Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

Ahead of a reception for legislators that was also a push for the innovation component of the budget for the Department of Economic and Community Development for next year, Launch Tennessee convened about 100 innovation stakeholders on Tuesday for, what else but the “Tennessee Innovation Showcase.”

The event was held in the Kresge Center at Meharry Medical College.

After brief presentations by Chuck Layne, Senior Technology Advancement Manager at Launch Tennessee, and Anil Shanker, Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation at Meharry, there were two presentations that emphasized the opportunities and challenges that the Volunteer State faces.

Deb Crawford, Vice Chancellor for Research, Innovation, and Economic Development at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville,  delivered a “State of Innovation” presentation.

“I was dancing around my kitchen several weeks ago when the Governor delivered his ‘State of the State’ speech,” she said, noting that Bill Lee said, “We must think bigger and more boldly.”

She cited a Brookings Institution report from 2015 that talked about advanced industries which she said required two essential ingredients: discovery and talent.

Then Crawford broke down six areas – three that are strengths for Tennessee and three that are areas for further work.

• On the positive side, she said the Volunteer State ranked #8 among all states in R&D performed outside of industry, #10 in terms of value added for manufacturing, and #12 in federal R&D obligation as a percentage of all people employed.
• Conversely, Tennessee places #41 in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) jobs as a percentage of all occupations, #43 in terms of industry-sponsored R&D, and #45 for STEM degrees awarded relative to all degrees.

Crawford noted that Anderson County is in the top five percent for utility patents, and Knox County ranks in the top 10 percent.

“We have not prioritized translational research,” she said, explaining that a major priority should be placed on doing better at preparing our faculty and graduate students to be entrepreneurial.

Lindsey Cox, Chief Executive Officer of Launch Tennessee, followed by reminding attendees of the late 2023 original study by RTI International titled “Scaling Up . . . Benchmarking and Recommendations for Growing Tennessee’s Tech-Based Economy” and a follow-up set of recommendations that called for four actions:

1. Expanding access to shared research and manufacturing spaces;
2. Attracting corporate R&D and venture capital;
3. Supporting university technology transfer and commercialization; and
4. Strengthening the tech-based start-up ecosystem.

To address those priorities, Governor Lee included a number of items in the budget that he proposed for 2025-26 and caused Deb Crawford to dance in her kitchen. They included:

1. The RevV! Program received $25 million in new funding.
2. The budget called for the creation of a Tech-based Economic Development Matching Fund of $20 million for programs like the National Science Foundation’s “NSF Engines” and the Economic Development Administration’s “Tech Hubs” initiatives.
3. The Tennessee Technology Advancement Consortium (TTAC) received a $5 million recommendation.
4. Finally, the matching fund for Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer awards was increased by $1 million to a total of $10 million.

At the start of the event, there was a poster session (feature image) where researchers from TTAC explained their work.

Meetings with legislators are on tap for Wednesday before the GAME Change Workshop and Summit at Vanderbilt on Thursday.

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