SSTI Digest

Colorado

The Governor’s Office of Innovation and Technology and the state’s Science and Technology Commission have teamed up to create the Colorado Technology Alliance to provide tech business recruitment information and assistance. According to a recent Pueblo Chieftain article, the Alliance will prepare a clearinghouse website and a 120-page resource magazine. Local and regional information for the website will be administered and maintained by local tech-based economic development officials.



Covington, Kentucky

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports the Madison Avenue Launch Team, a Covington non-profit organization, has signed a five-year lease to create a 21,000 sq. ft. technology accelerator to provide office space for up to 12 firms, mentoring services, and business assistance. So far, $200,000 in funding for the accelerator has been secured from the city of Covington, the Tricounty Economic Development Corp., and private investors. Additional funding is sought from the Kentucky Innovations Commission. More information about the accelerator and the team’s “New Economy Guerrila Warfare tactics” is available at: http://www.madisonavenuelaunch.com/

Colorado

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is donating $8 million over five years to support the creation of four “high tech” high schools around the state. Modeled after San Diego’s High Tech High, the Colorado schools will have teacher-to-student ratios of 1:15 and the same teacher will work with the students for four years. Students would have individualized workstations and practical internship experience will be built into the curriculum. The state is providing an $8 million match for the grant. Marc Holtzman, the Governor’s Secretary for Technology, is chairing the effort.



The Gates grant will also support the creation of a charter school network and breaking three large public schools into smaller multiplex schools managed by a private organization. For more information, see: http://www.gatesfoundation.org/

Colorado leaders want to encourage more college students to go into science and teaching and two recent proposals, coming from Governor Bill Owens and the state's Commission on Higher Education, are designed to do just that.

The 18 governors who comprise the Western Governors’ Association (WGA) have agreed to create a Western High Technology Council to serve as a strategic alliance among states, technology firms and universities to advance the region's common interests in the technology-driven and knowledge-based New Economy. Hawaii Governor Ben Cayetano, WGA Chairman, proposed the idea at the WGA winter meeting held in Las Vegas during December.



The governors asked Intel, Silicon Graphics, and other interested companies to work with university partners and WGA staff to develop a business plan for the proposed council. A concept paper prepared for the governors' discussion suggested the Council's membership initially include 15 to 20 high-level representatives from information, health, and biotechnology industries and leaders from academia and the public sector.



The paper also suggests that the council form broad-based work groups comprised of stakeholders and academia to develop recommendations on specific issues. Any council recommendations developed in the next six months would be reviewed by the governors at their annual meeting to be held in Honolulu, Hawaii, June 11-13, 2000.



The concept paper listed several issues the council could consider related to: privacy and security of information; ethics; workforce development; appropriate protection of intellectual property rights; and, trade and international competitiveness. The council's actions would be expected to advance both economic and social goals. One key goal would be the development of a working partnership between the public and private sector to ensure technology and the "high-tech culture" benefits both rural and metropolitan areas throughout the Western states.



The governors also discussed Arizona's strategic approach for supporting clusters of businesses as a successful strategy for focusing state economic development efforts. The WGA website suggests regional cluster analysis will serve an integral role in the development of specific strategies or recommendations for the Council.



More information, including the concept paper, can be found at the Western Governors' Association website: http://www.westgov.org/ 

Colorado Governor Bill Owen has appointed 55 technology executives and public officials to serve on the Governor’s Commission on Science and Technology. The Commission’s purpose is to issue a set of recommendations by late-2000 focused on enhancing Colorado's business climate and creating the technological infrastructure necessary to foster statewide growth of the high technology industry.

The Colorado Advanced Technology Institute (CATI) has been abolished effective June 30, 1999. CATI was the state's lead organization on technology-based economic development since its creation in 1983.

Dr. Phillips Bradford the Executive Director of the Colorado Advanced Technology Institute has resigned his position. Lenie Roos-Gabridge has been appointed Interim Chief Operating Officer. Bradford’s resignation is the latest in an unprecedented turnover of state technology-based economic development officials. In the last year alone, the leaders of 14 states’ technology efforts have left their positions.

The Technology Transfer Society presented its 1996 Justin Morrill Award to the Colorado Advanced Technology Institute (CATI). The Justin Morrill Award is presented to organizations that have an exemplary record in technology transfer and have made outstanding contributions to technology transfer theory and practice. CATI was recognized "for its wide array of activities that demonstrate what can be done by a state agency to promote and support effective technology transfer by providing resources, leadership, consultation and cooperation."

The Technology Transfer Society is a professional society whose members set policy, develop partnerships and support research and development on methods and tools in the technology transfer field.