SSTI Digest

The Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) has issued a new study showing Maryland continues to underperform in some key areas of innovation while leading competitor states in other areas.

The Maryland Innovation and Technology Index 2003 is a detailed assessment of the state's technology assets and the degree to which they are reflected in economic performance. Building on its earlier editions in 1999 and 2001, the Index considers Maryland's competitiveness in three broad categories of innovation:

Neil Shpritz, executive director of the BWI Business Partnership in Maryland, is retiring in October.

The National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) has begun a review of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) that will examine the program's mission and execution. MEP requested the independent analysis.

As part of the study, NAPA will consider whether there are barriers that prevent small firms from obtaining technical and business advice they need to improve innovation, productivity and competitiveness. NAPA will then identify business models for providing services.

The report is scheduled to be completed in February 2004. NIST is asking interested parties to comment on the study by going to http://www.napawash.org/pc_government_performance/ongoing_nist.html

Joseph James has announced his resignation as head of the Prince George's Economic Development Corporation (Maryland).

To spur technology development in the state, the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) has entered a collaborative agreement with the nation's cryptologic organization, the National Security Agency (NSA). TEDCO’s mission is to help foster a technology economy that will create and sustain businesses throughout Maryland. NSA coordinates, directs and performs highly specialized activities to protect U.S. information systems and produce foreign intelligence information.

The agreement establishes that TEDCO and NSA will focus on tech transfer by identifying federally funded NSA research results ready for industrial transfer; identifying technologies in the industrial sector that merit transfer into NSA; and identifying technology-based business opportunities that benefit both Maryland and NSA.

Christopher Foster has been named technology coordinator for the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development.

John Murray has been named executive director of the Maryland Economic Development Commission.

Christopher C. Foster is the new state technology coordinator at the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development.

Editor's note: Few federal programs that fund research have undergone as much independent review and outside scrutiny as the Advanced Technology Program (ATP) within the National Institute of Standards and Technology and come out with high marks nearly every time. Yet two more independent papers described briefly below find that ATP funds make a positive difference for spurring innovation and commercializing technology. The program effects and encourages change that accelerates the development and adoption of technologies with large scale, national impact.

Whether the reason is to spur more innovation among students, fight the brain drain of graduates or simply help to build tech-based economies, many states, communities and universities are targeting a portion of their efforts toward encouraging tech-based entrepreneurship among their young residents and college students.

If the purpose is to encourage students to consider more risk-taking career options like tech-based entrepreneurship after graduation, then business plan competitions may prove beneficial. While only a few team or individual business plans may win the award in a given award cycle, the process of developing the concept and preparing the plan for all applicants can be useful for launching a more entrepreneurial mindset in the college or university.

David Iannucci is the new head of the Baltimore County Department of Economic Development.

Placing a high priority on the biosciences as a measure for long-term economic development, the Baltimore Workforce Investment Board (BWIB) has released a strategic plan that aims to ensure growth, in part, by securing a highly motivated and well trained workforce for the city's bioscience sector.

Conducted by two consulting firms, the Baltimore Bioscience Initiative finds that the city and surrounding region already have a sizable employment base of approximately 11,000 people. The majority of this workforce is housed at university medical schools and hospitals and National Institutes of Health (NIH) laboratories, the report states. Of the 78 companies (4,800 employees) that make up the bioscience sector, however, 12-15 percent of their workforce is comprised of low-skill workers, such as lab assistants, technicians, production technicians and clinical technicians.