SSTI Digest

As credit and early-stage investment capital become increasingly scarce, more state, regional and local governments and organizations are stepping in to help local entrepreneurs get their companies off the ground. In many cases, offering equity investments is not always an attractive option to the public organization. Pittsburgh's Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), for example, recently announced a new low-interest loan fund to provide the early-stage capital needed to start new high-tech businesses in the midst of a troubled economic situation. The Pittsburgh Entrepreneur Fund will award up to $200,000 to high-tech entrepreneurs and companies, as well as pair awardees up with organizations that can offer guidance and technical assistance. Mayor Luke Ravenstahl noted that the program is not just for existing companies, but also is targeted toward young entrepreneurs and researchers who might otherwise take their intellectual capital elsewhere. Low interest loans will be available for high-tech startups, particularly those involved in information technology, life science and green/energy. URA will work with local incubators to provide additional support for new…

The NSF's Federal Funds for Research and Development series illustrates trends in the U.S. government's funding obligations for science and engineering R&D. Federal funding is distributed to government agencies, academic institutions, research centers, state and local governments, nonprofit organizations, as well as private companies. SSTI has prepared a table presenting federal R&D obligations to industry in each state for the five fiscal-year period of 2001 to 2005. In FY05, $44.03 billion, or 41.2 percent of total federal R&D obligations, went to industry. The FY05 figure for industry represents a 63.7 percent increase from FY 2001. From year to year, many states' figures vary sharply, making trends across years harder to characterize and potentially misleading. Consequently, the SSTI table includes only the percentage of each state's total federal R&D obligations that went to industry in 2005 and the state's relative rank. The states with the largest obligations to industry in 2005 were California with $9.54 billion, Virginia ($4.37 billion), Missouri ($3.34 billion), Texas ($3.28 billion), and Maryland ($2.46 billion). Industry in 14…

SSTI is hosting an informal phone call on Wednesday, May 13 at 2:00 PM EDT to answer your questions about the 2009 Excellence in TBED Awards. Who should join the call?  Anyone considering submitting an application for the 2009 awards cycle or anyone who wants to learn more about the program will find the call useful. What should I expect? SSTI will present a brief overview of the program, including its mission and philosophy, followed by ample Q&A time to answer any questions regarding the application process, the entry guidelines and the evaluation criteria. We will also share some helpful hints provided by past judges. When is the call and how do I dial-in? The call is scheduled on Wednesday, May 13 at 2:00 EDT. You must register in advance to participate in the call, at which time you will be provided with the dial-in information. To sign up, visit: http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=ptpNtZjc_WjTWYHUYeVkWHw Dan Berglund, SSTI President and CEO, will be hosting the call. Participants are invited to submit their questions ahead of time to awards@ssti.org. More information is available at: www.sstiawards.…

The role of a technology incubator or accelerator for supporting nascent firms generally is regarded with the utmost importance by the tech-based economic development community. Tech incubators provide essential resources for startup companies to develop and commercialize new technologies, leading to the creation of high-quality jobs. With estimates suggesting there could be as many as 5,000 incubators of all shapes and sizes worldwide, finding the latest and best practices for tech business incubation could be a challenge. Fortunately, award programs, such as the currently open SSTI's 3rd Annual Excellence in TBED Award, can help call attention to some of the most successful approaches. The longest running award program for incubation is offered by the National Business Incubation Association (NBIA), which recently announced its top incubation programs, clients and graduates as part of its 2009 awards competition. San Jose BioCenter was named the 2009 Randall M. Whaley Incubator of the Year, the organization's most prestigious honor for technology incubators. The BioCenter and the six other award recipients were recognized at a ceremony during NBIA's 23rd annual…

SSTI has an effective new learning tool for TBED policymakers and practitioners seeking guidance in approaches to building and sustaining tech-based economies. Through exclusive interviews with Excellence in TBED Award recipients, find out first-hand how these award winning initiatives successfully responded to a critical need by applying innovative approaches to generate substantial economic gains for their region. Maryland Industrial Partnerships Program (MIPS) 2007 Winner for the Improving Competitiveness of Existing Industries category Listen to a six-minute clip of SSTI's interview with MIPS Director Martha Connolly. The Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) program, an initiative of the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech) in the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland, provides funding for research projects connecting Maryland companies with  university faculty to develop technology-based products. Funding supports research in the…

In honor of Earth Day, SSTI has prepared a special edition of the SSTI Weekly Digest focused almost exclusively on green issues, ranging from a round-up of recent developments to encourage the creation and growth of alternative energy companies to a profile of Toledo's solar success story. Enjoy the news, and pass this issue along to others you think would be interested-but do it electronically, please.

