SSTI Digest

Virginia lawmakers passed a bill last month supporting the state's bioscience industry and providing incentives to investors for bioscience and advanced technology commercialization. The legislation comprised all of the top recommendations from the 2008 Joint Legislative Subcommittee on the Biosciences.

The bill changes the existing Commonwealth Technology Research Fund to the Commonwealth Research Fund to better focus on key areas of R&D, emphasize the importance of commercialization of R&D through matching funds programs, and to provide a loan program for the construction of facilities used in commercializing research. The Innovative Technology Authority would continue to administer the fund and establish and maintain specific guidelines for awarding funds.

Specifically, the bill:

Vermont Governor James Douglas has released a plan to spend some of the state's share of funds from the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on building a stronger base for technology-based growth. The $17.1 million SmartVermont suite of proposals includes funding for technology company loans, lending to small businesses, seed capital for entrepreneurs and support for regional economic development projects. Governor Douglas' office estimates that the investment would attract another $140 million in private capital to support the state's economic development goals.

The Vermont Economic Development Authority (VEDA) would house most of the new and expanded programs covered in the SmartVermont plan. A new Technology Loan program at VEDA would use a $1 million investment from the ARRA funds to secure up to $6 million in loans and attract an additional $4 million in private capital for high-tech companies. These loans would target strategic industries and expansion projects to further the state's economic development goals.

The Technology Innovation Program (TIP) in the National Institute of Standards and Technology is using its FY09 award competition to support high-risk, high-reward research in civil infrastructure and manufacturing. The program has $25 million available to support as many as 25 new awards. TIP is open to individual small-sized or medium-sized businesses or to joint ventures that also may include institutions of higher education, nonprofit research organizations and national laboratories. TIP awards are limited to no more than $3 million total over three years for a single company project and no more than $9 million total over five years for a joint venture.

On March 30, the National Institutes of Health announced a new funding opportunity to use up to $100 million of Recovery Act funds to enable academic institutions "to hire, provide appropriate start-up packages, and develop pilot research projects for newly independent investigators, with the goal of augmenting and expanding the institution's community of multidisciplinary researchers focusing on areas of biomedical research relevant to NIH." 

In support of Gov. Bill Richardson's proposal to develop a workforce trained for 21st century jobs, the New Mexico State Legislature passed two bills this session allocating funds and creating training programs for green jobs. Lawmakers also supported a technology transfer initiative and several measures aimed at growing the state's solar industry.

HB 622 creates a green jobs fund from which higher education institutes will create green job training programs. The fund was initially designed to receive money from bonds issued by the New Mexico Finance Authority; however, that provision was eliminated and now the fund will receive appropriations from federal green jobs programs and any other allocations, according to an article in The New Mexico Independent.

Make 2009 your organization's year to be recognized as a national leader in the TBED community!

Legislative leaders and key stakeholders need to know the valuable impact of TBED on local, state and regional economies. SSTI's Excellence in TBED Awards showcase these accomplishments and tell the story of how successful TBED initiatives have responded to a critical need by applying innovative approaches to generate substantial economic gains for their region.

As an award winner, you:

Though angel investments dropped considerably in 2008, the total number of deals held steady, according to a year-end analysis released by the University of New Hampshire's Center for Venture Research (CVR).  Total investments fell 26.2 percent from 2007 to $19.2 billion, while deals fell only 2.9 percent. Deal size, however, declined by 24 percent. CVR concludes that although the current economic climate has not reduced angel activity significantly, it has caused investors to scale back the size of their investments.

Angel investors continue to be the primary source of seed and startup capital for entrepreneurs. In 2008, 45 percent of angel deals invested in companies at the seed and startup phase, up from 39 percent in 2007. A majority of angel capital recipients, 63 percent, are in their first sequence of fundraising, a number that has held steady for several years. Angel investors are becoming less interested in expansion-stage deals, which received only 14 percent of total angel dollars.

With its most recent release of academic research and development expenditures, the NSF has provided insight into the portion of funding that originates from private companies. SSTI has prepared a table showing these industry-financed R&D expenditures to academic institutions within each state from FY03 to FY07, the percent change over this period and rank, the percentage of each state's total funding originating from industry and this percentage's relative rank.

In the U.S., private companies supplied $2.67 billion in R&D expenditures to the nation's universities and colleges in FY07. California led the country with $357 million from industry. This was followed by North Carolina at $256 million and Texas at $203 million. New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Massachusetts are the only other states with more than $100 million in FY07 from industry.

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. Georgia Research Alliance VentureLab 2007 Winner for the Commercializing Research category

For many states facing a challenging budget year, level funding for science and technology is welcome news to the tech-based economic development (TBED) community. With the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act earlier this year, governors are seeking solutions to stimulate their respective states' economies through new and expanded programs within specific priority areas. The following states recently unveiled budget proposals that would continue or grow TBED investments using a combination of federal stimulus money and state and local funds.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Treasury released the details of its plan to award $100 million in grants to community-based financial institutions. These funds, along with an additional $3 billion in tax credit authority, were allocated to Treasury programs by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) last month. Both the grants and tax credits will support loan funds, credit unions, banks, venture capital firms and other financing entities through the department's Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund.

The implementation plan provides $90 million in ARRA funding for CDFI Financial Assistance awards. Combined with FY09 standard annual funding, the CDFI Fund expects to make $145 million in Financial Assistance awards in this fiscal year. Another $8 million will support qualified Community Development Entities (CDEs) in Native American communities.

Utah's 2009 legislative session ended earlier this month with a significant boost in funding to the Utah Science Technology and Research Initiative (USTAR) for recruiting science and technology researchers at the University of Utah and Utah State University.

Lawmakers approved SB 240, allocating $33 million in one-time federal stimulus funds to the state-funded initiative to grow Utah's knowledge economy. The bill also modifies provisions relating to USTAR's Governing Authority adding the executive director of the Governor's Office of Economic Development as a member and vice chair of the authority. The appropriation grew significantly from the earlier version of the bill allocating $10 million for operating expenses and funding for research teams.