SSTI Digest

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) launched last month a $17.2 million national Biotechnology Worker Training Initiative in support of the President’s High Growth Job Training Initiative. “This $17.2 million in training funds will recruit and train workers for jobs in the biotechnology field, which is expected to be one of the fastest growing sectors by 2012,” said Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao. An initial award of $2.4 million was made to the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse (PLSG), a public-private partnership dedicated to Western Pennsylvania's life sciences industry. Chao said the grant to PLSG would help increase awareness about promising biotech-related careers in the state, while addressing the need for skilled workers. As part of the project, PLSG will try to match trained workers with local biotech companies by developing curriculum and training that aims to shape workers with a “hybrid” of desired capabilities. The project will integrate various industry skills sets and academic disciplines. Key partners include Renal Solutions Inc. of Pittsburgh, Pa., the Community…

The U.S. Department of Commerce and the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) recently released reports making recommendations to address the challenges faced by the manufacturing industry. One of the recommendations in the NAPA report suggests creating a strategic plan that articulates the "next generation" of the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP). To gather public comment on the strategic plan and respond to both reports' recommendations, MEP will hold a series of regional roundtables and webcasts this summer: July 14, webcast July 19, Cleveland July 20, Detroit July 21, Minneapolis July 23, webcast July 26, Orlando July 27, Dallas July 28, Los Angeles August 2, Washington, D.C. August 3, webcast All of the above events run from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. For more information or to register, visit http://www.mep.nist.gov/competition/intro.htm. The Commerce and NAPA reports, respectively, are available at: http://www.manufacturing.gov and http://www.napawash.org/Pubs/NIST6-2-04.pdf

Although a significant gap still exists between women-led companies and their male counterparts, in terms of venture funding, some promising news may suggest a change in fortune for the former, a study released today by Growthink Research of Los Angeles and Chicago-based re:invention Inc. shows. The 400-page study, Venture Funding for Women Entrepreneurs, provides a detailed profile of women-led, venture capital (VC)-funded, privately-held business enterprises and companies with women executives. The report is based on a comprehensive analysis of 1,860 companies that raised more than $19 billion of venture capital in 2003. Among major findings, 84 women-led companies in the U.S. received $783.8 million in VC -- 4.5 percent of all funded firms and 4.2 percent of all venture dollars. Thirty-seven of the 84 companies (44 percent) were in the healthcare sector, which accounted for more than half ($427.7 million) of the total funding raised by women. Additionally, 25 companies (30 percent) in the business software and services sector raised $165.3 million, followed by 12 women-led companies (14…

California voters will be at the forefront of a highly controversial issue this November when they are asked to decide on a $3 billion bond issue to fund stem cell research. The initiative, if passed, would provide $295 million annually to California researchers over the next 10 years. Under the proposal, priority for funding would be given to stem cell research that does not qualify for federal funding, and up to 10 percent could be used to build research facilities for nonprofit research organizations. The California Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative is an implicit referendum on an executive order by President George Bush, according to a recent article from the Los Angeles Times. In 2001, Bush restricted the use of federal funds for stem cell research to a small number of cell colonies that already existed. Earlier this year, however, 206 members of the U.S. House of Representatives signed a letter urging President Bush to rescind his policy on stem cell research and allow for the use of existing embryos donated by couples from fertility clinics. Supporters say more than 400,…

Only a handful of metropolitan areas have the critical mass necessary to ensure sustainability of their local biotech communities, according to America’s Biotech and Life Science Clusters, a new study from the Milken Institute. At the top of the list is San Diego, followed closely by Boston and the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill metro area. Only another nine are in the running, the report contends. According to the Institute’s 2004 Biotech Index, the top 12 metros (and their composite scores) are: 1. San Diego (100) 2. Boston (95.1) 3. Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill (92.5) 4. San Jose (87.8) 5. Seattle-Bellevue-Everett (83.8) 6. Washington, D.C. (79.4) 7. Philadelphia (76.5) 8. San Francisco (75.8) 9. Oakland (74.3) 10. Los Angeles-Long Beach (66.5) 11. Orange County, CA (54.1) 12. Austin-San Marcos (47.8) If life sciences (which includes pharmaceuticals and medical devices) is included in the measurements, Boston would rank first, followed by: San Diego (…

