SSTI Digest

With preparations for SSTI's 7th Annual Conference on October 20-22 well underway, we have received many questions from local, regional and state organizations wanting to host the premier event for the tech-based economic development profession in 2004. Because of the increased interest, SSTI has bumped up its schedule for selecting the 2004 site. We are accepting nominations of host organizations and locations for SSTI's 8th Annual Conference until July 11, 2003.

SSTI is declaring its independence from publishing an issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest on July 4. The Digest will resume on July 11.

With the state's current fiscal year winding down and a $1 billion deficit looming for the next one, Ohio has re-emphasized its commitment to building a stronger economic future through research and technology with a series of multi-million grant announcement over the past three weeks.

The Washington Technology Center (WTC) has created a new program that will make obtaining access to early-stage seed capital easier for companies outside the Puget Sound. WTC is Washington's statewide science and technology organization.

For Texas, the appropriate role for the state to serve in fostering economic development continues to evolve. With the passage of Senate Bill 275 earlier this month, the third organization in seven years will take the lead to encourage economic growth — this time with a strong focus on clusters and technology-based economic development.

Citing inadequate information available to those who oversee technology incubators, yet emphasizing the incubators' significant and measurable impact on communities, the U.S. Department of Commerce's Technology Administration has released a study that highlights 17 of the nation's top incubators. A National Benchmarking Analysis of Technology Business Incubator Performance and Practices details the role business incubators have in technology development strategies.

"The Federal Government has primary responsibility to lead the Nation in developing and implementing a coordinated, effective response to our long-term needs for science and engineering skills in the U.S. workforce in ways unlikely to be addressed by market mechanisms or interventions at the state and local levels," concludes the National Science Board (NSB) in the draft final report of its Task Force on National Workforce Policies for Science and Engineering. The NSB is the governing board for the National Science Foundation.

The National Science Foundation has released Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering: Fall 2001, a collection of 54 statistical tables present the distribution of graduate students in science and engineering (S&E) across population segments, fields of science or engineering and by college and state. Overall long-term trends for S&E graduate students from 1975 to 2001 and short-term trends from 1994 to 2001 by detailed fields are presented.

The Fourth of July might just be a paid holiday for New Jersey's tech-based economic development agency after all. Since Governor James McGreevey released his FY 2004 budget request six months ago, the New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology has been living under a June 30 death sentence. Facing a deficit forecast in excess of $4 billion, the governor had called for the elimination of the $15 million program.

One of the greatest challenges for university technology transfer offices (TTOs) trying to maximize commercialization of university technologies is convincing faculty researchers to disclose their inventions, according to a new working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research. Richard Jensen (Notre Dame), Jerry Thursby (Emory University) and Marie Thursby (Georgia Institute of Technology) – the authors of The Disclosure and Licensing of University Inventions – state the "higher quality" or "most productive" faculty are most often the least likely to be bothered with the distraction of pursuing commercialization.

Kenneth Alfred will become the first executive director for the new Ohio Fuel Cell Coalition.

Kenneth Alfred will become the first executive director for the new Ohio Fuel Cell Coalition.