SSTI Digest

California leads the world in biotech research today and likely will continue to dominate in the years to come according to The Dynamics of California's Biotechnology Industry, a new report from the Public Policy Institute of California. The report concludes that California retains a sharp biotech edge, despite reports of firms leaving the state or establishing plants elsewhere.

Authors Junfu Zhang and Nikesh Patel note that the state generates more than half of U.S. biotech revenues and accounts for nearly half of national R&D spending. California biotech garnered 46 percent of the venture capital invested in biotech between 1992 and 2001 and accounts for 40 percent of the nation’s biotech jobs, according to the authors.

A child born in the U.S. today who obtains a master's degree directly after college and high school will have been in the job market for only 1-2 years in 2030. Many people in the tech-based economic development community want that girl or boy to study math, science or engineering. A more basic question, though, is where will that child live as a young adult? If you guessed in the West or South, you have a good chance of being right, based on the latest population projections from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Two organizations with seemingly the same goal in mind recently released statistics on the health of their region's technology sectors. Relying on different methods, the Pittsburgh Technology Council (PTC) and the Sacramento Area Regional Technology Alliance (SARTA) both analyze and report the impact of technology clusters on the local economy.

PTC's annual State of the Industry report gathers growth indicators from state and federal resources to track southwestern Pennsylvania's employment statistics, number of tech companies, and total annual payroll for information technology, life science, advanced manufacturing, advanced materials, and environmental technology industries. According to PTC, the goal is to quantify the impact and draw attention to the region's significant technological resources.

What are the factors of commercial success? As they say in real estate: location, location, location.

So what makes a good location for commercializing innovation? Innovative ideas clearly thrive where R&D spending flows and local patent activity exists. But, do R&D dollars and level of patents also indicate locations for tech transfer?

Not necessarily. A recent working paper in applied economics finds a more complex web of relationships at work.

Oleg Kagonovich has been promoted to the position of CEO of the Sacramento Area Regional Technology Alliance. He formerly served as Chief Operating Officer.

As a percentage, Silicon Valley has lost more jobs over the past four years than any U.S. metropolitan area since 1939, but evidence shows the region is stabilizing with a return to levels reminiscent of the late 1990s. Funding for venture capital is up, per capita income is increasing, and research and development funding has reached new highs. Yet, the region's most striking feature of late is, perhaps, the way it is growing, according to the 2005 Index of Silicon Valley.

The index, recently released by Joint Venture: Silicon Valley, shows the state of the region's economy is a muddled picture depending on how far back one goes to measure it. Since 2004, the results are positive, but medium-term-and-beyond comparisons reveal sharp declines. If one benchmarks the region against pre-dot.com levels, then it would appear the Valley has "resumed an incremental pattern of growth," the authors say.

NBIA Releases Revised Business Incubation Guide The National Business Incubation Association (NBIA) last week released an updated version of its business incubation manual. The revised second edition of A Comprehensive Guide to Business Incubation includes 71 chapters geared toward helping small businesses grow and offers the advice of more than 200 incubation professionals. The guide is divided into four main sections: fundamentals of incubator development, best practices in incubator management, working with clients, and special topics in business incubation. To purchase a copy, visit the NBIA online bookstore at http://www.nbia.org/store.

Real estate developer Robert Klein II was selected as chairman of California's stem cell oversight committee.

Foundations and philanthropists are playing increasingly important financial roles for many academic and regional technology-based economic development (TBED) efforts. The latest issue of Philanthropy News Digest, the weekly electronic newsletter of the FoundationCenter, highlights three recent announcements that provide examples of the size, scope and opportunity presented by these types of awards. The announcements are summarized below.

For many university tech transfer operations, the need to generate revenues to support the office and attempt to meet the often pie-in-the-sky expectations of school administrators can force licensing efforts toward only the biggest deals. Thanks to a large donation to serve as an endowment, the University of Southern California (USC) Viterbi School of Engineering will be able to count on $1 million in interest income to support its technology transfer activities.

Dr. John Reed, president and CEO of The Burnham Institute, was appointed to the Independent Citizen's Oversight Committee that will govern the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine created last month.

Just as SSTI and other post-election analysts predicted, California’s recent passage of a $3 billion commitment to stem cell research is triggering responses from across the country. Wisconsin is the first to outline a specific, strategic reaction to the California referendum in an effort to retain or regain momentum in the race to encourage bio-based economic growth.

Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle announced last week his plans to invest nearly $750 million in state funds to support biotechnology, health sciences and stem cell research. According to Gov. Doyle, the two states are not in competition; rather, he suspects there will be a synergy between them.

"Wisconsin can’t match California dollar for dollar, but California can’t match what Wisconsin already has - including the best scientists in the world and first class research institutions," Gov. Doyle said.