Though green jobs have become the focus of many TBED initiatives at the federal, state and local levels, it remains difficult to estimate the size of the green workforce. Green jobs are a relatively new focus for economic development, and there is no standard definition of the green economy and green occupations. Several recent reports have taken on the task of defining green jobs, including the industry sectors that should be folded into that definition. Green Jobs in Minnesota: Market Analysis, a report prepared for the Minnesota Green Jobs Task Force, takes a new approach to estimating the size of the green collar workforce by using market information that tracks levels of green activity in a variety of industries. The report identifies four industry sectors that make up the U.S. green energy economy: green products, renewable energy, green services and environmental conservation. The green products sector is particularly expansive and includes green building, transport, and consumer and industrial products. Green building is the largest part of this sector in Minnesota, and includes new LEED construction, as well as production, installation and use of energy…

Green stimulus investments have the potential to yield a greater number of jobs and greater long-term prosperity than traditional stimulus investments, according to a new study presented at the recent G20 summit. The report examines the stimulus packages passed in the G20 countries, particularly their relative emphasis on spending related to sustainability. Since G20 members are responsible for three-quarters of the world's wealth, energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, the measures taken by these countries represent the forefront of the effort to combat global climate change. In addition, the study argues that these investments are the most effective use of stimulus funds. Study authors Ottmar Edenhofer and Lord Nicholas Stern of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, respectively, break down international spending and find that green efforts represent about 15 percent of global stimulus investment. South Korea devoted the largest share of its recovery package to green efforts, 80.5 percent, followed by the European Union with 58.7 percent. The U.S. ranked sixth in green…

In the midst of a national economic recession contributing to a record number of job losses in traditional industries, forward thinking states are exploring ideas and committing funds to help grow and diversify their economies and strengthen their renewable energy portfolios. Over the past several months, governors, legislators and economic development groups have announced new initiatives aimed at job growth and energy independence in the new economy. The following overview provides a sampling of green energy initiatives and investments from numerous proposals and announcements across the nation. Arizona Science Foundation Arizona (SFAz) announced a recent investment of $4 million to support five science-based businesses in the solar industry, according to an article in The Arizona Republic. SFAz also formed a new branch called the Solar Technology Institute to further support the industry. Projects approved for funding include development of reflectors that concentrate sunlight on solar panels, expansion of a photovoltaic testing laboratory, and development of software to help determine where to build power plants, storage sites and other energy…

On April 14, the National Science Board NSB released for public comment a draft report, Building a Sustainable Energy Future, which calls on the nation to lead the fundamental transformation of the current energy economy from one that is dependent on fossil fuel to one that thrives on sustainable and clean energy. The draft NSB report outlines key findings and makes recommendations for the federal government, with specific priority guidance for the National Science Foundation.  The need for more urgent and more significant action underlies the Board's work. "The [current] scale and speed of adopting sustainable and clean energy technologies fall short of what is necessary to address today's challenges, which will only become more acute with the passage of time," the report says.  A U.S. responsibility to lead globally on the issue also is stated in no uncertain terms, "U.S. reliance on fossil energy sources has given rise to a global call for a sustainable energy economy." "Our report calls on the U.S. federal government to take the lead and set an example," said NSB Task Force on Sustainable Energy Co-chairman Jon…

Within the last two weeks, both Kentucky and Michigan announced major developments in their ongoing efforts to build a statewide advanced battery industry. With these initiatives, the states hope to better position themselves for upcoming rounds of advanced battery development grants from the federal government and other future sources of investment. A partnership between the state of Kentucky, the University of Kentucky, the University of Louisville, and Argonne National Laboratory is establishing a national Battery Manufacturing R&D Center to be located in Lexington. Focusing initially on advancing lithium-ion battery manufacturing, the Center will utilize the research and personnel from the universities, but also will have complementary R&D facilities at Argonne. Existing Kentucky programs to fund research grants and recruit researchers will be used to enhance the Center's activities. A few days after the Kentucky announcement, the National Alliance for Advanced Transportation Batteries (NATTBatt), a partnership of 50 battery and materials manufacturing companies, announced their intention to spend $600 million to build a 1 million-square-foot campus…

Last week, the Board of Trustees at the University of Toledo approved the creation of a School of Solar and Advanced Renewable Energy. The School will integrate faculty from multiple science, engineering, and business disciplines to offer its own degrees and perform collaborative research, often with industrial partners associated with the region's established solar energy and photovoltaics cluster. Building a cluster of academic and industrial research can happen without policy interventions; however, Toledo's situation is different. The region's leadership in advanced renewable energy is the result of deliberate choices and continual injections of funding by a host of public and private partners. So how did Toledo do it? The maturation of Toledo's advanced energy cluster is rooted in the actions of a handful of entrepreneurial researchers. When paired with the resources from regional, state, and federal entities, in addition to the knowledge base from existing industries, the solar energy cluster eventually grew to employ thousands of people in Northwest Ohio. In the last year alone, five photovoltaic startup manufacturers have sprung up in Toledo, joining a…