SSTI Digest

As one of several states working to recruit and retain companies that create green jobs, Minnesota lawmakers passed a measure to create a multiagency authority to promote, market and coordinate state agency collaboration on green enterprise and green economy projects. At the same time, legislators rejected Gov. Tim Pawlenty's Green JOBZ proposal, creating a tax-free program for renewable and clean energy businesses modeled after the original JOBZ program and part of the governor's Jobs and Recovery Act (see the Feb. 4, 2009 issue of the Digest). The Ominbus Environment, Natural Resources, Energy and Commerce bill signed by the governor establishes the Green Enterprise Authority, a cooperative effort between the Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) and the Department of Commerce to design programs to attract green jobs to the state. The Green Enterprise Authority will receive the remaining balance of the FY09 special revenue fund appropriation for the Green Jobs Task Force. Establishment of the authority was a major priority of the task force, a bipartisan coalition of legislators, business leaders, policy experts and state agencies created by the…

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) last week published the final version of its guidelines regarding human stem cell research, in part determining which human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are eligible for research with NIH funding. The final guidelines contain adjustments from the draft version of the guidelines released on April 23 for public comment, from which the NIH received approximately 49,000 statements from advocacy groups, scientists, medical organizations, religious groups, members of Congress, and private citizens. After condensing and responding to these public comments, the recent NIH publication outlined the final guidelines text include: The NIH will create and maintain registry of all approved human embryonic stem cell lines; It must be proven the hESCs were derived from human embryos created for vitro fertilization by fertility clinics for reproductive purposes; No payments, cash or in-kind, can be offered for donated embryos; Any stem cell lines created after July 7, 2009 (the date of the guidelines' release) must come with documented informed consent of the donation by the parents or mother; and, Any stem cell lines created before July…

The lazy days of summer may be the most challenging time to keep students and teachers motivated and engaged in academics. Fortunately, several programs across the country have risen to the challenge. And, with the Obama Administration's pledge to make math and science education a national priority, now may be an opportune time for collaboration among federal and state agencies, private foundations, and industry to reverse the U.S. decline in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. As U.S. students continue to lag internationally in math and science test scores, there is a growing concern among policymakers, educators and industry leaders about the nation's ability to compete in a global economy. Results of the U.S. Department of Education Trends in Mathematics and Science Study released last December show that average science performance in fourth- and eighth-graders has stagnated since 1995, according to a Washington Post article. Students in ten other countries outperformed U.S. students in science, and students in eight countries outperformed U.S. students in math. This summer, several initiatives are underway to build excitement in…

Three metropolitan areas dominate the U.S. venture capital landscape: San Francisco, Boston and New York. These cities are home to about half of all U.S. venture firms and about half of all U.S. venture-backed companies. Though venture firms have sprung up around the country over the past 25 years, the three cities have maintained, and even expanded, their share of national firms and investment. The continuing dominance of these cities may be frustrating to policymakers, industry leaders and entrepreneurs in other parts of the country, but a recent paper argues that there is a logic behind the clustering of firms in a few cities and that this distribution may be optimal for both the venture industry and the high-tech economy. Authors Henry Chen, Paul Gompers, Anna Kovner and Josh Lerner map the location of main and branch offices of U.S. venture firms, along with data on their investments and the location of the venture-backed firms between 1975 and 2005. This data is used to discern whether individual investments took place within the same combined statistical area (CSA) of the venture firm's main office, a branch office or outside of those CSAs. This data also was…

SSTI has prepared a table displaying the amount companies spent on R&D in each state from 2003 to 2007, the state's rank in 2007, the percent change over this five-year period, and the rank of that percent change. For the U.S. as a whole, industry-funded R&D was $204 billion in 2003 and rose to $269.3 billion in 2007 - a five-year jump of 32 percent. Note, the amounts in the chart are not indexed to a single year, but reflect values from when the data was released. California led the country with $64.2 billion in R&D funding from industry in 2007, almost one-quarter of the nation's total. This was followed by Massachusetts ($19.5 billion), New Jersey ($17.9 billion), Michigan ($15.7 billion), and Texas ($13.9 billion). These top five states represented 49 percent of the country's industrial R&D funding in 2007. Washington, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut rounded out the top ten states. The state with the largest five-year percent increase from 2003 to 2007 was Montana, more than doubling from $65 million in 2003 to $134 million in 2007. Montana was followed by Alabama, Utah, South Dakota, and Massachusetts. Thirteen states had at…

President Obama nominated Francis Collins, a physician and scientist who helped guide the Human Genome Project to completion, as the next director of the National Institutes of Health. Stephen Fleming has been named vice provost of Georgia Tech's Enterprise Innovation Institute. Since 2005, Fleming has served as chief commercialization officer and led the Enterprise Innovation Institute's Commercialization Services Division. Fleming succeeds Wayne Hodges, who retired recently after a 40-year career at Georgia Tech. Larry Irving will step down as co-chairman of the Internet Innovation Alliance in September. Irving will join Hewlett Packard, the world's leading technology company, as vice president of Global Government Affairs. The Oregon Legislature approved legislation renaming and refocusing the Oregon Economic and Community Development Department. When Governor Kulongoski signs the bill, the department will be renamed the Oregon Business Development Department and will do business under the name Business Oregon. Sandra Watson has been promoted to assistant deputy director, Innovation & Global Business Development within the Arizona Department…