Defense 2003 SBIR Phase II Awards The Department of Defense (DoD) distributed $766.9 million in awards under fiscal year 2003 Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program competition. A total of 1,080 awards averaging more than $710,000 were made. California led all states, landing 235 awards worth $166.8 million. As a share of the nation's total, California captured 21.7 percent of all FY 2003 Phase II SBIR funding issued by DoD. Massachusetts secured $114.1 million through 153 awards, or 14.9 percent of the U.S. total. Only one other state, Virginia, had $50 million or more in awards. West Virginia, with five awards totaling $6.2 million, had the highest average award at $1.24 million. Hawaii's two awards also were above the $1 million average award mark. SSTI has made available a listing of FY 2003 Phase II DoD SBIR awards at http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/052404t.htm. For each state and the District of Columbia, the number of awards, award total, average award size and ranking are shown. SSTI thanks Christine Villa of BRTRC for supplying the…

Paul Hiller, formerly managing director of the economic development arm of the Irvine Chamber of Commerce, is the new president and chief executive officer for the Inland Empire Economic Partnership.

He may be more traditionally associated with gas-guzzling Humvees than anything remotely environmental, but Gov. Arnold Schwarznegger has become a big believer in alternative energy vehicles. The governor's recent call for creating a "Hydrogen Highway" by 2010 is, perhaps, the country's boldest commitment to getting hydrogen fuel cell vehicles on America's roadways anytime soon. It provides an example of how public-private partnerships, with the government serving as an early adopter of a potentially disruptive technology, could produce positive economic results for the state. The goal of the California Hydrogen Highway Network initiative is to catalyze a rapid transition to a clean hydrogen transportation economy through strategic placement of fueling stations and public investment in fuel cell vehicles, primarily businesses and light duty vehicles. An early network of 150-200 hydrogen-fueling stations throughout the state (approximately one station for every 20 miles on the state's major highways) would make hydrogen fuel available to the vast majority of Californians, the California Fuel Cell…

Marye Ann Fox, chancellor of North Carolina State University, is moving on to become chancellor of the University of California, San Diego.

California's Treasurer Phil Angelides called earlier this month for the nation's largest and third largest pension funds to invest at least $1.5 billion into environmental technologies and environmentally responsible companies. The goal of Angelides' initiative is to improve long-term financial returns for pensioners and taxpayers through investments in the burgeoning environmental technology sector, while also reducing the risks to the pension funds posed by corporate environmental liabilities. The treasurer’s Green Wave initiative calls on California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System to invest a combined $500 million in private equity investments, venture capital, and project financing to develop "clean" technologies that can provide the pension funds with positive, long-term returns. The two pension funds have a total of $250 billion in assets. The initiative also calls for the two funds to invest an additional $1 billion into environmentally screened funds through leading active public equity investment managers with…

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has announced the top 10 U.S. universities receiving the most patents during calendar year 2003. The University of California tops the list for the tenth consecutive year. While the first seven places went to the same research institutions as 2002, with some rearrangement of order, the 8-10 places were improvements. Cornell rose 11 places from its 2002 finish to join the 2003 list tied for the 10th spot with the University of Florida. The top 10 and the number of patents were: 1. University of California (439) 2. California Institute of Technology (139) 3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (127) 4. University of Texas (96) 5. Stanford University (85) 6. University of Wisconsin (84) 7. Johns Hopkins University (70) 8. University of Michigan (63) 9. Columbia University (61) 10. Cornell University (59) 10. University of Florida (59) The USPTO reports the primary counts are preliminary and…

Victor Hwang has been promoted to the position of president at Larta.