SSTI Digest

Indiana  The Indiana legislature approved a $50 million appropriation over the next biennium for Indiana's 21st Century Research and Technology Fund. The program supports the development and commercialization of advanced technology. Created in 1999 (see related 9/10/99 Digest story), the fund received $50 million in the 2000-2001 biennium.  Maryland 

Companies seeking venture capital investments through the Great Midwest Venture Capital Conference have until August 25 to apply for consideration. The conference, this year taking place October 30-31 in Knoxville, Tennessee, annually draws around 200 investors and other financial professionals. The tenth annual event is organized by the Indiana Business Modernization and Technology Corporation and Technology 2020, located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. 

Additional information on the event can be found at: http://www.gmvcc.com 

Purdue University plans to seek $15 million in matching funds from the state to establish and support five technology business incubators or regional technology centers around Indiana. The state also will be asked to provide $6.25 million in funding for administrative support over the first four years of the centers’ operations.

The focus for each center would depend on the region of the state and the potential that exists within that region. Purdue's plan calls for each regional technology center to create an advisory committee to establish criteria for use of its services and to evaluate each company's potential for growth and success. Each center would be expected to work in partnership with Purdue during the developmental years of the program.

The Indianapolis-based Lilly Foundation is providing nearly $60 million in two grants to help make Indiana more competitive for technology research and education and high-tech business development. The grants were made to Indiana University and the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.

During the press announcement for the grants, Clay Robbins, Lilly Endowment President, cited the state's low ranking in educational achievement as a motivation for the Foundation’s awards. Indiana ranks 48th in the percentage of adults with a college degree and 50th in the percentage of the work force in professional positions or specialty occupations.

The two grants are:

The SSTI Offices will be closed Wednesday, October 6 - Monday, October 11 due to the SSTI conference and in observance of the Columbus Day holiday.

Due to SSTI’s 3rd Annual Conference next week, the SSTI Weekly Digest will not be  published on October 8.

Last week, Indiana Governor Frank O'Bannon named the Board of Directors to oversee the design and administration of the new 21st Century Research & Technology Fund. By law, the Lieutenant Governor serves as chairman for the board.

Earlier this summer, the Indiana General Assembly approved a budget for the initiative of $50 million for the next two years for the initiative. This level of funding, coupled with the existing programs of the Indiana Business Modernization Technology Corp. (BMT), moves Indiana into the top tier of states investing in technology-based economic development.

The 21st Century Research and Technology Fund is to provide grants and loans that support economic development by addressing one or more of the following goals:

The State Science and Technology Institute’s (SSTI) third annual conference will focus on how to meet the challenge of the New Economy through science and technology programs.

The conference will focus on some of the largest issues facing policy makers and practitioners, including:

communicating the importance of science and technology in today’s economy, meeting the demand for a skilled workforce, encouraging the formation of early-stage capital for commercializing locally-developed new technologies in a globally aggressive economy, and understanding the implications and opportunities of e-commerce.

The conference program includes the following sessions: Wednesday, October 6 Two optional, concurrent preconference workshops (seating is limited)

The United States Innovation Partnership (USIP) reported on a recent roundtable discussion on the 21st Century Economy. The topic of the discussion was the role of states in science and technology. The roundtable highlighted "best practices" in technology-based economic development in five states (Oklahoma, Kansas, Indiana, Utah, and Pennsylvania).

USIP is a state-federal partnership, created in 1997, to establish a new working relationship between the states and the federal government which will promote the development of a national innovation system. The roundtable was profiled in the most recent issue of PACESETTER, a publication of the Technology Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce. A complete copy of the text of this article will be available soon at http://www.ta.doc.gov/Newsletters.htm  

The 1998 annual report of the Indiana Business Modernization and Technology Corporation (BMT) addresses various changes encountered by the organization this year.

The most significant organizational change was BMT’s decision to operate without annual state appropriations. The program is funded with a combination of reserves from the previous 15 years of state support, federal grants and fee-for-service income. The annual report states that BMT is meeting the challenges that come with this significant programmatic change.