After near unanimous passing in both chambers of the state legislature, the "Tennessee Small Business Investment Company Credit Act" was sent this week to Gov. Phil Bredesen for his signature. The legislation, designed to create a pool of at least $84 million in capital, utilizes a competitive process to select several venture capital funds to make direct investments in small business headquartered in Tennessee. These venture capital funds can be for-profit or non-profit partnerships, corporations, trusts, or limited liability companies. Similar to the CAPCO mechanism utilized by a handful of states to attain investment capital, the Tennessee legislation specifies the investment capital is to be derived from deferred insurance premium tax credits. These tax credits are offered to insurance companies in exchange for commitments of investment capital. However, unlike the CAPCO model, the Tennessee legislation does not have clawback provisions on the tax credits that have required funds in other states to purchase a performance bond to guarantee that the insurance companies receive the value of the tax credits. Instead, the program levies substantial fines on…

Gov. John Baldacci signed two major bills this session supporting renewable energy R&D and creating a path for building private sector jobs in clean energy businesses. Lawmakers also passed a $150 million bond package, which includes funding for ocean and wind energy demonstration projects and support for Maine technology entrepreneurs. Voters will have the final say on the bond package in three separate ballot measures presented over the next two years. Positioning the state to successfully compete for research dollars and attract private energy development companies to the state, Gov. Baldacci signed LD 1465, An Act to Facilitate Testing and Demonstration of Renewable Ocean Energy. The legislation establishes the Maine Offshore Wind Energy Research Center for wind energy demonstration projects conducted by wind energy technology researchers at the University of Maine, according to the governor's press office. Up to five commercially viable sites will be selected by the Ocean Energy Task Force by Dec. 15. The other bill signed by the governor establishes the Efficiency Maine Trust and Board, bringing together under one roof Maine's energy…

Using $62.5 million earmarked from the state energy program federal grant provided under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Tennessee will create a solar institute, a solar farm five-megawatt power generation demonstration project, and implement additional renewable energy activities as part of the Volunteer State Solar Initiative approved last month by lawmakers. Gov. Phil Bredesen first announced plans for the solar initiative in his state of the state address earlier this year (see the Feb. 25, 2009 issue of the Digest) and released further details in May. Under the plan, a Tennessee Solar Institute at the University of Tennessee (UT) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory will be established to focus on basic science and industry partnerships to improve the affordability and efficiency of solar products, according to the governor's office. Additionally, the state will acquire 1,700 acres for the Haywood County industrial megasite to house a 20-acre power generation facility that will serve as a demonstration tool for educational, research and economic development purposes. Although the state will own the solar farm, the Tennessee Valley…

Mark your calendar for Oct. 21-23 to attend SSTI's 13th annual conference Seize The Moment in Overland Park, Kansas! Past attendees know SSTI's conference is the premiere professional development event for the TBED community. And 2009 will be no exception. Back by popular demand, we will be offering an array of pre-conference workshops on Oct. 21. The challenges facing the economy reveal the need has never been greater for universities, companies, and government working together to spark innovation and seize the opportunities presented by the current economy. It is time to strengthen state and regional growth strategies focused on knowledge, innovation and technology entrepreneurship - three keys for technology-based economic development. Those places making smart TBED investments are positioning themselves to lead the next economy. They know TBED works. Successful TBED practitioners at universities, states and regional organizations understand that innovation and change require real working partnerships and cooperation with regions across sectors. That's why the nation's TBED community gathers each year at SSTI's annual conference. …

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick recently announced plans to develop a $100 million high-performance computing center powered by clean and renewable energy in the small city of Holyoke. The center will be managed by a consortium of state agencies, universities and technology companies including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Massachusetts, Cisco Systems and EMC Corp.. Universities and high-tech businesses will be able to access the center's resources, which local leaders hope could boost the local high-tech economy. Most publicly-owned U.S. supercomputers are housed at research institutions and large metropolitan areas. The TOP500 list, a compilation of the top 500 high-performance systems around the world ranked by computing power, is dominated by systems at federal and military research facilities, private companies, national labs or research universities. The Holyoke center however, will be located off-campus in the less-populated western half of the state. Holyoke itself is one of the most economically challenged cities in the state with nearly a third of its population living below the poverty line, according to an article…

Minorities receive fewer approvals and lower cash awards through the Department of Treasury's New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC), according to a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. From 2005-2008, non-minority Community Development Entities (CDEs) were successful with 26.8 percent of their applications, with 14.7 percent awarded the dollar amount requested, whereas application from minority-owned groups were successful with just 9.1 percent and with those successful applications, 4.1 percent of the dollar amount requested was awarded. Administered under the Department of Treasury's Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI), the NMTC provides a tax credit for investing in a CDE, which reinvests funds in low-income communities. The GAO obtained documentation on the NMTC application process and data from 2005-2008 and interviewed CDFI Fund officials. To identify challenges faced by the NMTC, GAO officials interviewed a sample of 13 minority-owned or controlled CDEs and 12 similarly-sized non-minority-owned CDEs that applied for NMTC awards from 2005-2008. The study controlled other factors that could affect minority application including…