. Three quarters of those who have learned to reduce distractions say they’ve become more productive.

When you have been on the startup firing line, you quickly learn that any insight from experts and entrepreneurs who have been there before you can make the difference between failure and success. Yet, many new entrepreneurs brazenly assume they are bulletproof, and march blindly into the fray. The result is that half or more of startups fail in the first two years.

The Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) released “Transforming Ideas into Advances: Best Practices in State and Regional Bioscience Economic Development Initiatives” today at the 2019 BIO International Convention.

The fifth edition of the Best Practices Guide is the bioscience industry’s leading comprehensive analysis of state legislative and regulatory initiatives in support of economic development.

Almost every state in the country has continued to actively engage in building bioscience infrastructure. Throughout the last decade, understanding of the economic potential of the industry has led to policies and programs that provide supportive tax environments in capital formation, technology transfer, and funding for a workforce to facilitate research, development, and manufacturing.

Why do people with great ideas sometimes struggle to win the support for their innovations while others, perhaps with more mediocre insights, do not? Our new book, Innovation Capital:  How to compete—and win—like the world’s most innovative leaders, tries to unpack this question and identifies this critical but underappreciated ingredient for successful innovation: how do innovators win support to turn their ideas into reality.

Dr. Andrew Lees, founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Fina Biosolutions, holds over 25 patents and is the author or co-author of more than 70 peer-reviewed papers. He holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Harvey Mudd College and a Ph.D. in Biophysics from The Johns Hopkins University. GlaxoSmithKline, the Serum Institute of India, the Chengdu Institute of Biological Products, and others all use conjugation chemistry (CDAP) developed by Dr. Lees in their S. pneumonia and meningococcal conjugate vaccines. He received the Johns Hopkins University Distinguished Alumni Award in 2019 for his efforts in making conjugate vaccines affordable for low-income countries.

Amsterdam and Rockville, Maryland — Catalyze and BioHealth Innovation, Inc. have entered an agreement to actively bridge the Life Sciences communities in the US and the EU. This transatlantic partnership will increase opportunities for translating biohealth discoveries to market through grant writing services, expanded technology commercialization and international soft-landing support. The two parties have a wide range of resources and knowledge which combined will better aid in delivering high-impact, customer-specific solutions.